Centrifuge and European Union

#1

Hi Centrifuge community,

I have stumbled upon an article written by one of the co-founders Martin Quensel (https://medium.com/centrifuge/berlin-and-the-eu-support-building-the-centrifuge-chain-with-1-4-million-18636a81975c) that Centrifuge team has received 400k EUR in grant and 1 Million EUR in loans from European Regional Development Fund.
I had some experience with fund in question and the requirements to apply to this fund is no joke, not to mention that EU sends inspectors to oversee how the funds are being spent.
Additionally Centrifuge is a part of #DLT4Good which aims to stimulate research and experimentation in the development and use of DLTs for social and public good. The project #DLT4Good is running in cooperation with the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), with support from the European Parliament as a Pilot Project. (https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/eupolicylab/portfolios/dlt4good/)
This highly boost confidence and credibility of the Centrifuge team as they aren’t hiding from regulators quite the opposite.
This is just another fact that speaks about commitment, hard and intelligent work and professionalism in Centrifuge Team.

17 Likes
#2

Hi @Ivor

Great link and article. It is interesting that regulation is a bit of a dirty word in some ways, given the origins of bitcoin and decentralisation and the ‘cyber punk’ ethos that underpinned it in many ways. The reality though, as much as finance 1.0 has many flaws that lead to manipulation and unfair outcomes, is that scaling and enterprise level adoption requires regulatory compliance. Without it, I don’t see any project growing without coming under intense scrutiny of the SEC and similar regulatory bodies. This is likely to terrify investors and potentially kill what might be a promising project.

I think it’s very sensible and far-sighted to work with the institutions as a necessary evil even, so as to ensure the project can succeed or fail on its own use case viability and development and not leave its fate in the hands of legislators and regulators. At the same that it is gaining regulatory acceptance, the project is networking with powerful ‘connectors’ and ‘enablers’ within the financial system that can over time clear certain obstacles and reassure more skeptical proponents to invest in the project’s growth.

I don’t want to shill any other projects but Energy Web is another project that to me seems to be taking a similar approach: diligent and steady engagement with institutions and providers in the energy space, (which is heavily monopolised and traditionally resistant material change, especially of a decentralised nature) particularly in Europe - and not so much concerned with token price, being listed on exchanges…that will all come eventually. It’s building the right way.

These types of projects require patience which is anathema in the world of crypto and quick gains, but I believe these are the projects that have a strong chance to emerge over the next 5,10 years and beyond and have an enormous impact on the marketplace and for society. Marketing will obviously need to play a role…but for value investors and credible ‘influencers’ in the space, these types of projects will be found and sold on their workable products and actual real world partnerships they have. Just my two cents. Thanks again :slightly_smiling_face:

7 Likes
#3

So nice. Centrifuge is getting bigger and bigger.