The government of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has announced its new plan for building the European Blockchain Institute for researching blockchain technology in Europe.

As noted by NRW Economics Minister – Andreas Pinkwart, NRW will establish the building for the European Blockchain Institute in the city of Dortmund (Germany). The upcoming blockchain institute will be built at the end of this year.

Becoming “pioneer with the creation of the European Blockchain Institute”, the NRW state government will build the institute inside the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML).

In the press release, NRW state government said that they have been receiving some concerns about the energy consumption while mining bitcoin (BTC). Pinkwart explained that blockchain technology will not be “energy-intensive” if it is used properly. The technology will also bring about many benefits, Pinkwart stated that blockchain tech “can be safe, decentralized, affordable”.

The NRW state government aims to gain the leading position for Europe in studying blockchain technology. Europe is currently behind the United States in blockchain implementation, which makes this become a goal for NRW to “catch up” with the US IT scientists.  

During the Consensus 2019 conference, Ripple’s Director of Regulatory Relations Ryan Zagone has expressed his thought on the importance of the U.S. for taking the  lead in the blockchain technology industry:

“There is a broad discussion in Washington around 5G being dominated by foreign firms and the U.S. being reliant on foreign technology and foreign expertise… With blockchain and crypto, I think there’s a recognition now that these will be part of our future infrastructure… It’s important both for national security and from an economic perspective, that the U.S. is a leader in that.”

Earlier, Germany Federal Ministry of Finance has reportedly released a key issues paper on the proposed treatment and regulation of blockchain-based securities, which is open to industry stakeholders for feedback.