To What Extent is Blockchain Technology & Crypto Growing in Italy

Besides the management of financial payments, money transactions or insurance applications, the Italian path to the development of the country’s strategy in Blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now in the hands of experts that will meet in January 2019.

Blockchain technology is increasingly being used in the banking, insurance and financial sectors across the globe. Most importantly, banks have fully apprehended the advantages of these technologies. As Coinidol recently reported, there are now around 275 blockchain-based services (40% are advertised) boosted globally since 2015, according to the survey conducted by the Fintech and Insurtech School Observatory of Management of the Milan Polytechnic.   

Reconciliation of Interbank Payments   

The survey indicates that after 2016 and 2017 where the financial institutions declared the launch of services attracting media attention, in 2019 we have observed a significant systematisation and concentration on these services and proved blockchain technology added much value more than traditional technologies. Particularly, they are employed in various applications such as data & financial documents by 10%, managing payments by around 41%, identity by 7%, capital market by 27%, and supply chain finance by 8%.   

Financial players are applying blockchain technology internationally for management of payments (41% of cases), especially for the reconciliation of interbank payments to ease money transfers between various currencies; the capital market (27%), to ameliorate the exchange of financial securities; the management of financial data & documents (10%), to handle documents connected to bank guarantees; support for Supply Chain Finance (8%); identity management (7%), to lower the costs of identifying clients; traceability (5%); remote voting management (2%).   

Other DLT Initiatives   

Italian banks and insurance firms (such as the international B3i consortium) are beginning to invest in blockchain technologies, either by participating in international or Italian systems solutions or in solo projects. Some of the Italian banks that participate in international consortia include; Intesa Sanpaolo, Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit and others.   

However, Italian system initiatives have also grown, for instance, the Spunta Interbancaria project, the Anticipo Fattura, etc. In August last year, Banca Popolare di Sondrio rolled out a service to file on the Bitcoin (BTC) Blockchain the permission to regenerate the RC Auto policy shown by the clients.   

Meanwhile, the selection of a blockchain & AI expert team has been successfully completed and they will collaborate with the Ministry of Economic Development to explain the national strategy for Blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The selection was based on expertise, competence and experience within the AI and DLT sectors and their applications.   

The Expert Team   

The first official meeting of the appointed blockchain & AI experts will be held in January 2019. 

"The numerous and qualified expressions of interest received in the selection of expert groups - said the Minister of Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio - demonstrate the wealth of knowledge and experiences we have in Italy on emerging technologies. I thank all those who have expressed their availability and I’m sure that together with the selected experts we will be able to build Strategies that are crucial for the development of Italy in the name of innovation."   

The group which will deal with AI include; Franciscan religious Paolo Benati, bioethics & moral theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the General Secretary of Fim Cisl Marco Bentivogli, neuroethics, Director of lab software IBM Walter Aglietti, professor of ethics of technologies, and the president of the UC Massimiliano Dona.   

The team dealing with distributed ledger technology (DLT) include; experts in Cryptovalue (Marco Monaco, Stefano Capaccioli, Federico Tenga, Vincenzo Di Nicola, Giustozzi Lorenzo, etc), experts in consumer protection like Gabrile Luigi – vice president of ‘Visionaries No Profit,’ university professors such as Gian Domenico Mosco of Luiss, Ernesto Damiani of Milan State University.   

Read more news about blockchain and the cryptocurrency industry of Italy in the Italian language at www.it.coinidol.com