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Results from the Pan-European Survey on Decentralised Semi-Autonomous Organisation (DSAO) Governance

Exchange of Value in a DSAO

The European Blockchain Association has reviewed its DSAO governance model from a Pan-European legal perspective and is able to publish the initial findings.

The full potential behind the use of blockchain technologies is strongly associated with the concept of the “Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO)”. DAOs enable the individual members of an organisation to interact with each other in an autonomous and automated manner without involving any central party, ultimately removing any need for a middleman as well as facilitating digitalisation and automation of processes.

Supported by blockchain technology’s core feature acting as the single source of truth between independent parties, DAOs can be automated and implemented in code through the use of smart contracts. The early advent and hype around DAOs has, however, faced severe limitations mainly due to legal and other governance considerations. The lack of a central party in a DAO setup makes it difficult to remain in compliance with the various laws applicable in the field of AML, KYC, securities or VAT regulations and additionally complicates fundamental governance questions for communities.

DSAO – A unique RegTech response by the European Blockchain Association.

In response to the unworkable, legal aspects of DAOs, the “European Blockchain Association (EBA)” has started off with the bold vision to come up with a legally-compliant alternative to the DAO model without comprising its revolutionary approach. With this in mind, the EBA has developed and implemented a novel governance model called “Decentralised Semi-Autonomous Organisation (DSAO)”. It ultimately incorporates many of the great benefits of DAOs based on blockchain technology with a legal model fitting well into the existing legal & regulatory landscape.

The EBA itself is the very first user of this new DSAO model and has been established as an “eingetragener Verein (e.V.)” or association in Germany. Compared to DAOs, the EBA’s DSAO model differs in two key ways:

  • The incorporation of the DSAO as a legal entity
  • The installation of a detailed set of governance processes involving the appointment of a (human) Board of Directors as well as an independent (human) appellate body to resolve disputes (Blockchain Arbitration Forum in the case of the EBA).

Like the ordinary DAOs the EBA’s DSAO utilises a cryptocurrency-based incentivisation scheme (CrowdstartCoin XSC) and a decentralised voting system leveraging blockchain strengths.

The EBA conducted a pan-European survey on the legal aspects of the DSAO model.

Having started with the bold ambition of developing a legally workable alternative to the DAO model, it was very important that the EBA assess the legal fit of the DSAO model in other European jurisdictions for the first proof of concept. Relying on a model which comes with significant legal shortcomings in other jurisdictions would not be an option since the principles behind decentralisation call for remote collaboration across the globe! For this purpose, the EBA has drafted a pan-European survey reflecting on various legal matters to take into consideration for the deployment of the DSAO model. The survey is divided into three parts:

  • External representation of a DSAO
  • Tokenisation of membership in a DSAO
  • Exchange of value within a DSAO

During Q2 2019, the EBA was already able to obtain the first responses from various lawyers and governance specialists for several European countries including Germany, France, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, and Switzerland.

EBA’s key findings from the pan-European survey on the DSAO

We have summarised our initial key findings for the seven European jurisdictions in the following illustrations. 

What’s next?

The EBA keeps further evaluating the legal fit of the DSAO model and is strongly committed to building collaboration models incorporating the principles of DAOs. In particular, we are also happy to assist you in case you are interested in taking the DSAO approach to the implementation stage! 

Further on, we will also plan to discuss the key implications and some country highlights in the course of one of the upcoming EBA meetups. 

If you want to get in touch with us, feel free to contact Kevin Leuthardt, Steward WG Governance: kevin.leuthardt@eublas.org

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EBA becomes official partner of the Value of Bitcoin Conference

We are proud to announce that the European Blockchain Association is an official partner of the Value of Bitcoin Conference. The first-time event takes place on the 3rd of June 2019 and brings together people from different fields and with different opinions on Bitcoin. By doing so, the conference aims to create a multifaceted dialogue about bitcoin.

