Environment, Sustainability, Innovation Management and DPP

Belen Suarez has been working for more than 15 years on Innovation Management, Sustainable Development, Circular Economy and Blockchain as well as working for 4 years on Blockchain Standardization at ISO TC 307 Blockchain and DLTs, at UNE SC 307 Blockchain and DLTS and CEN/CENELEC JTC 19. Within BlockStand, Belen proposal is to develop a Preliminary Assessment for use case identification and selection for developing a Technical Specification at CEN/CENELEC on the Environmental Sustainability Taxonomy of Blockchain and DLTs.

Identity, Certificates, E-signature and Security

Partner at Blooo, Mickael specializes in digital solutions including identity, blockchain, and cybersecurity. Mickaël is contributing to Afnor, CEN, ISO, eIDAS working groups within these areas. Collaborating with regulatory bodies and security experts, he compiles a comprehensive set of standards for digital identity (EU Digital Identity Wallet, EBSI, Verifiable Credentials, e-signature protocols, secure elements) to support the digitization of identification and authentication means, and enhance security, privacy, and user convenience across the EU.

Web3 and Energy Transition

Dr. Lluïsa Marsal, an architect and blockchain specialist, is developing a proposal to standardize self-sovereign identity in virtual worlds using blockchain. With a focus on democratizing access to blockchain technology, she aims to bridge urban planning with emerging digital environments.

Security, Privacy and Identity

Expert in cybersecurity and cryptography with 20 years of experience in the security business, and an entrepreneur in the blockchain and identity space. Standardization expert in cybersecurity, privacy, identity, biometrics, authentication, and blockchain for over 10 years. Co-convenor of ISO/TC 307/JWG 4, leading the development of standards in Blockchain and DLT, and connecting these standards to the existing landscape of security, privacy, and identity standards to support EU and international initiatives.

Decentralised Autonomous Organisations

CEO of the Blue Future Organisation (BFO), an innovative decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), Limara Haque is an accredited Standards Expert with ISO & UNE for Distributed Ledger Technologies and their Applications, Environmental Sustainability and DAOs. Within BlockStand, she aims to explore social responsibility and sustainable development with regards of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs).

Governance, Compliance, Security and Privacy

Steffen Schwalm supports since 15 years clients in high-regulated industries on digital identity and trust. He also shapes decentralized ecosystems in Europe using DLT. Actively involved in international blockchain standardization, he’s currently working on sustainable standards for security and trust in DLT, addressing challenges such as eIDAS 2.0.

Digital Payments, Tokenisation and DPP

Christiana Aristidou’s expertise in blockchain and DLT standardisation is underpinned by extensive involvement across multiple significant roles within international standards bodies. As Head of the Cyprus National Delegation to the ISO/TC 307 Blockchain Committee, she has led and coordinated efforts in standardising various aspects of blockchain technology holding pivotal roles in various Working Groups (WG). Within BlockStand, she is conducting in-depth research on asset and commodity classification and the classification of financial and non-financial assets, focusing on the role of standardisation and tokenisation from a legal and regulatory perspective.

Privacy and Decentralized Identity

Robin Renwick, with a background in networks and sustainability, leads initiatives to improve privacy and environmental sustainability in DLT systems. Actively participating in ISO and CEN, they’re keen to support wider market adoption of DLT, especially in relation to European Digital Identity and the Digital Euro.

Cross- blockchain information exchange

Jedediah Grant is a founding member of LetzBlock, the Luxembourg Blockchain and DLT Association, and of Infrachain, a public-private partnership organization dedicated to building and governing blockchain infrastructures for Europe. He has been extensively involved in the technical aspects of blockchain and DLT since 2015 and his contributions have been recognized by notable organizations within the blockchain and fintech sectors. Jedediah is also a contributing member of ISO/TC 307, participates in the Finance Committee and Privacy Committee of INATBA, and servers as a member of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum Expert Panel, contributing to promote blockchain adoption and best practices.

Decentralized identity

Markus Sabadello has been an Editor of the DID Resolution specification at the W3C Credentials Community Group since the work item was launched and he is also currently Chair of the RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group at W3C. His previous work on standards has been previously supported by other EU-funded projects such as StandICT.eu grants. Within BlockStand, he is contributing to the decentralized identity community, including blockchain-based digital identity infrastructures, by acting as Chair of the Identifiers & Discovery Working Group at the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF).

Digital Currency and Qualified Electronic Signature

Jean-Marc Seigneur is the Chief Technical Officer of the Réputaction, a French SME. He also leads the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFT workstream for the United Nations ITU Digital Currency Global Initiative (DCGI), he has been an expert for the ITU since 2015 and has worked on various working groups related to digital trust, security, smart cities, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, NFTs, and the metaverse.

