Economic Ministry of Austria starts broad blockchain initiative
Wiener Wirtschaftsuni, building 08. Image by Ungry Young Man via Flickr.com. License: Creative Commons
Austria is breaking new ground on blockchain and would like to establish itself as an innovation location with an accompanying blockchain roadmap. It starts to set up a research focus for crypto economy at the Vienna Economic University and a pilot project of the public administration.
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The Austrian Minister of Economics Harald Mahrer recently initiated an open innovation process to find a blockchain strategy for Austria. “To become innovation leaders, you have to break new ground and are already dealing with those technologies that will change many areas of our lives tomorrow,” said Mahrer.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs in Vienna is convinced that the blockchain is a technology with enormous future potential. In order to exploit this potential, Mahrer advocates “courage, curiosity and will to change”. A roadmap of nine points is intended to help Austria become one of the leading European locations for blockchain technology.
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On the one hand, the Ministry of Economic Affairs wants to encourage companies to do more with blockchain: it wants to initiate pilot projects that promote existing blockchain activities and companies, form an Austrian blockchain cluster that connects the actors, and found a task force in politics and administration to control and support the blockchain industry.
On the other hand, the ministry wants to put the blockchain more into the focus of research and education: Interdisciplinary research focuses such as crypto -economics and rights should prevent a brain drain to European or international countries, training new courses and courses, an information platform as well as a “Citizens’ Service Crypto Fander and Blockchain” inform and an Austrian Krypto Report give an annual overview of the blockchain industry in Austria.
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The ministry begins this ambitious roadmap with three steps: First, an interdisciplinary research focus on the topic of “crypto economy” is started at the Vienna Economic University. Many supporters of the classic Austrian school should be happy that Austria becomes a possible home of the first professorship for crypto economy.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will then begin to set up “Regulatory Sandboxes”. These are intended to give pilot projects the opportunity to have as free design within a safe regulatory framework. Finally, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will begin a pilot project in public administration together with the Federal Rechenzentrum to explore and demonstrate the advantages of blockchain technology.
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All of this sounds so fantastic that you can only sit enviously across the border in the south from the neighboring country. You can already look forward to hearing more of the pioneering initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.