The Value of Bitcoin Conference will take place on the 3rd of June in Munich, Germany. The talks will be held by 20 international speakers, who are renowned experts on their fields. More than 150 Attendees, among which you can find numerous innovators and thought leaders, are predicted to join the conference. The event is organised by the blockchain experts DW Innovate and the Bayern LB (Bavarian State Bank), who want to promote a lively discourse about the potential possibilities and downsides of Bitcoin. More specifically, the organizers want everyone in the audience to gain a comprehensive understanding of the matter in order to make informed choices about bitcoin in their respective fields.

All members of the European Blockchain Association have the possibility to acquire discounted tickets for the conference. If you are interested, please go to our exclusive member area for more information. We are looking forward to a day full of interesting discussions and innovative ideas around bitcoins.

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EBA Update Round – April 2019

Topics Discussed: The EBA’s legal basis as a German association, new options for augmenting member profiles aka EBA Cards, a pan-european survey of WGGov, and XSC as a means of exchange of services

In this April’s update round, we shared our excitement about the imminent entry of the EBA in the Munich court register – a process that finally comes to its end.

Following this, we discussed new enhanced editing options for EBA Cards:
Each EBA member can now present herself to let others know about her interests and to start conversations based on her expertise. We recently added a number of new fields and options allowing members to add much more information to their profiles. Thus, the EBA Card could become a valuable asset in a blockchain expert’s CV.

After these more administrative topics, we had the pleasure of watching Working Group Governance steward Kevin Leuthardt presenting preliminary results of the first pan-european survey of the legal and regulatory impacts of Decentralised Semi-Autonomous Organisations DSAOs, such as the EBA itself.

It was great to see that Kevin managed to get valuable feedback from different countries on a topic which itself is quite sophisticated. Here’s the link to the preliminary results. It would be absolutely great if each EBA member could check in her personal rolodex (for younger members: that’s the archaic version of a contact network) if there are more potential target persons (i.e. European lawyers) we could invite to answer the survey! Please feel free to distribute this link to everybody who matches this requirement.

Let’s say a BIG THANK YOU to Kevin and Rebecca to take care of this survey – great work!

We concluded the update round by discussing how to implement Crowdstart Coin XSC as a means of exchange of services in EBA. On the one hand, we need to find services for EBA members that are valuable in order to justify the member fee, on the other hand, XSC shall be used to exchange services among EBA members individually. Ideas how to foster XSC are welcome – please add them on Slack!

That’s it for today – see you soon!

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Executive Blockchain Education by TUM School of Management, Datarella and EBA

As a foundational technology, Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies DLT are the basis for future data-driven businesses and applications. The Blockchain-inherent decentralisation means a paradigm shift not only for technical architectures and processes, but also for business models and society at-large. For enterprises and their managers, understanding Blockchain and DLT will be an essential component of their future work.

Together with one of Germany’s leading universities, Technische Universität München TUM, and Enterprise Blockchain company Datarella, the European Blockchain Association offers the brand-new program Certified Blockchain & DLT Manager on one of the most promising but also contentious technologies: corporate leaders learn how to implement and manage Blockchain and DLT, and how to unlock its potential for the enterprise.

This Certificate Program covers the technical, business, social and legal aspects of blockchain-based solutions in a balanced and unbiased way. The target groups of this program are both people with IT and management background – employees in companies who are to be developed into Blockchain Managers, distinguishable in:
a) Technically oriented occupational groups
b) Business management oriented occupational groups

The program starts on18 September 2019 and will take place in 2 modules over a course of 5 days. Lecturers, amongst others, are:  Prof. Dr. Florian Matthes (TUM), Michael Reuter (Datarella) Prof. Dr. Joachim Henkel (TUM), Florian Huber (chain.de / Paradigm Ventures), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Ernstberger (TUM) and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (TUM).

The program is open for applications.

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European Blockchain Association teams up with Nooor

Armenian Blockchain Association

We are happy to announce that the European Blockchain Association is now an official partner of the Armenian Blockchain Association Nooor. The non-profit organisation Nooor was founded in 2017 and connects and supports various stakeholder in the blockchain realm, thus following the same goals as we do.

