Romania connects to Web3 with national NFT marketplace

Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) aims to drive Web3 adoption in the country with the launch of an internal nonfungible token (NFT) trading platform.

The institutional NFT platform, called ICI D|Services, will go live on April 26 and aims to create a link between private and public institutions and users. The platform is primarily an NFT marketplace, allowing public and institutional users to create, manage and trade NFTs.

Cointelegraph spoke with ICI Bucharest blockchain lab coordinator Dr. Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe to unpack the driving force behind the country’s efforts to adopt Web3-powered technologies.

ICI Bucharest has been primarily focused on research and development for the past five years, but shifted its attention to exploring blockchain, Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the space gains traction around the world.

Gheorghe says NFTs have gained significant popularity in recent years due to their ability to create unique and scarce digital assets that can be used for a variety of applications. This in turn has made them valuable assets for institutions, leading to the proposal for the NFT platform in ICI Bucharest in late 2021.

The institution began to develop and implement the architecture of the marketplace system in collaboration with MultiversX in mid-2022, which is the first strategic project to use the blockchain infrastructure provider.

The partnership also includes the development of a decentralized Domain Name System (DNS) and Top-Level Domain (TLD) ecosystem, as MultiversX CEO Beniamin Mincu explained in correspondence with Cointelegraph.

Gheorghe, who holds a PhD in Blockchain Technology and Industrial Engineering, says that the project has been supported by the Romanian government through the General Secretariat as well as the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization:

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

The launch of the platform will feature five unique NFT collections developed in collaboration with a handful of prominent Romanian athletes, organizations and institutions.

This includes the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, the 18-year-old 100m freestyle world record holder David Popovici, the Romanian news agency Agerpres, the national philatelic organization Romfilatelia and the Bucharest Central University Library.

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Gheorghe believes Romanian government support for innovative projects like ICI D|Services improves the country’s economic potential by generating new revenue streams and promoting economic growth as well as a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship:

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

Mincu echoed these sentiments, highlighting the Romanian government’s commitment to embracing technology, promoting new opportunities for user interaction between citizens, businesses and institutions.

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