While there are many countries around the world that are cracking down on cryptocurrency markets or wary about how to embrace and regulate them, there are other companies that are receiving support from the government due to the shifting attitudes on the potential of blockchain technology. Recently, Billon Group was awarded over $2.1 million by the European Union (EU) to develop a blockchain-based document management system.
The money comes specifically from the European Commission's SME instrument program, which is part of a larger overall Horizon 2020 program. Horizon 2020 describes itself as the "biggest EU Research and Innovation program" ever. A total of 64 organizations were awarded in this particular phase of the program, including other blockchain-related companies such as Settlemint, a blockchain software company, and KYC (Know-Your-Customer) service AUTHENTEQ.
Billon will not only be digitizing paper documents, but encrypting them, as well. The idea is to increase transparency in efficiency with respect to document storage and management by placing these documents on a distributed ledger. This can reduce cost for a variety of organizations and corporations by as much as 50%, according to the Billon Group. The solution will also be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as other EU regulations. The GDPR is a regulation adopted in 2016 that relates to overall data regulation and personal privacy that applies to all EU member states.
The company has already been adopted by the Polish Credit Office (BIK), which increases efficiency with respect to the Polish banking sector. The CEO of Billon Group, Wojtek Kostrzewa, pointed out how the company is working on disrupting the document management sector. He states: "Today's document management industry has struggled with fulfilling regulatory and customer requirements related to protecting document identity content, and to provide customers with control over data they choose to share or delete. With the funding from Horizon 2020, Billon will fulfill MIFiD2 and GDPR requirements with innovation that puts a customer in control of their own data and documents."