Both the European and the Armenian Blockchain Association are built on the pillars of education, community and a strong network in order to foster economical and personal growth among the members. Furthermore, our shared purpose is to build a bridge between Central Europe and Armenia for start-ups, corporate businesses, developers and other blockchain experts to create a powerful network of blockchain enthusiasts by joining our forces. We believe that a cooperation between our two associations is going to bring major benefits to all our members in reaching their goals and in building a sustainable international network.

Additionally, this cooperation brings both organisations one step closer to their overarching goal of creating an internationally active blockchain hub for their respective areas. Through the exchange of thoughts on ongoing research projects and by sharing relevant results, we hope to foster the innovation process and to enable real-life applications of the findings. With a strong and well-established network of partnerships with Blockchain supporters worldwide and especially in eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East, Nooor is the ideal partner for us to further expand our network and to offer access to those regions to our members. 

We are looking forward to cooperating with Nooor and learn and thrive together. We will be working hand in hand to bring Blockchain with all its benefits to the next level and to establish an all-encompassing network of Blockchain supporters. The European Blockchain Association will keep you updated and share the progress with you on this blog.

The first event of both organisations is the blockchain summer camp in Munich and Berlin, where blockchain enthusiasts from Armenia and Europe share their knowhow.

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TOKEN2049: Exclusive EBA Discount Code TOKENCP281

TOKEN2049 | Hong Kong, 13-14 March 2019

TOKEN2049 is the premier crypto event in Asia, taking place 13-14 March 2019 in Hong Kong, to explore in-depth the growing crypto ecosystem and shine a light on the global developments of this new asset class.

Torken2019
Torken2019


The 2019 edition will host 2,000+ attendees from around the globe and 100+ high-profile speakers, including Charlie Lee (Litecoin), Bill Barhydt (Abra), Justin Sun (TRON), Max Kordek (Lisk), Xinshu Dong (Zilliqa), and Saifedean Ammous (Author “The Bitcoin Standard”). Join thought-leaders, global media, and thousands of participants for two productive and insightful networking days.


Register now to benefit from the Early Bird rate, and use the discount code TOKENCP281 (valid until 28th Feb).

https://www.token2049.com/tickets


TOKEN2049 will be a part of Asia Crypto Week, 11-17 March 2019.

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The European Blockchain Association Governance Model

Governance of decentralized systems is a matter of numerous debates in technological, as well as political and sociological circles. For the European Blockchain Association EBA, we have created a comprehensive governance model, based on existing, widely accepted regulatory frameworks, such as Eclipse, or Apache, as well as based on our practical experiences creating and working with blockchain networks. 

Our governance model specifically addresses the needs of our organisation which is designed as a decentralized semi-autonomous system DSAO: starting as an association (legal entity) based out of Germany, EBA is set to incentivize all members in a way that no central incentive will be needed to run and bring the organisation forward. A token-based incentive scheme is used to reward members for adding value to the organisation.

Beside being organised by its governance model, the members of the organisation must have the ability to change its own governance model – i.e. the ability of self-regulation.

Finally, the EBA governance model has been designed in accordance with other existing and widely accepted regulatory frameworks, such as Eclipse and Apache, in order to facilitate the acceptance with potential members.

These three key principles, the ability of self-regulation, being based on accepted regulatory frameworks, and the integrated incentive scheme, should constitute a sound basis for a successfull start of our decentralized semi-autonomous organisation.

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The European Blockchain Association XSC Reward System – Combining Intrinsic With Extrinsic Motivation

The European Blockchain Association – as a decentralised semi-autonomous organisation – relies on the active participation of its members. Beside acknowledging the intrinsic motivation of each EBA member to actively add value to the ecosystem, the EBA supports and rewards useful community activities by distributing crypto currency CrowdstartCoin XSC.

CrowdstartCoin XSC is an ERC20 crypto currency that was created in 2017 by Crowdstart Capital CSC in order to reward developers who add valuable code to the blockchain ecosystem. During the launch of the European Blockchain Association, CSC decided to donate 40% of its total XSC supply to the EBA.

