Heerlen, November 2019 – Blockchain has the potential to transform three of North-West Europe’s top five sectors with a combined turnover of €600 billion (agrofoods, logistics, health) by tackling their shared transnational data challenges.
From tracking shipments real-time across organisations, sharing sensitive medical records between practitioners, or assuring the safety, quality, and origin of food produce, SMEs in these sectors rely heavily on data transactions across countries. SMEs are particularly vulnerable to risks in delayed invoices & cash flow, data security, and errors in data.
Blockchain is a solution for very specific problems that cannot be solved using other technologies. This means that blockchain could be a lifeline for some SMEs and less relevant to others. Finding out if it’s the right solution for you could be expensive and time intensive. That’s why the EU-funded Blockstart project is running its support programme for SMEs.
About Blockstart
Working with SMEs from across North-West Europe using the support programme, Blockstart’s transnational team of experts will target four of the most common challenges that SMEs currently face. Over the coming three years, solutions ranging from smart contracts to medical e-records will be developed and tested. The results will be made public to help as many organisations benefit from the knowledge.
The Blockstart partners will assess blockchain technology’s potential for all interested SMEs to ensure that it is used only where it can prove itself a useful alternative to traditional processes.
The Blockstart project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe and the lead partner is Brightlands Smart Services Campus.
For regular updates, you can follow the project on Twitter and LinkedIn.