For more than half a century, Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics — better known as @ICIBucharest — has been at the forefront of the country’s digital transformation. Founded in 1970, it has evolved from an academic and government research hub into a self-funded institution working across cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and now blockchain. At the helm is Dr. Adrian-Victor Vevera, a former national security adviser who has helped steer ICI into uncharted territory: pioneering Europe’s first institutional NFT marketplace, bringing cultural archives onchain, and forging partnerships with museums, libraries and even the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. In a wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Vevera explains why blockchain is more than cryptocurrency, how ICI navigated regulatory hurdles, and why the institute chose MultiversX as the backbone for its projects. Read the full interview in our newest blog post!

Watch the entire conversation on YouTube: