The state of the Bulgarian blockchain ecosystem in the beginning of 2021
The below insights are part of the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum Thematic Report, published in the last quarter of 2020. The entire publication can be found at the website of the Forum, which is a European Commission initiative to accelerate blockchain innovation and the development of the blockchain ecosystem within the EU and so help cement Europe’s position as a global leader in this transformative new technology.
While the OSU project is part of the global Education Blockchain Market Map, it is worth outlining it on the Bulgarian ecosystem map as well, given that its software development arm operates out of the Bulgaria and is part of the local blockchain community.
In 2018, the Technology lead of OS.University, Jordan Jambazov, received the presidential certificate of excellence for his contributions on the ‘Open Source University’ as part of the ‘John Atanasoff’ awards ceremony, outlining the best and brightest of the technology initiatives throughout the year.
Since then, Bulgaria has been catching up on the European blockchain scene, with an emerging base of blockchain enthusiasts, as well as venture capital investors and start-up incubation programs. While it has been an epicentre of activity since the 2017–18 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) boom, there is still no crypto-assets specific legislation in the country, save warnings issued by the National Bank of Bulgaria and the tax authorities.
A helpful initiative on the path toward harmonizing national and pan-European regulatory and policy frameworks, is the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP), which was created by Bulgaria and 20 other EU Member States in 2018, marking the first EU-wide initiative specifically devoted to blockchain. Since then, eight more countries have joined the Partnership, bringing the total number of signatories to 30. Among other initiatives, the EBP has worked to develop a trusted, secure and resilient European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), a network of distributed blockchain nodes across Europe, leveraging a number of applications focused on specific use cases.
THE BULGARIAN BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM AT A GLANCE
Bulgaria’s blockchain scene is relatively active to the population of the country, as businesses and individuals are taking part of the ecosystem. Individuals keen in learning more on blockchain have the opportunity to educate themselves by enrolling in a master’s degree programme in Sofia.
The number of the enthusiasts in blockchain is estimated to be over 2,500 people that take part in meetups with up to 180 000 active observers. In Bulgaria, the business scene is accommodating around 25 companies that are active in applying blockchain. The majority of the companies have been recently established and are operating in financial and software development sector. Rechained Ltd. — the corporate arm of OS.University, is one of these companies, although as of 2019 it is partially owned by the Canadian venture firm Prima Corp Ventures, based in Vancouver.
BLOCKCHAIN STARTUP AND BUSINESS SCENE
Accelerators programs are available for startups to join and experience a faster growth rate. æternity Ventures organized its first accelerator program back in 2019, named ‘Starfleet Accelerator Program’, that was seeking to accommodate ventures in blockchain technology. Individuals with concepts and ideas could be aided from Start It Smart, which is an entrepreneurship organization that spreads and develops the entrepreneurship way of thinking
Along with accelerators, startups have the opportunity to be funded by venture capitals to kick-start their activities. Such a venture capital is Eleven Ventures, which supports early stages entrepreneurs. Another option for finding venture capitals in Bulgaria is LANCHHub Ventures, which seeks investment in blockchain projects as well.
The average size of a company that is active in blockchain is small, as only a small percentage of the employees, over 50 professionals. The range of employees for the companies is between 11 to 50 professionals. The sectors, that the companies in blockchain are mostly involved in, are the financial and the software development. Companies are eager to deploy solutions in the FinTech sector as the blockchain could provide security in the transactions of data between different stakeholders.
Finally, there are a few companies that are established from back in 2002. The cases in the early years of 2000 are software developing companies that aim to be involved in the edge of technology and have adopted blockchain technology since then. A boom in the establishment of new companies was apparent for the years 2017 and 2018 as depicted in the following chart.
BLOCKCHAIN COMMUNITY
Bulgaria’s blockchain community could be characterized to be in the initial stages where it fosters a small but growing number of participants. There are organized and unofficial enthusiast groups which foster around 2,500 people. These groups of people are organizing meetups and talks which can be found in the largest cities of the country. Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas are hosting meetups on blockchain, smart contracts and digital assets.
In addition to the groups, organizations have been establishing with the aim of developing the blockchain ecosystem in the country. Such an organization is the Balkan Blockchain Association, which is based in Sofia. The association is a not-for-profit organization with the its goal being to support blockchain projects and initiatives in the region. Another similar organization is the Bulgarian Fintech Association which aims to provide a common ground and bring the traditional financial institutions with cutting-edge technologies.