EBA will provide each new member at the successful membership application with the same amount of (free) CrowdstartCoins XSC. In the first phase, each new member will receive 2.000 XSC.

The EBA uses CrowdstartCoin XSC for two purposes: first, XSC will be rewarded to EBA members that add value to the EBA community, and second, XSC will serve as the internal currency for the exchange of goods and services within the EBA community. Please see below the first version of the EBA benefits catalogue with the respective amounts of XSC per benefit and per year. Each member may make use of her CrowdstartCoin XSC to pay for the respective benefit provided by the EBA.

European Blockchain Association Benefits Catalogue
(All amounts of XSC as per year)

500 XSC – Digital use of the official European Blockchain Association logo
1.000 XSC – Use of an individual European Blockchain Association eMail address @eublas.org
2.000 XSC – Offer consulting, graining and other services to European Blockchain Association members
2.500 XSC – Lead a working group
3.500 XSC – Start a local European Blockchain Association hub
5.000 XSC – Start a national European Blockchain Association hub

This catalogue will be changed and extended over time. If you have questions or suggestions regarding the catalogue, feel free to join the conversation in the official EBA Slack channel eublas.slack.com.

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Welcome Startup Accelerator Crowdstart Capital And Crowdstart Coin XSC!

Today, we welcome Crowdstart Capital as a new member of the European Blockchain Association! Crowdstart Capital, or CSC, will take over the EBA accelerator node with the mission to promote blockchain-based startups throughout Europe.

As part of the deal, CSC will bring 40% of the total amount of their Crowdstart Coin XSC crypto currency. XSC has been around for some time in the crypto space. It has been distributed by CSC for free to reward developers and engineers for adding valuable code to the blockchain community. You can read more about the CSC story here.

We at the EBA will distribute XSC to our members – as a starter when they actually become members, and throughout their membership for activities and assets they add to the blockchain community. We are in the process of defining specific activities and will publish a list of these, later on. Our goal is to use XSC as the EBA’s currency, or the financial lubricant that facilitates the EBA incentive scheme. 

It’s an experiment and we can’t guarantee that it will work out as expected. We probably will have to adapt the scheme now and then, and we are open for suggestions for improvement. Feel free to contact us and discuss the Crowdstart Coin XSC with us!

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Founding The European Blockchain Association

We are very happy to announce the founding of the European Blockchain Association EBA! The EBA has been incorporated as a German association, called “Verein”, in Berlin, with an additional office in Munich. The EBA’s mission is to empower the European blockchain ecosystem by combining, synchronizing and leveraging blockchain-related activities of European corporations, startups, venture capitalists, and scientific institutes. The EBA serves as a superior, neutral body to aggregate and coordinate blockchain activities throughout Europe and to provide Non-European parties with a direct API into the European blockchain ecosystem.

The EBA is designed as a so-called Decentralised Semi-Autonomous Organisation DSAO with each separate entity acting as an independent node, connected with others through a blockchain protocol, with a governmental framework as stipulated in the EBA statutes. The EBA is internally organized and powered through blockchain-based payment and accounting protocol leveraging the crypto currency XSC.

The EBA sees itself as a protocol and toolset with the single purpose to serve its mebers. Although the association itself is a central legal entity, the statutues only serve as a necessary link to the real world, with its laws and regulations, as well as its communicative needs. The EBA founders are deeply convinced and inclined to create and operate the EBA as a DSAO as much as possible. The essence of a DSAO is not only the almost complete absence of a central authority, but foremost the implementation of an incentive scheme that incentivizes individual community members to actively participate in and add value to the network. With its blockchain-based payment and ledger protocol RAAY and the crypto currency Crowdstart Coin XSC, EBA members participate in a network that rewards actively and consistently added value to the blockchain ecosystem at large.

We encourage you to join the European Blockchain Association if you are a member of the blockchain community! Contact us, connect with other members and actively participate in building the blockchain ecosystem!