European Commission: EU Countries Sign Declaration on Blockhain Partnership

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - A total of 22 European Union countries signed on Tuesday a Declaration on the establishment of a European Blockchain Partnership, the European Commission said in its statement.

"22 European countries signed today a Declaration on the establishment of a European Blockchain Partnership. The Partnership will be a vehicle for cooperation amongst Member States to exchange experience and expertise in technical and regulatory fields and prepare for the launch of EU-wide blockchain applications across the Digital Single Market for the benefit of the public and private sectors," the statement read.

The commission also stressed that this move should allow Europe to continue playing a leading role in the development and implementation of blockchain technologies.

According to the commission, the signatories of the declaration are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Blockchain technology is a system of organization of distributed databases. It allows for various transactions to be registered and labeled with a time stamp, with the relevant information kept in a distributed database available to all network users.

One of the most well-known applications of the technology is Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency and digital payment system.