As the European Parliament just passed new legislation stating that from August 1st, 2021, every European country has to offer complete digital incorporation of limited companies, the Netherlands feels the pressure. In the Netherlands, we currently have a rigid notary structure used to incorporate limited liability businesses (Dutch: BVs) and trade its shares. With this new legislation, the European Parliament has set a timetable on the digital incorporation of companies, digital shareholder registers, and digital transfer of shares.
The Digital Notary use case aims to find a way to change the standard on corporate structuring and the trading of private shares. In the future, those wishing to establish a new company will now be able to do so in a fully digital and affordable way. Various partners have come together acknowledging the same problems that exist today: the process of incorporation and transfer of shares of private limited companies is too cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming (in the Netherlands). To be clear, this does not mean that this use-case aims to remove a notary but rather envisions a different role.
