Worldline is official partner of the EU-funded project HELIOS and contributes to designing a new-generation social network

Bezons/Madrid — 26 / 07 / 2019

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], the European market leader in payment and transaction services, has been selected as a partner of the European Union-funded project HELIOS. By providing its expertise in the areas of system and privacy security and rewarding functionalities, Worldline is in the core of what is expected to become a truly European social network.

3 min.

Corporate
La Défense, Paris, France

Investing in innovation is a critical strategic priority for Worldline, especially in the age of digital transformation and becoming a partner of the project HELIOS further demonstrates its commitment to Research & Development (R&D) and innovation projects.

Along with 15 partners, including world-renowned universities and research centres across Europe, Worldline is the only payment and transaction services provider to participate in this project that is set to redefine the future of social networks. With more than 45 years of experience in innovation and its leading-edge, award-winning solutions and expertise, Worldline will be working with all partners in two main areas: security and privacy, and the development of rewarding strategies.

HELIOS is a 3-year Research and Innovation Action project funded by the European Commission as part of its H2020 Programme, working on the development of a decentralised social media platform that will address the dynamic nature of human communication and interactions, and create a setting that provides the users control of three aspects: privacy, ownership, and sharing of content – all of which are stripped away when using any of the mainstream platforms.

By supporting HELIOS project, Worldline looks forward to developing a platform that will allow developers to create easy-to-apply social network functionalities by reducing costs and development complexity, which many are claiming could become the European alternative to the current global social media giants.

HELIOS was created with the aim to create a new social network vision grounded on transparency and verification integrating Blockchain-enabled network architecture to support the highest level of trust and control of the platform. With decentralisation, the platform allows new ways to control content creation and sharing, ensuring the highest level of privacy while complying with all ethical and legal requirements.

Many of the existing and high profile social networks generate an impression that users have total control over their data but in truth, by accepting ‘privacy policies’, they are in fact handing over the power to social media sites to use their data in the way they choose.

"Innovation is in our DNA and we are pleased to work together with the European Commission and the other HELIOS project partners to redefine the future of social networks and provide a more open and user-controlled social network environment. By supporting HELIOS, we can maximise our technical and business expertise around blockchain technology and position ourselves as the ideal technical and business partner to create the basis for future collaborations in Blockchain or other emerging technologies. I’m certain that our contribution will help the project to reach its full potential."

Olivier Stuckens, Head of Mobility and e-Transactional Services at Worldline

About Helios

The project started successfully in January 2019, with a project period of three years and with the participation of the European Commission and 15 partners from several EU Member States and with different areas of expertise that will contribute to the success of the development of the platform: VTT Technical Research Center of Finland (Finland), Atos (Spain), Worldline (Spain), Center for Research and Technology Hellas (Greece), Grassroots Arts and Research (Germany), LINKS Foundation (Italy), Nagoon AB (Sweden), Swiss TXT AG (Switzerland), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), University of Pisa (Italy), Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), Universität Passau (Germany), University of Helsinki (Finland) and Escola Massana (Spain).

For further information, please visit: www.helios-h2020.eu

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The Helios project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (contract No. 825585).

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry. With innovation at the core of its DNA, Worldline’s core offerings include pan-European and domestic Commercial Acquiring for physical or online businesses, secured payment transaction processing for banks and financial institutions, as well as transactional services in e-Ticketing and for local and central public agencies. Thanks to a presence in 30+ countries, Worldline is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies, delivering cutting-edge digital services. Worldline’s activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Financial Services including equensWorldline and Mobility & e-Transactional Services. Worldline employs circa 11,000 people worldwide, with 2018 pro forma revenue of circa 2.2 billion euros on a yearly basis. worldline.com

As a European leader in means of payment and transactional services, Worldline has a strong track record of knowledge and insight.  In order to share its understanding of the payments sector, Worldline regularly produces dedicated publications which provide in-depth understanding into what is a fast moving and rapidly evolving market. Below are the links to the latest versions of Futuring Payments and The Worldline White Paper: