One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations is to give everyone on the planet a legal identification by 2030. This goal may be more important now that discussions about new coronavirus immunity ID documents are in the works. About 75% of the world’s population now lacks a bank account due to their inability to successfully fulfill KYC (Know Your Client) processes, which require them to provide identification such as a valid passport, birth certificate, utility bill, or other document proving their identity.

A blockchain-based strategy could be the foundation for an unalterable record of each person’s legal identification. Due to the decentralized nature of the ledger, this would reduce dependence on a central issuing body or government involvement (a ledge meaning whereby the blockchain records and maintains all data exchanges).

In its simplest form, a blockchain can be described as a continuously expanding and interconnected chain of information known as blocks. Each block includes transaction information, its timestamp, and a cryptographic hash that serves as the previous block’s “identity.” Since a P2P network typically controls a blockchain, any change to any block must be approved by the majority of nodes in that network. Each of these nodes, which are computers, holds a copy of the blockchain. Only if more nodes approved it after the hash was examined is a transaction entered into the ledger.

Blockchain technology is a potent tool for battling fraud because the records cannot be changed retrospectively and have various applications in financial inclusion, smart contracts, and the tracking of products and transactions.

In light of this, the ten most promising European firms advancing the use of blockchain through their core services and goods are listed below. This ranking was developed through analysis of growth rate, completed funding rounds, international launches, team size, and other factors.

SettleMint: Matthew Van Niekerk and Roderik Van der Veer created Settlemint in Leuven, Belgium, in 2016. SettleMint is democratizing blockchain as a component of the future business environment with more than €5 million in investment. Through a dependable and scalable low-code solution known as BPaS, or “Blockchain as a Service,” the company offers the infrastructure to simplify designing, developing, and integrating blockchain applications so businesses can move from the ground up to blockchain application cases more quickly and with less complexity.

Coinfirm: Located in London, Coinfirm aims to serve as a basis for the secure adoption of blockchain by all economic actors, including traditional financial institutions, governments, regulators, and regular people, Coinfirm was established in 2015. The team has so far raised about €5 million, and its most recent investment round took place early this year. Financial institutions and regulators can securely interact with the cryptocurrency market thanks to its anti-money laundering (AML) for virtual currencies and blockchain players. Additionally, it has developed its token, the AMLT, and provides rewards to users who report scams and ransomware.

Odem: The Zug-based Swiss startup Odem is bringing blockchain technology to schooling. To make education, training, and employment widely affordable, accessible, verifiable, and transferable, it strives to update the antiquated infrastructure on which they were constructed. The firm received over €2 million in investment in 2018, which it utilized to enhance its learning platform. This platform even enables students to control and own their academic records, which are securely saved on the blockchain, in one location for all time.

Limechain: It is a cryptocurrency that is based in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was created in 2017 by Chris Veselinov, Nick Todorov, Vladislav Ivanov, George Spasov, and others. With a range of services, including blockchain development, smart contracts, ICOs, and crowd sales, the startup focuses on developing blockchain solutions for entrepreneurs and large businesses. One of their primary offerings is LimePay, a SaaS platform that allows users to freely perform transactions for decentralized applications (dApps) with fiat money without registering or creating a cryptocurrency wallet. The client can enable crypto payments to businesses that only accept cryptocurrency using a credit card. Major companies like Procter & Gamble, Raiffeisenbank, and Vaultitude are already the firm’s customers, which is quite encouraging.

Elrond: Elrond is reimagining the public blockchain infrastructure from scratch. This firm, which was incorporated in Malta in 2017 and is now based in Romania, has the second-best funding in the country. The company claims that by offering a 1000x improvement in blockchain speed, size, and cost, anybody will have easy access to the digital economy. Our discussion about the future of blockchain with their CEO Beniamin Mincu, is an interesting read.

DappRadar: A Lithuanian firm formed in 2018 and received €2 million in initial funding in 2019, DappRadar was listed on our list of Lithuanian startups to watch in 2020. Decentralized applications, or Dapps for short, are programs that run on peer-to-peer networks, include open source code, and are distributed using blockchain. DappRadar monitors these Dapps—2,900 in total—across several blockchains to weed out phoney and pointless activity and offer useful market intelligence.

Colendi: The Swiss fintech startup Colendi pioneers in giving its customers access to a global financial passport. The company was established in 2016 by Bulent Tekmen, Eray Eren, Mihriban Ersin Tekmen, and Serkan Omerbeyoglu to provide a democratized credit scoring evaluation technique based on blockchain technology. Users will receive an ID that functions as a global financial passport. Its objective is to develop a technology that would give unbanked people and small enterprises more access to microloans globally. In that way, their automated credit scoring system aspires to serve as a bridge of trust between borrowers and lenders. Colendi, one of our top 10 Swiss startups to watch in 2019, has raised €2.3 million.

Solve.Care: In 2017, Pradeep Goel established the worldwide blockchain technology startup Solve.Care in Tallinn, Estonia. The business wants to make the global healthcare systems more transparent and less cumbersome. It suggests a patient-centric platform to connect stakeholders and manage medical treatment, benefits, and payments more efficiently. It manages payments between clients, including patients, physicians, pharmacies, labs, employers, and insurers. It runs natively on the Ethereum blockchain and complies with the ERC20 token standard. It has so far raised €26.7 million and established a global network of healthcare experts, contractors, and consultants.

Bankera: Bankera was established in 2017 by Vytautas Karalevicius in Vilnius, Lithuania, to combine the traditional and cryptocurrency economies into a single platform that provides crypto-friendly financial services to businesses and people worldwide. The firm concentrates on solutions that are quick, affordable, and accessible. To achieve its vision of becoming a blockchain-friendly bank, Bankera provides loans backed by cryptocurrencies to individuals and businesses, crypto-funds made up of various cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens, and robo-advisory wealth management services. Through its Initial Coin Offering in February 2018, the business raised approximately €100 million (ICO).

Also, read – EU Funding is Targeting SMEs for Blockchain Startup

Neufund: Neufund Marcin Rudolf and Zoe Adamovicz founded Neufund in 2016 in Berlin, and it has since raised €18 million. In 2018, it conducted an ETO, or equity public offering, making it the first firm in the world to do so. The equity is available as FTH coins on the blockchain (Force). By creating a legally-binding connection between an on-chain token and a real-world stock, Neufund’s innovation allows any incorporated firm to perform a public offering on the blockchain while also complying with local laws.