The European Innovation Council has awarded $5.6 million in grants to six projects that use blockchain to address critical social issues.
This week, the European Innovation Council (EIC) awarded grants worth $5.6 million to six blockchain projects under the Blockchain for Social Goods program.
“The six winners were selected during a competition that identified the best scalable, deployable and effective blockchain solutions for social issues,” the organizers explained.
Solutions include blockchain-based applications focused on fair trade and circular economy, renewable energy, and access to financial services. First place and a $1.1 million grant in the Quality Information Materials category was awarded to Dutch startup WordProof, which is developing a blockchain-based verification system. Its goal is to help combat misinformation and inaccurate news on the Internet.
“WordProof wants to use blockchain to restore trust on the Internet. We are building a universal time-stamped ecosystem, a global standard that provides consumers with a method to verify the reliability of content,” Sebastiaan van der Lans, founder of WordProof, said.
Another $1.1 million grant was awarded to a UK-based PPP startup that is developing a system of so-called control points to help businesses “prove their social impact in the supply chains related to their business and products.” The Finnish company GMeRitS received the same grant to conduct large-scale experiments with alternative economic structures. The startup wants to contribute to the availability of financial services.
The UnBlocked Cash OXBBU project, founded by Irish firm Oxfam and French startup Sempo, has received $1.1 million to develop a decentralized model that explores “how international aid can be delivered to disaster victims” more efficiently and transparently.
Originally, there were supposed to be five winners, each of them receiving a $1.1 million grant, but the jury decided to divide the fifth place between the two startups. Thus, the CKH2020 blockchain platform for e-commerce consumer disputes and PROSUME’s decentralized autonomous digital market for P2P energy trading received $561,000 each.
Since the program was announced in May 2018, the EIC has received 176 applications from 43 countries, including 19 outside the EU. According to the press release, the main objective of the competition was to explore how a blockchain can address social issues.
“While the revolutionary potential of the blockchain has already been tested in the financial sector, much less has been learned about its possible applications in social areas and to address sustainable development issues,” the EIC said.
Earlier this year, the European Commission announced a tender to develop solutions for the defense industry. The companies may submit blockchain-based projects, among other things.
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