COUNCIL OF NOTARIES OF EUROPE DISCUSS APPLYING BLOCKCHAIN ​​IN NOTARY SERVICES

The Council of Notaries of the European Union (CNUE) chose the headquarters of the Notarial College of Valencia in Spain, to hold a discussion forum that covered the future of the notarial profession in relation to blockchain technology, also known as technology Distributed accounting (DLT).

The interventions of the participants of the discussion were published on the official website of the College of Valencia recently. At the meeting were present notaries representing Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Romania and Slovenia, who sought to analyze the role played by distributed accounting technology as a complement to the work they do "more of 40,000 notaries "throughout Europe.

In general, the participating notaries devoted their time to explain the projects of their respective countries in relation to technology and their profession, together with the conclusions that they have been able to draw concerning it. Most believe that the DLT seeks to facilitate notaries to expand their geographical horizons in terms of the processes they process with greater security, which translates into more optimal attention for their clients.

Luis Fernández Bravo, dean of the Notarial College of Castilla La Mancha, began with his speech in which he commented that the blockchain technology can serve as a complement to the profession, since it would allow the creation of "a notarial headquarters where the user can have access to all its documentation digitally and that it is visible to all notaries ". This was added to the importance of digital identity certification at present, an area in which DTL could also be useful.

As part of the reasons why notaries are considering this technology, José Carmelo Llopis, notary of Ayora, was in charge of explaining to those present the technological advances in recent years and future challenges, emphasizing the irruption of the distributed accounting technology in all areas, both public and private; like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which are increasingly used to invest. Llopis also stressed that the European Union, for several years now, is not immune to all the commotion that the DTL has generated, nor to the projects and ideas that have arisen around it.

Thus, the council of notaries came to the conclusion that blockchain technology seems to have come to stay, which is why they consider it necessary to adapt and continue offering their services in a better way; in this way, to be able to take advantage of the DTL. In the words of the Forum President and Budapest Notary, Tamás Parti:

The development of technology, the increasing complexity of the economy, the growing migratory flow, generate new, faster and more geographically expanded contractual processes and, therefore, more extensive legal relationships. If notaries want to maintain our activities in these new extended processes, it is crucial that we adapt to them. This adaptation does not mean that we have to give up our traditional activities, but to adjust a new form of notarial practice to this new approach.

Tamás Parti
Notary, Budapest

For his part, José Manuel García Collantes, president of the CNUE, added in his speech that they must "improve electronic identification systems and see the blockchain as a useful notarial tool".

Thus, Robert Horvath, DTL expert of Hungarian origin and member of MakerDAO, said that the adoption of DLT in this field would bring more work to notaries in cases in which, to ensure legality, authorization is still needed. from a notary. While Domenico Cambareri, Italian notary, talked about the "Notarchain" project, which allows to store and manage all the notarial information safely using the DTL.

Alexander Winkler, Austrian notary and director of the CNU, described during his participation a pilot project of his country on the construction of a digital society where statutes could be drafted, agreements could be collected, control of legality, among others, thanks to the blockchain.

Previously, the Notarial College of Valencia had already held a meeting at its headquarters, to discuss the application of such technology in the legal sector, with a view to analyzing the ways in which legal professionals can take advantage of these new technologies in the daily exercise of his profession.