Electronic certificates and Smart contracts

CEO of MEDITERRANEO LAB 4.0 srl., Giampiero Zito has been working on standardisation of blockchain-based processes, goods and services through national working and technical groups. Within BlockStand, he is contributing to the standardization of trust service provider issuing qualified attributes and electronic certificates (GDPR compliance) as verifiable credentials on DLT and is working on guidelines for SMEs on the Use of Smart Contracts and DLT transitions for ESG reporting.

Interoperability and Networks

Andre Augusto is a blockchain researcher at INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Tecnico in Portugal. He has been actively contributing to both blockchain and DLT standardization efforts and academic research, particularly within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), with a particular focus on blockchain interoperability.

Within BlockStand, he aims to create and propose a draft under the scope of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), whose Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) working group is focused on standardizing communication between various blockchain networks and non-blockchain systems.

Decentralized Identity

Paolo Campegiani has a long experience in standardisation both at national level through UNI and both at European and international level through CEN/CENELEC and ISO. His main focus is the integration of DLT systems for identity management, for which he has numerous contributions to the standardisation efforts. Within BlockStand, he aims to work on the development of an international standard on the use of blockchains and DLTs to manage the lifecycle of identities and actors inside a self-sovereign identity (SSI) system.

Smart contracts

CEO at Digiotouch, Soumya Kanti Datta specialises in Cloud Computing, AI, and Blockchain. He is currently leading Digiotouch AI, a GenAI powered meeting transcription, translation, summary generation tool. Within BlockStand, he aims to standardise data formats for smart contracts, defining common requirements for the development of computable smart contract and its templates and proposing a reference architecture that demonstrates integration of computable smart contracts with existing distributed ledger technologies.

Custodian services and Cryptocurrency

Founder of Validvent Services GmbH, George Brameshuber has been involved with key industry groups and regulatory initiatives with a longstanding commitment to advancing regulatory clarity and efficiency in the digital asset space. Within BlockStand, he contributes to the IEEE 2140.5 Working Group, which is developing the IEEE Standard for a Custodian Framework of Cryptocurrency, by aligning the custodian framework with European Union values and regulations, enhancing the EU’s strategic position in blockchain and DLT standardisation.

Data management, Interoperability and Security

Petko Karamotchev serves as CEO and Co-Founder of INDUSTRIA, a Chairman of Programmatic as well as a mentor at R3. He is an expert of the ISO/TC 307 Committee for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies, and an Industry Associate at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies. His expertise lies in Distributed Ledger Technology and the development of Digital Smart Legal Agreements. Within BlockStand, he aims to design a standardisation proposal focused on addressing the nuances of on-ledger and off-ledger data in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), which involves outlining a series of activities that tackle the core challenges of interoperability, security, and efficiency.

Circular economy, Climate action and Biodiversity preservation

Jerome Pons is a senior standardisation manager with more than 20 years of experience in standardisation both at national level through AFNOR and both at European and international level through CEN/CENELEC and ISO. He directly contributed to the drafting of several ISO standards, such as: ISO 22739, ISO 23257, ISO 23258, ISO/TR 324, ISO/WD 7603 and ISO/PWI 23042. Within BlockStand, he aims to study the application of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) for sustainable development.

Blockchain decision tree

Michal Kit is Principal Technology Officer at the Blockchain and Climate Institute (BCI) in Estonia, which is a Category A Liaison Organization with ISO/TC307 with members sitting on WG1, WG3, WG6, AHG4 and CEN/CLC/JTC19. Within BlockStand, he aims to pioneering an approach to leveraging decision trees for the purpose of selecting the most appropriate distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain solution tailored to specific use cases.

Cross-border payments

Olvis Enrique Gil Ríos, founder of OG Technologies EU, is specializing in integrating enterprise-level Web3 technologies for optimized data-driven solutions. He has a comprehensive background in blockchain and DLT with a particular focus on addressing the challenges of the international financial systems and focusing on creating cost-effective and transparent transaction mechanisms. Within BlockStand, he aims to set new benchmarks in the efficiency, security, and regulatory compliance of cross-border payments.

Smart contracts, AI, Finance

Christiana Aristidou is a Transnational Technology Lawyer, Founder and Managing Partner of “The Hybrid LawTech Firm”.  She has been practising business and technology law for more than 27 years and is usually involved in complex, multijurisdictional business and technology projects legal and regulatory compliance. Christiana actively contributes to standardization efforts, focusing on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, smart contracts, artificial intelligence, and finance. She is the Director of the Legal Division of the Blockchain & Climate Institute (BCI), and the Ambassador of the European Legal Technology Association (ELTA) for Cyprus. She is an approved HRD Trainer and has trained regulators and private organisations in Cyprus and abroad. Christiana is a regular speaker at International Technology Conferences with particular expertise and experience in Digital Finance.