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On November 20 and 21 in Santiago de Chile, the Third Ibero-American Symposium on Blockchain and Cybersecurity brought together specialists from across Ibero-America in a working space dedicated to analyzing the potential of blockchain to strengthen regional cooperation.

Discussions focused on how this technology can contribute traceability, security, and interoperability to commercial processes that require greater coordination among countries.

Organized by the Ibero-American Network on Blockchain and Cybersecurity (RIBCI), together with CEPAL, the CYTED Program, and the University of Chile, and with the support of RedCLARA as a founding member, the event provided an opportunity to review progress and projects already underway in different sectors of the region.

In one of the sessions, Carlos González, Services Manager at RedCLARA, and Luis Bocchi, representative of LNET, presented developments that illustrate how blockchain can facilitate shared solutions among countries. They noted that, although the region faces challenges such as low traceability, administrative fragmentation, and limited investment in disruptive technologies, there are clear opportunities for progress when relying on stable, secure, and experimentation-friendly infrastructures.

In this context, González highlighted the BELLA II Blockchain Testbed, a platform designed for teams from different countries to develop and validate applications in a regulated and technically reliable environment. This infrastructure enables testing under common standards and the development of compatible solutions—an essential condition for regional interoperability.

Both speakers showed that blockchain is already enabling high-impact projects linked to international trade, offering new models of security, traceability, and coordination among actors in different countries. González also underscored the role of academic networks as drivers of economic development, as well as the importance of turning academic infrastructure into an active platform for commercial innovation. With more than two decades of experience, RedCLARA operates a 105,435-kilometer fiber-optic network that interconnects the region and provides the foundation for deploying new technological capabilities.

The BELLA II project, led by RedCLARA and co-financed by the European Union, is one of the main engines behind the development and adoption of emerging technologies in the region. Among its initiatives is the Early Adopters Blockchain LATAM program, created to accelerate the development of blockchain-based solutions in Latin America.

Launched in September together with LNET, the program received applications from several countries and selected four projects from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil and Guatemala, which are currently using the BELLA II Testbed to bring their prototypes to a productive stage, working with open logic and sharing technical learnings.

RedCLARA also promotes other innovation spaces through testbeds in high-performance computing, bioinformatics, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, whose advances will be presented next year.

For his part, Luis Bocchi expanded on LNET’s experience as a neutral operator of blockchain networks and on the organization’s efforts to ensure that these technologies can be adopted safely and at scale across the region. He noted that while blockchain is often associated with cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance, its potential extends to automating critical processes, ensuring data integrity, and improving traceability in highly regulated sectors such as foreign trade, logistics, document certification, and public services.

Bocchi emphasized the importance of reducing friction between technology and users by enabling simpler, more reliable models of use. He highlighted the strategic value of decentralized identity—particularly for procedures requiring secure verification among multiple actors. He also explained that LNET develops open protocols, privacy standards, interoperable infrastructure, and technical governance models, all essential components for different countries and organizations to build compatible solutions on a shared foundation.

Both institutions agreed that strengthening a collaborative ecosystem is key for these developments to consolidate and scale. Initiatives like Early Adopters demonstrate how joint work among countries enables faster progress, the development of compatible solutions, and a broader reach for regional innovation. “Teams from different countries work with an open logic, share learning, develop solutions jointly, and build on existing advances,” González emphasized.

The Symposium concluded with a clear picture of a region advancing in the construction of infrastructures and capabilities capable of transforming its commercial processes and digital integration—with blockchain as one of the central tools driving that evolution.