With an average satisfaction rating of 4.5/5, visitors have praised the Experience Centre as having a "very positive learning and user journey experience with lots of creative ideas and possibilities". While Joachim Schwerin, Principal Economist responsible for the Digital Transformation of Industry within the Directorate-General Internal Market (DG GROW), says that the Experience Centre "is a unique place where theory meets practical hands-on application" and a ""must go" location for everyone who wishes to explore the frontier of current blockchain craftsmanship".

Pictured: [image 1] A group of participants watching the introductory video and [image 2] a visitor taking part in the demo.

The high satisfaction of our visitors is proof that the EBSI Experience Center works. And it does this by offering an interactive technology demonstration in an intimate space that fosters creativity and curiosity in participants. This all leads to conversations and ideas flowing far more freely than they would in a more formal and traditional environment.

The Experience Centre clearly hit the ground running, and we aim to continue that track record and welcome even more interested visitors in the future – the Experience Centre will be open until at least the summer of 2024!

What is the EBSI Experience Centre?

The dedicated space, located in the heart of the European Quarter, celebrates its one-year anniversary on 16 March 2024. It offers an immersive experience that educates policymakers and other key stakeholders (including European Commission Director Generals and the European Blockchain Association, amongst many others) on the work of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), and the Web3 revolution. It’s an opportunity for decision makers to get a hands-on look at the unique role that EBSI plays in helping to transform public services by harnessing the power of decentralised blockchain technology to make documents almost impossible to fake and easy to verify.

A hands-on demo that showcases the power EBSI Verifiable Credentials

Once on-site and after checking-in, participants begin their visit to the EBSI Experience Centre with a breezy animated short video that gets them up to speed on the key concepts underpinning EBSI.

Next up is an interactive demo of EBSI Verifiable Credentials (VCs) in action, that gives visitors the opportunity to request and present a Verifiable Credential in a real-life use case using real applications.

The demo shows an application of the European Social Security Pass - how a worker posted to another EU country, can request a Verifiable Credential that proves they are already covered by social security in their country of residence. Guests witness the full process, from requesting the VC, to its issuance, to presenting it for verification to an official in the destination country. They also get a look under the hood, seeing how the credential gets generated in the issuer’s back office, and what precisely makes the credential verifiable, privacy-preserving and tamper proof using Web3 technology.

Pictured: An attendee checking their Verifiable Invitation

If requested, the EBSI team sits down with guests to further explore the problems they are looking to solve, and if Web3 solutions are the appropriate fit. If so, concrete next steps are brainstormed together.

Visit the EBSI Experience Centre to find out how decentralised services can work for you

The visits have led to many fruitful discussions on how EBSI can help visitors — working in a wide range of sectors — use decentralised services and blockchain to solve their specific problems.

The EBSI Experience Centre is an opportunity for both public sector innovators and private sector web3 experts, to mutually learn from each other. EBSI has continually worked with the wider web3 ecosystem, bringing together diverse institutions like universities, government ministries, and software providers together.

In addition to fostering dialogue, we provide the resources (technical specifications, pilot and incubation programmes, interactive user guides and more) needed for any interested public or private organisation to create their own web3 solutions. These can be found on the EBSI Hub: https://hub.ebsi.eu/

Joachim Schwerin describes the EBSI website as being "an essential tool for policymakers and practitioners alike. The usefulness of and technical progress summarised on this website match every standard I am aware of, the more so as it is one of the few initiatives that takes privacy and data protection as serious as it has to be."

We hope to have even more meaningful conversations with our many interested visitors, that will hopefully lead to tangible outcomes that bring real value to citizens and businesses.

Want to visit the EBSI Experience Centre yourself, to find out how your team can make the most out of decentralised services?