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- 1 ICI Bucharest recently launched a national NFT trading platform.
- 2 The Romanian Government backs the initiative.
Romania is entering the realm of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Web3 with its national NFT marketplace. The country’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) wishes to fuel Web3 adoption by launching an in-house NFT trading platform.
Romania Brings in-House NFT Market Place
The institutional NFT platform, ICI D| Services, is supposed to go live on April 26, 2023. The purpose is to foster a link between private and public sector institutions and users. The proposed platform would be an NFT marketplace, facilitating institutional and general users to mint, manage, and trade NFTs.
ICI Bucharest blockchain laboratory coordinator Dr. Paul Nuculescu-Mizil Gheorghe was asked by a crypto media outlet to reveal what is driving Romania to adopt Web3-powered technologies. The institute has focused on the research and development field for over five years but has recently shifted its attention toward exploring blockchain, Web3, and NFTs.
According to Gheorghe, NFTs have gained considerable traction in recent years, primarily due to the ability to create unique and scarce digital assets, which can be applied in multiple use cases. This feature has made the institution drive its resources for its exploration, and they proposed the NFT platform in late 2021.
The institute started developing and implementing the architecture for the marketplace in partnership with MultiversX around 2022. This project was the first one with the blockchain infrastructure provider.
The partnership is also supposed to facilitate the development of a decentralized Domain Name System (DNS) and Top-Level Domain (TLD) ecosystem, said Beniamin Mincu, CEO of MultiversX.
Gheorghe holds a Ph.D. in Blockchain Technology and Industrial Engineering and says the Romanian Government backs the project via the Secretariat-General and the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitization. Explaining the vision behind the assignment, he says that the institution wishes to bring the young generations and the public institution’s values on the same page. At the same time, initiating a comfort zone where interaction in the digital space is easy.
The launch of the proposed platform would provide five unique NFT collections, which are developed in collaboration with select Romanian sportspeople, institutions, and organizations.
The list includes:
- The Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee.
- Davis Popovici, the 18-year-old 100-meter freestyle-swimming world record holder.
- Agepres, the country’s news agency.
- Bucharest’s Central University Library.
- National philately organization Romfilatelia.
The professor believes that this support from the Romanian government for innovative projects like ICI D| Services would strengthen the country’s economic growth by creating new revenue streams. It would also fuel the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
He feels that blockchain technology enhances the institution’s efficiency in addressing the use cases based on management, transparency, and security of digital assets, in multiple institutional operations like education, health transport, supply chain management, land registration, etc.
Mincu seconded these thoughts and supported the Romanian Government’s commitment to embracing the technology. This would bring new and exciting interaction opportunities between citizens, institutions, and businesses.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
