DigitalWallonia4Trust: Blockchain as a New Trust Layer

For two years, Wallonia has tested blockchain as a new trust layer for regional digital services. Supported by SPW Economy, Employment, and Research, this program enabled companies from diverse sectors ranging from logistics to healthcare to experiment with concrete use cases through diagnostics, demonstrators, and pilot projects.

The objective was clear: to verify, in the field, how blockchain can strengthen traceability, compliance, and data exchange security. This review looks back at the solutions deployed within the DigitalWallonia4Trust framework and demonstrates how they are already preparing Walloon organizations for upcoming regulatory obligations and digital trust challenges.

The Program in Action: BE Blockchain’s Expertise

As early-stage experts, BE Blockchain was one of the lead service providers for DigitalWallonia4Trust, working alongside partners such as Settlemint, Chirone, and Multitel, and contributing to the structuring of several key aspects of the program. We mobilized our know-how around three major axes:

• Strategic Blockchain Demonstrators: Designing educational solutions to showcase the technology’s impact on logistics, cybersecurity, and traceability, notably via the Walloon testnet and sector-specific use cases.

• Regulatory Analysis and Anticipation: Leading in-depth work on the Digital Product Passport (DPP) to help Walloon companies prepare for European ESPR requirements regarding sustainability and compliance.

• Support and Diagnostics: Conducting two-to-five-day missions to assess organizations’ blockchain maturity, identify priority use cases, and define realistic implementation roadmaps. Eight Walloon companies participated in this process.

Concrete Achievements: From Concept to Reality

This involvement resulted in the support and implementation of several winning projects, illustrating the diversity of possible uses:

• Traceability and Healthcare (Oshimed): Implementation of a clinical consent management solution, allowing reliable tracking of authorizations while preserving the confidentiality of medical data.

• Publishing and Culture (Papier3 – NFT Book): Development of a secure digital reading system, guaranteeing the authenticity of works and their transmission without relying on traditional DRMs.

• Certification and Networks (Rhizome): Creation of a certification mechanism for creative projects and trust relationship mapping via unified profiles and NFT certificates.

• Financial Automation (Paycifi): Our internal project, supported by the program, which automates conditional payments to reduce disputes and secure commercial transactions.

BE Blockchain helped participants move beyond the simple “PoC” stage to integrate blockchain into a more strategic reflection on transparency, compliance, and operational cost reduction.

What DigitalWallonia4Trust Taught Us

For nearly two years, DigitalWallonia4Trust served as a full-scale experimental ground for Web3 in Wallonia, far beyond a simple subsidy mechanism. This immersion into various sectors allowed us to identify several key lessons for optimal technology integration:

• Blockchain as a “Trust Layer”: Blockchain is not an end in itself, but a layer of trust that makes sense when combined with other technological building blocks like AI or IoT. It allows for attesting the origin of information, tracing operations, and facilitating audits without relying on a centralized third party.

• The Challenge of Buy-in and Support: In the field, many organizations recognize the theoretical value of Web3 but still hesitate to adapt their processes or mobilize internal resources to integrate this new technical layer. This reality confirms an essential point for BE Blockchain’s consulting, education, and change management are as important as the development of the solution itself.

• The Urgency of Anticipating Regulation: The work carried out on the Digital Product Passport and sustainability-related projects shows that regulatory anticipation is a genuine competitive advantage. Transitioning from experimentation to European obligations (ESPR) gives companies that understood these economic resilience challenges a head start today.

Toward the Industrialization of Digital Trust

At the conclusion of the DigitalWallonia4Trust program, one thing is clear: in Wallonia, blockchain is no longer perceived as esoteric, but as a real tool for competitiveness and trust for the regional economic fabric. The winning projects showed that it can secure very concrete uses, from healthcare to publishing to financial services.

For BE Blockchain, this adventure confirms three key ideas:

• Trust is a Strategic Asset: Blockchain is establishing itself as an indispensable layer to guarantee data auditability and integrity in an increasingly automated environment. This is what we are capitalizing on with Paycifi: trust is a risk, so it must be programmed.

• Regulatory Anticipation is an Opportunity: The work done on the Digital Product Passport (DPP) allows companies to prepare now for future European obligations regarding transparency and sustainability.

• Convergence is the Future: Web3 unfolds its full potential when articulated with AI, IoT, and cybersecurity to sustainably strengthen the regional economy.

The next step is industrialization: transforming the successful experiments of DigitalWallonia4Trust into large-scale deployed solutions, anchoring Wallonia as a center of excellence for trusted digital technology.

Ready for the Next Step?

DigitalWallonia4Trust laid the foundations for digital trust in Wallonia, but for many organizations, the real work begins now: moving from PoC to operational deployment.

• Understand Regulatory Impacts: Want to know how the Digital Product Passport will impact your products and value chains? Consult our analysis dedicated to the DPP and ESPR requirements.

• Explore Other Use Cases: Wondering about tokenization, smart contracts, or traceability applied to your sector? Get inspired by our use cases.

• Anticipate Your Own Transition: If you want to evaluate your organization’s maturity and identify concrete use cases, rely on our blockchain diagnostic methodologies and our field experience.

• Download the DigitalWallonia4Trust program brochure produced by our teams.