Between May 23 and 26, 2019, the European Union’s citizens are renewing their continental parliament. Among the countries that will participate in the poles is Italy (voting on May 26) — one of the founding members of the EU, alongside France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Due to the very nature of cryptocurrencies, it's tough to get a correct figure of the actual penetration of these technologies in a single country. However, relying on some proxies — as in the chart below — it is likely that the Bel Paese (the Beautiful Country) would fall outside the leading European group. …

European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said that cryptocurrencies are not real currencies during the ECB Youth Dialogue meeting with the winners of the Generation €uro Students’ Award, as Cointelegraph Italia reported on May 9. During the meeting, Draghi answered a question about cryptocurrencies asked by one of the winners of the award: “Cryptocurrencies or bitcoins, or anything like that, are not really currencies — they are assets. A euro is a euro — today, tomorrow, in a month — it’s always a euro. And the ECB is behind the euro. Who is behind the cryptocurrencies? So they are …

Malta’s Registry of Companies is going to be run on a blockchain-powered system, local news outlet the Malta Independent reported on May 8. The Registry of Companies is a public registry holding official information and documentation pertaining to new and existing companies. The agency demerged from the Malta Financial Services Authority’s (MFSA) and established itself as a separate entity at the end of last year. According to the Malta Independent, the new agency will be run on a blockchain-based system. The establishment of a standalone agency aims to strengthen the internal management structure of the Registry. Parliamentary Secretary for Financial …

Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) is set to assume its role as a registration authority and supervisory agency for crypto industry participants as new legislation comes into force this week. The news was revealed in an announcement published by FIN-FSA on April 27. With Finland’s Act on Virtual Currency Service Providers set to come into effect on May 1, the watchdog clarifies that it will henceforth be statutorily required to register all crypto exchanges, custodian crypto wallet providers and cryptocurrency issuers operating in the country. As FIN-FSA notes, the new Finnish legislation has been drafted on the basis of the …

63% of Europeans are confident that crypto will still exist in 10 years, according to new research from bitFlyer. London-based fintech publication FStech reported on the survey on April 24. Tokyo-based crypto exchange bitFlyer, which was licensed to operate in the European Union in 2018, reportedly polled 10,000 respondents in Europe to find out what they think about cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC). The exchange reportedly surveyed the following ten countries: the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain. When asked about crypto in general, the majority of Europeans claimed that they believe that crypto …

France is reportedly going to try to convince other European Union member states to adopt cryptocurrency regulations similar to its own, Reuters reported on April 15. Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of the Economy and Finance, reportedly stated that France will encourage other EU countries to adopt cryptocurrency regulations similar to those France approved last week. The news rules reportedly aim to attract cryptocurrency issuers and traders to France by providing them some official recognition, while taxing their profits in return. Per the newly adopted regulation, cryptocurrency operators will have to apply for a certification that would purportedly enable authorities …

Dutch global banking and financial services corporation ING introduced its new cryptographic blockchain development called Bulletproofs, according to an announcement on Feb. 7 Bulletproofs represents an extended technology for ING’s previous blockchain privacy-focused developments such as zero-knowledge range proof (ZKRP) and zero-knowledge set membership (ZKSM). ING bank first launched ZKRP in November 2017, enabling market participants to maintain anonymity in a transaction while still confirming its accuracy. For instance, the tool allowed a mortgage applicant to prove their salary within a certain range without revealing the exact figure. As an improved version of ZKRP, ZKSM was released in October 2018, …

The European Union has officially launched the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) — with IBM, Accenture and Deutsche Telekom among the 100-plus members to have signed the association's charter at a ceremony at the European Commission (EC) in Brussels on April 4. INATBA was legally formed last month as an offshoot of the EU's European Blockchain Partnership, with the explicit aim of "supporting interoperability, developing specifications, promoting standards and regulatory convergence to support the development and exploitation of innovative blockchain technologies." Commissioner Mariya Gabriel (in the center), the INATBA board members and founding members of the association after …

Austria’s largest energy provider, Wien Energie, has developed a blockchain-driven fridge in partnership with tech giant Bosch, Cointelegraph’s correspondent reported from the ANON Blockchain Summit Austria. Wien Energie presented the new model during the crypto conference in Vienna on April 3. The official release claims that the decentralized technology is used in the construction of a refrigerator for the first time. The main goal behind the project is to increase consumer interest in the sustainable consumption of energy. A blockchain solution in this case allows one to choose the source of the energy, be that a solar panel or a …

The European Union announced the launch of the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) on its official website on April 3. According to a Cointelegraph representative who attended today’s ceremony at the European Commission in Brussels, the more than 100 members who have signed the charter include IBM, Accenture and Deutsche Telekom. Among the blockchain-related members number Iota, Ripple, ConsenSys, and the Sovrin Foundation. Per the announcement, INATBA aims to bring together industry startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regulators and standard setting bodies to bring blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) into the mainstream. During the Brussels ceremony, …

The legislative body of the Swiss government, the Federal Assembly, has approved a motion to instruct the Federal Council to adapt existing legislation for cryptocurrency regulation. Coitelegraph auf Deutsch reported on the development on March 20. The motion introduced by Liberal assemblyman Giovanni Merlini intends to instruct the Federal Council to adapt existing provisions on procedural instruments of judicial and administrative authorities, so that they can also be applied to cryptocurrencies. The Council approved the motion introduced with 99 to 83 votes in favor and 10 abstensions. The move aims to close perceived gaps in protecting cryptocurrency users from illicit …

Strong growth has returned to Ireland one decade after the banking crisis and international bailout. But, financiers and investors fear a “no deal” Brexit — in which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a trade agreement at the end of the month — could again destabilize Ireland’s boom-and-bust economy. The U.K. received 11 percent of Ireland’s exports of goods in the past year, while supplying more than one-fifth of its imports. The Irish central bank conjectures that an orderly exit from the EU would decrease the gross domestic product by 1.5 percent, according to a Reuters story. While …