Baltic Countries Sign Memorandum to Develop Blockchain Technology
According to recent reports, a total of three Baltic States including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have decided to sign a memorandum on distributed ledger technology, meant to further enhance the cooperation between the 3 countries on regional capital market development.
The Memorandum of Understanding also includes partnerships on the development of blockchain technology. With this in mind, the ministries of the three countries have publicly stated that they are well-aware of the benefits associated with it.
According to the memorandum: “The Estonian Ministry, the Latvian Ministry and the Lithuanian Ministry recognise the importance of the development of the capital market and a stronger institutional framework to handle the cross border challenges in the Baltic States (…) Supporting the development of capital market innovations and new technologies with a consideration for regional Fintech solutions, e.g. distributed ledger technology.”
It is important to point out the fact that so far, Estonia has been involved with blockchain technology, and has even carried out several studies on its future potential. In fact, the government has reportedly been dealing with distributed ledger technology since the year of 2008. Not only this, but it has also made it operational within its registries on numerous niches such as judiciary, health, commercial code and security. Apart from this aspect, Estonia is also planning to introduce DLT for a couple of more spheres, including, but not limited to cyber security, data embassies and personal medicine.
Lithuania also has a history with DLT. Back in 2016, the vice-minister of economy made a statement saying that the country is seriously preparing to invest in blockchain technology.
Last but not least, Latvia hasn’t showcased any interest so far, but now with the Memorandum being signed, chances are that things will change in the future.
Currently, there isn’t much information available on what specific areas the three countries will collaborate on. However, it is speculated that the technology will be used for safer data storage thanks to immutability, alongside a few other uses as well.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, it is expected that in the near future, more countries will attempt to further enhance their blockchain development. Therefore, it is likely that we will see more partnerships like these being signed in the near future.