The Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) has joined the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) network as Malta’s EBSI Node Operator, with the Maltese node hosted and supported by the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA). The move comes following successful endorsement by the EUROPEUM-EDIC, an entity governed by a consortium of EU Member States to continue the activities of the European Blockchain Partnership supporting the use of the EBSI network and its use cases.
EBSI, a peer-to-peer permissioned blockchain network launched by the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership, aims to enhance cross-border public services via a highly secure, resilient and fully decentralised network, to verify credential information without a single point of failure. EBSI spans 29 countries – including all 27 EU Member States, as well as Norway and Liechtenstein – and comprises 40 public bodies.
One of the primary goals of EBSI is to streamline cross-border digital services, ensuring efficiency, security and trust among EU Member States. Therefore, joining the EBSI network is an important step which may lead to new opportunities, leveraging the power of EBSI to further support Malta’s digital transformation journey.
EBSI has developed frameworks to address business challenges with blockchain, grouped into ‘Use Case Families’ including Verifiable Credentials, Trusted Data Exchange and Track and Trace. Public bodies and other organisations may issue and/or certify verifiable credentials, - attributes of either natural persons (such as identity, driving licences, work permits or diplomas) or legal entities - allowing the owner of the credentials, known as ‘the user’, to store these in their digital EBSI Conformant wallet.
Once verifiable credentials have been successfully issued by the respective public body, the user may then present them as required to access services. This may be further verified via the EBSI ledger – a trusted, decentralised database of information, which facilitates the verification process, but eliminates the risk of falsifying claims.
The EBSI network – and EBSI’s Verifiable Credentials Use Case Family – provides users with full control regarding what information is verified, as well as by whom and when. Through this self-sovereign information sharing, EBSI enables privacy-preserving selective disclosure, whereby the user shares only the necessary credentials, without sharing any irrelevant additional information.
EBSI also marks the first pan-European blockchain infrastructure driven by the public sector and managed by EU Member States. This EU-wide collaboration to develop the EBSI network has ensured that its underlying technology and supporting policies and frameworks align with EU regulation in areas such as GDPR and eIDAS, while reflecting the EU’s mission to safeguard user privacy. It offers a unified method for representing trust relationships and accreditations, in a digital and machine-readable form, that relies on standardised data and signature formats, making it easily applicable across a wide range of use cases.
Indeed, EBSI promises to play a pivotal role in the European Union’s ongoing digital transformation efforts. Thus, MDIA’s role as EBSI Node Operator is a further testament of the Authority’s commitment to facilitate and support further the uptake of digital innovation by the Maltese public and private sector.
To find out more about the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, visit www.mdia.gov.mt.