Top 10 reasons why Romania will become a regional heaven for the blockchain industry

Our national history is filled with strife.

Situated at the crossroads of Europe, between large empires, Romania was forced in the position of the underdog for many centuries. This has left a mark on our collective psyche, one that makes us prone to sell ourselves short. The communist era was perhaps the one that did the most damage to our perception as a nation. As a country, we have yet to heal some wounds, that still linger in our memory. This can be clearly seen in our brain drain phenomenon — 3.4 million Romanians have emigrated since we joined the EU (17% of our total population), looking for better opportunities abroad.

Perhaps it is time to heal those wounds. And we believe that the best way of doing it is by honestly looking at the future and to clearly see that our tenacity under adversity has created some unique advantages.

It is time to talk about Romania’s advantages in cutting-edge IT technologies.

That we, Romanians are good at IT is not a new fact. Neither that our internet infrastructure is really good. And thanks to our 7 billion AI/RPA unicorn, UiPath (most valuable AI startup in the world), we know that the AI industry is thriving in Romania.

But few people know what unique advantages our blockchain industry holds.

Here are top 10 reasons why we, at Romanian Blockchain Association, think that Romania has all the advantages it needs to become a regional heaven for the blockchain industry:

1. The industry is already here: In the past few years, major blockchain projects started in Romania managed to attract around 100 million EUR in fundraising and their products are already live or in advanced stages of development.
2. We’ve been here from the start: There are many Romanian experts in the crypto space that have been there since the early days and helped developed the most important projects out there. For example, Mihai Alisie, the co-founder of Ethereum.
3. We know our way around blockchain: In 2018, Romania ranked second in a worldwide survey ordered by ING Bank, and first among the EU countries, with 12% of the population owning cryptocurrencies and at least 3/4 of the population have heard about them.
4. Beat them with numbers: Romania has the highest number of IT&C experts in CEE — 120.000 and growing at over 10% per year.
5. Excellent IT&C infrastructure: Romania ranks 5 worldwide in the Speedtest Global index in terms of internet connection speed and is on the second place in Europe after Monaco.
6. We’ve got the hardware: Building upon the previous advantage, Romania attracted strong players in the data storage business. We are currently ranking 6th in the EU in terms of data centres size.
7. Parlez vous blockchain?: Excellent English, French, Spanish and Italian skills for Romanian specialists; over 90% of the Romanians studied English as their second language in schools.
8. You’ve got a bargain!: Even though we have seen a constant trend of wage convergence, the average monthly wage of IT specialists in Romania still is 30–50% less than for most Western counterparts at the same of even higher professional standards.
9. National IT&C growth policy: the Romanian states recognize the importance of the IT sector in Romania (according to some studies, it will contribute to 12% of the national GDP by 2025) and thus, it provides income tax reductions for the IT specialists.
10. We’re building the DLT framework: Last, but definitely not least, we have learned from other jurisdiction and together with the Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information society and some of the best lawyers and lawmakers in Romania, we are drafting one of the most advanced DLT regulation frameworks that EU has seen. Stay tuned!

We firmly believe that Romania can position itself as a nexus of blockchain innovation at a regional or even European level and we are continuously working to build towards our vision.

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