On 5 September 2018, the ELI Council voted in favour of the ELI embarking on the Blockchains and Smart project. The project will be headed by ELI Vice President Sjef van Erp and expert on the subject, Juliette Sénéchal. On 22 October 2018, van Erp and Sénéchal met with Head of Unit of Contract Law at the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Dirk Staudenmayer, and his team in Brussels to discuss the topic. The meeting was mutually informative and will see the ELI coordinating research efforts with the Commission.