The blockchain community is empowered and actively organizing venues such as summits and meetings where the community participants gather together to be introduced to the most recent developments in the field, not only in the capital Sofia. For instance, Digital Expo is an event to showcase products in cutting edge technologies and it was scheduled to take place for its second edition in Plovdiv in mid 2020. In 2018, a blockchain-focused edition of Innowave Summit took place in Varna with success.
NOTABLE BLOCKCHAIN COMPANIES
AE Ventures: is an investment company established in 2017 with their mission being to support projects that would drive blockchain technology and SaaS to be scalable and usable. The focus of the company is to fund early-stage projects along with driving collaborations in the blockchain ecosystem.
BitFuture: is a digital assets trading platform allowing users to take part in trading digital assets. The platform was established in 2018.
BitHope Foundation: is a non-governmental organization in public benefit that exclusively uses digital assets to generate funds for the campaigns hosted in its website. The website hosts different small-size campaigns.
CoinPoint: is a marketing agency established in 2013 which aims to assist teams which implement the blockchain technology to develop an identity and scale up.
Colibra: is a startup established in 2018 which developed an application to receive compensation for flight delays. Colibra ‘s principle behind the application is ‘solidarity’, since the user is agreeing share any possible compensations with the community for a guarantee monetary amount. The compensation is available in digital assets to address the community ‘s demands.
Crypto APIs: is a company founded in 2018 which provides infrastructure which aids teams to develop their blockchain and crypto products. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is allowing the team to connect to various blockchain protocols with one API letting customers to focus on developing their solutions.
Evedo: is a startup founded in 2018 believing in the absolute decentralization of the world and offers a decentralised marketplace and ecosystem for performers, event organisers, venues, attendees and sponsors. This is achieved by having a B2B marketplace for contractors and sponsors and a B2C platform. The platforms would solve problems such as finding the right partners and eliminating middlemen in ticket sales.
FoodChain: is a web and mobile blockchain platform which bridges food businesses and customers to benefit both side by reducing food waste. The customers could find items near their expiration dates and benefit from the reduced prices, while the companies could boost their sales.
LockTrip: is a blockchain online marketplace for hotels and rental properties established in 2017. The application is developed based on decentralised open source bookings technology, since it is built over Ethereum VM. Property can be rent around the globe and the owners can collect the payments and manage booking without any middlemen.
Mimirium: is a software company which develops ecosystem primarily focusing on the privacy aspect for data collection, processing and analysis. The company has developed four products with blockchain protocols as their base. The products offer solutions in employee surveys, a network, a health platform and statistics for smart cities.
Navigato: is a company founded in 2015 and is a blockchain-based charging infrastructure management solution. A solution which Navigato developed is a decentralised map service to achieve high accuracy and faster navigation.
NovaMining: founded in 2017 and is a decentralised peer-to-peer hashing power marketplace and digital assets exchange based on Bitcoin Auxiliary Layer. The digital assets exchange would be based on the use of HTLC (Hashed Timelock Contracts) and would allow the exchanges across blockchain via Atomic Swaps.
Open Source University: was established in 2015 and aims to offer education and professional development opportunities on the Ethereum blockchain. Principles of open source are applied to bring change into the educational model. The company applies blockchain in verifying credentials in order to bridge the gap between businesses and educational institutions.
TraDEXsocial: aims to provide a crypto ecosystem which would guide people through their crypto experience. In the ecosystem, any user, even the ones without any prior knowledge, would have the opportunity to mine on any smart device and copy other traders. The user anonymity is achieved via a decentralised chain.
P.S. It should be mentioned that the report outlined above is in no way comprehensive. For a broader, more in-depth overview of the Bulgarian FinTech system, including a look into the RegTech and the crypto-trading businesses, part of the broader blockchain ecosystem, we advise you to have a look at the ‘Sofia Fintech Mapping 2020’ — a report of ‘Innovative Sofia’.
The community to join, in order not to miss further updates on the ecosystem, is the ‘Sofia Crypto Meetup’ Facebook group with its regular in-person and virtual events. Stay tuned for an exciting year ahead!
