Nonprofit European Crypto Initiative gets Ethereum-focused rebrand

Crypto nonprofit the European Crypto Initiative has rebranded to become the European Ethereum Institute, with the advocacy group claiming the blockchain will have a central role in the continent’s digital economy.

The move reflects the nonprofit’s conviction that Ethereum is simply the best network to build upon.

“If Europe wants to take a serious view on the future of public blockchain infrastructure, Ethereum is the place it has to engage with,” Marina Markežič, the organisation’s executive director, told DL News. 

As the world’s largest economy, the US, races ahead with crypto-friendly legislation, heavily focusing on stablecoins, the EU is in the process of pushing ahead with a digital euro. It isn’t clear how much of a role public blockchains will play in Europe’s future digital economy.

Gold standard of blockchains

Brussels-based EEI pushes to help shape the EU’s crypto regulation — specifically for public blockchains to be used in the union.

The nonprofit said its rebrand comes as Ethereum becomes a more important crypto network and the union advances with key legislation looking to regulate the crypto space.

“Europe’s most consequential regulatory decisions right now — the MiCA review, the Digital Omnibus package, the GDPR reform, the Settlement and Market Integration Package, and the digital euro — will all shape how public blockchains function in Europe,” Markežič said.

The nonprofit added in a statement: “Ethereum is the gold standard of public blockchain infrastructure — decentralised, permissionless, credibly neutral, and battle-tested at scale.”

Open or closed digital economy?

Ethereum has piqued the interest of Wall Street titans in recent years mainly because stablecoins — digital tokens typically pegged to the dollar — are playing an increasingly bigger part in traditional payment infrastructure.

Major companies and banks are now debuting, or at least researching, the tokens. US President Donald Trump signed legislation to regulate the assets last year.

But stablecoins have a smaller market in the EU; the union is instead more interested in a central bank digital currency — a centralised project that some in the crypto space argue is the very opposite to the ethos of permissionless blockchains.

Still, the EEI argues that permissionless blockchains — specifically Ethereum — are what the EU needs to build a fair and functioning digital economy.

“A new internet is being built on it right now, and Europe needs to be part of it,” the nonprofit said.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.