Romania Enters Web3 With NFT Marketplace

The country of Romania has made its first Web3 move with the launch of a new institutional NFT trading platform. 

Romania is welcoming Web3 technology into the country. In the first step of its initiative, the country’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) will soon be launching and in-house NFT trading platform called ICI D|Services. 

The platform launch has been scheduled for April 26 and will provide a bridge between institutions and users in the private and public sectors. However, the platform will primarily function as an NFT marketplace, where individual and institutional customers will be able to mint, manage, and trade NFTs. 

The platform is being launched with five inaugural NFT collections, which have been designed in collaboration with some popular Romanian sportspersons, organizations, and institutions, namely, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, 18-year-old 100m freestyle swimming world record holder David Popovici, Romanian news agency Agerpres, national philately organization Romfilatelia, and Bucharest’s Central University Library. 

The ICI Bucharest blockchain laboratory coordinator Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe spoke about the country’s efforts to adopt Web3-powered technologies. After focusing on research and development for five years, ICI Bucharest’s focus has shifted to actively exploring blockchain technology and the possibilities introduced by Web3. 

He said, 

“Blockchain technology increases the efficiency of the institutions, to approach solid use cases based on digital asset management, transparency, security in various institutional operations, such as in education, health, transport, land registration, supply chain management.”

Gheorghe also highlighted the role played by high-value NFTs in recent years, because of their uniqueness and rarity, despite the multitude of roles played by these assets in different use cases. He believes that even national institutions like ICI Bucharest could benefit greatly from these high-value assets. 

As the coordinator working between the country’s government and the institution's efforts, Gheorghe commended the government for supporting Web3 adoption in the country. He has revealed that both the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization and the Secretariat-General have extended their full support to the NFT marketplace. 

He stated, 

“Our institute wants to create a bridge between the young generations and the public institutions values, initiating a comfort zone for the interactions with the digital space.”

Like many other countries, Romania has been dabbling in crypto and blockchain since 2020. However, the work on the NFT marketplace started more recently. It was first proposed by the ICI Bucharest in late 2021. The institution then went on to partner with MultiversX around mid-2022 to develop the platform architecture. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.