The consortium won a seat to participate in the EU Blockchain Pre-commercial Procurement tender, with the aim of creating a modular and extensible infrastructure, characterized by different technologies related to Blockchain/DLT Technologies and based on the principles of interoperability, scalability, upgradeability, security and sustainability.
Brussels, 28 September 2021 — WESTPOLE, European player in the field of Cloud and Managed Services, and Net Service (with its branch specialized in Blockchain, FlossLab) joined forces to respond to the call for tender of the European Commission, the EU Blockchain Pre-commercial Procurement. It aims at building and testing new innovative solutions that could improve the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI), a common infrastructure to deliver cross-border services enabled by Blockchain and Distributed Ledger (DLT) Technologies. The two companies responded together to design and prototype an advanced system, able to meet the needs for such a large scale cross-border blockchain network. The project, in which the consortium will participate as one of the seven winners of the tender, is divided into three different phases for a total duration of two years: solution design phase, prototyping phase, final solution development and field testing phase.
The European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI) and the PCP
The European Commission in cooperation with countries from the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) is building the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure, with the aim of delivering cross-border services to public administrations, citizens and businesses across Europe.
In particular, the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) was born in 2018 from the cooperation between the European Commission, the EU member states and some countries belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA). The goal of EBSI is to use new blockchain technology to allow the exchange of information across borders, regulated by the principles of trust, community, cryptography and transparency. In other words, EBSI is a real network based on Blockchain technologies and created to provide services to all member countries, enabling a range of use cases like document traceability, exchange of education credentials and exchange of information between administrations.
The purpose of the Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) is to develop new advanced features for EBSI to improve scalability, energy efficiency, security, data processing capabilities, which allow the implementation of new types of use cases such as, for example, the traceability of products through a digital product passport in support to the circular economy.
Our Role
Our proposed approach is based on a modular and extensible infrastructure characterized by different technologies linked to the Blockchain and based on the principles of interoperability, scalability, upgradeability and sustainability. The success of the consortium was facilitated, on one hand, by the in-depth knowledge of new frontier technologies by us, WESTPOLE, which has been providing digital services and infrastructures to International Organizations for years, and on the other hand by the decisive contribution of Net Service, which through his specialized company FlossLab (spin-off of the University of Cagliari) has been studying and implementing specific Blockchain applications for some time.
“We are very proud to take part in a new project of the European Community. This follows another project that WESTPOLE is doing with the European Community in particular with eu-LISA, the European Agency for the operational management of information systems,” declares Massimo Moggi, President and CEO of WESTPOLE. “The developments of Blockchain technologies are already having a strong impact in digital transformation. We are talking about not only technological innovation – with reference to issues such as trust and transparency in the relationship between individuals and institutions – powerful and complex, but also democratic and extraordinarily revolutionary, which will have an ever wider impact on the social and political sphere at a global level in the coming years.”
“Today, Blockchain is mostly known for allowing cryptocurrencies transactions,” adds François Delmoitiez, WESTPOLE Account Manager for International Organizations. “However, this technology can also be applied to many other use cases, such as supply chain management, document traceability, and even intellectual property rights management. We, together with Net Service, have chosen to focus on two specific use cases: the Digital Product Passport, intellectual property rights for digital content (i.e. trademark registration) that could be complemented by other ones. More generally Blockchain can have an added value in any situation where an intermediary party is involved to certify a transaction.”
“Net Service Research and Development initiatives on Blockchain technologies started in 2014. This project is yet another recognition of our expertise and skills in this field,” says Gianluca Ortolani, Net Service Principal and CEO. “The Group’s competence in Blockchain and DLT technologies will be further boosted and this motivates us to pursue more investments and efforts, on use cases which will be essential tools for future competition.”
“We are glad for this important objective obtained with WESTPOLE. We are confident that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership on innovation projects and initiatives at European level,” confirms Cristiano Morganti, Director of International Projects of Net Service Group.
About Us
WESTPOLE is an IT Services & Solutions provider, owned by LIVIA Group, with more than 600 employees, and 9 offices in Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
WESTPOLE represents the ideal partner for the Digital Transformation of business, thanks to 40+ years of experience in Technology and Innovation management.
The company mission is to help corporations in scaling-up the Digital Transformation, by providing technological assets, competence and consultancy with an end-to-end, tailored-made approach. It supports customers in their strategic challenges in areas such as Cloud Computing & Managed Services, Digital Infrastructure, and Business Process Automation as well as cutting-edge topics like Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.
WESTPOLE embraces innovation with pioneering spirit, passion and empathy, establishing a new point of reference in the IT market, specifically a “different landmark”.
About Net Service
Net Service S.p.A. designs, develops secure, and tailored IT solutions and services from 1997. Over the years, the company has built the experience and the know-how to design and implement the digitization of management and business processes for both SME, Corporation as well as for Public Administration. Its strength lies in engineering cutting-edge technological solutions that will integrate perfectly with the pre-existing IT ecosystem. Net Service guarantees high standards of privacy and cyber security to its clients also managing the provision of services in ISO 27001 certified environments. Distinguished by an innovative Research & Development Center, composed of real centres of widespread competence, its goal is to bring efficiency, transparency and simplicity in the definition and management of the processes of any complex organization, as well as to put culture back at the centre of the digital world.
Net Service website: www.netservice.eu