Online questionnaire for European Blockchain Pre-Commercial Procurement is Live

The EU Commission has opened a market consultation to develop a pre-commercial procurement exercise on blockchain at EU level. The objective, it seems, is to deliver a EU-wide blockchain service infrastructure that could be used cross-border to provide public services.

I find it interesting the Commission is putting this PCP on the table for two different reasons. First, it is using it to develop and refine a new technology and in my view that is what PCP processes should be used for.

Secondly, it is looking to establish an European Blockchain Services Infrastructure and that goes to the heart of my prior criticism of the lackadaisical approach to technology (and electronic procurement) in the 2014 Directives. That is, that in 2014 we should have gone much farther as to ensure cross-border compatibility between the different systems or at least the use of interoperable data standards.

Data did not happen and as such we are now stuck with national (or individual...) procurement data silos with no real prospect of cross-border data flows.