Regulated blockchain: a business accelerator across key sectors of the economy and society

On 21 October, Valencia Digital Summit 2026 hosted the panel Blockchain Beyond Crypto: Scaling Web3 for the Enterprise Market, organised by OVHcloud. Miguel Angel Calero Fernández, Executive Director of ISBE, took part. The discussion covered real applications, enterprise adoption, regulatory compliance and sovereign infrastructure. One idea ran through the whole session: regulated blockchain is how distributed ledger technology is entering the real economy. This article builds on that idea and looks at what it means for sectors that matter most to society.

For years, blockchain was almost synonymous with crypto assets. For a business, however, its value lies elsewhere. A shared ledger lets several organisations work on the same data without relying on a single intermediary. Each record is also chained to the previous one, time stamped and protected against later changes.

The challenge begins when those technical properties meet a regulated environment. A company needs to know who runs the network, where the nodes are and who is accountable when something goes wrong. Likewise, a public authority can only contract with identifiable providers. The question is therefore no longer whether blockchain works. It is which kind of network can take on legal and contractual obligations.

A regulated blockchain combines the properties of a distributed ledger with the safeguards European law requires. In practice, that means four conditions:

• Identified participants: every organisation that runs or uses the network has a verified identity.
• Clear accountability: one entity signs contracts, commits to service levels and answers to the supervisor.
• Compliance by design: the architecture builds in GDPR, eIDAS2, DORA and NIS2 requirements from the start.
• Sovereignty: infrastructure and data stay under European jurisdiction.

None of this slows innovation. On the contrary, it removes the barriers that keep many sectors from moving from trials to production.

Scale was a recurring theme on the panel. Many companies tested blockchain in environments that never reached production. Often the obstacle was not technical. It was legal, contractual or a matter of compliance.

A regulated network shortens that path in three ways. First, legal review takes less time, because the infrastructure already answers the compliance team’s questions. Second, the service can be procured like any other technology provider. It is priced in euros, with no exposure to crypto asset volatility. Finally, it makes collaboration between competitors easier, since they can share evidence without giving away sensitive information.

The impact of regulated blockchain is clearest in specific sectors. In each of them, the value lies in sharing verifiable evidence between parties that do not fully know or trust each other.

Public sector

Public authorities need transparency in procurement, grants and the issuing of certificates. A shared ledger lets different bodies consult the same evidence without repeating procedures. Identifying every participant also fits public procurement rules and Spain’s National Security Framework.

Education and employment

Verifiable degrees and micro credentials reduce document fraud and speed up hiring. For example, SmartPortfolio certifies degrees and academic credentials on ISBE to tackle that fraud.

Agrifood

Traceability from origin protects both producer and consumer. Digitanimal is building a solution for extensive livestock farming on ISBE that turns field data into verifiable evidence.

Industry and the circular economy

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 on ecodesign introduces the Digital Product Passport. In this field, iCommunity Labs uses iPASS to certify product lifecycle traceability on the ISBE network.

Transport and logistics

Freight transport is moving towards electronic information exchange with the authorities. A shared data model for eFTI spares carriers, shippers and authorities from reconciling different versions of the same document.

Finance

In financial services, identifying every participant is the starting point. Token City issued a bond on the ISBE network with a module that automates regulatory supervision. Bit2Me STX has also deployed its exchange for tokenised shares, bonds and funds on ISBE.

ISBE is a European infrastructure where every participant is identified and someone is accountable. Its Main network offers an efficient solution for a wide range of sectors that drive economic development.

The Bare network, in turn, addresses critical challenges through trust services. These services are governed by Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, known as eIDAS2, so records can have legal effect across the Union. We look at this in more detail in our article on European digital sovereignty and infrastructure jurisdiction.

Its contribution is a contractable, auditable foundation, aligned with European law, on which companies, SMEs and public authorities can build services.

How does a regulated blockchain differ from an open public network? In a regulated blockchain every participant is identified and one entity is accountable for operations. An open network, by contrast, admits anonymous participants and offers no contractual counterparty.

Does a company need to use crypto to work with ISBE? No. The service is contracted and paid in euros. ISBE uses an internal, fixed value, non speculative utility token, and the provider absorbs transaction costs.

Which sectors can benefit from regulated blockchain? Any sector that needs to share verifiable evidence between several parties. Solutions already run on ISBE in education, agrifood, industry, advertising and finance, among others