European Innovation Council Horizon Prize on Blockchain for Social Good

European Innovation Council Horizon Prize on Blockchain for Social Good

What was the Horizon Blockchain for Social Good Prize?

The European Commission launched the Horizon Prize: ‘Blockchains for Social Good’ in December 2017. This EIC (European Innovation Council) Horizon Prize rewarded the development of scalable, efficient and effective decentralised solutions to sustainability challenges which exploit the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) used in blockchains.

The most well known application of Blockchains is the controversial Bitcoin so far, but this Prize aimed to explore the unique potential of Blockchains for creating decentralised solutions to societal challenges which are more effective than traditional centralised approaches.

What was the aim of the Prize?

The objective was to stimulate the development of out-of-the-box multidisciplinary solutions to social challenges in areas such as support of fair trade, increasing transparency in production processes, decentralising data governance and enhancing privacy, improving accountability and contributing to financial inclusion.

Five prizes of EUR 1 million would be awarded to innovators that used Blockchain technology to develop decentralised solutions bringing about positive social change.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HORIZON PRIZES

This challenge was funded by

  • Horizon 2020 logo - European Funding for Research and Innovation

Our society needs new solutions to sustainability challenges, which are more inclusive and effective than traditional approaches. This prize rewards the social innovators pioneering decentralised applications of the emerging blockchain technologies to create positive change in the society.

The winners

EIC Horizon Prizes, funded under the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, will reward the best outside-the-box ideas that can solve a major problem facing society. The blockchain technology is already transforming the world of finance, and I look forward to seeing revolutionary decentralised solutions to innovation challenges in many domains.