How do you build trust across 27 countries, dozens of languages, and centuries of divergent history?

That’s the question at the heart of our latest episode of The Future of Trust,  this time with José Manuel Panizo, Team Leader at the European Commission’s Directorate for Digital Services (DIGIT), and a leading voice behind EBSI, the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure.

Mat Yarger sat down with José for a conversation that moved between regulation and philosophy, cultural context and cryptographic credentials,  all centered around one of the most difficult challenges of the digital age: how do we trust, together, when we’ve all been taught to trust differently?

A Cultural Lens on Trust

José didn’t just bring technical knowledge to the table, he brought cultural insight. Born in Spain and deeply familiar with the layered identity of Europe, he framed digital trust not as a purely technological question, but as something shaped by history, governance, and even religion.

Take digital identity: why are countries like Sweden more open to delegating identity verification to banks, while Spain or Germany lean toward centralized or federated government-issued IDs? The answer, José suggested, may lie in centuries-old traditions,  from Protestant norms of individual responsibility to the Catholic legacy of centralized authority.

That divergence, he explained, means that trust in Europe isn’t just personal, it’s structural. And any infrastructure meant to serve the continent needs to account for that.

Trust in the Infrastructure, Not the Actor

At the core of José’s work is a subtle but powerful shift: moving from systems where people trust institutions through centralized services, to systems where trust is built into cryptography and the infrastructure itself. This is where EBSI comes in, a public-permissioned blockchain co-managed by EU member states, designed to enable verifiable, cross-border services.

From diploma validation to supply chain traceability, EBSI doesn’t ask users to trust bindly a single institution. It lets them verify, independently, securely, and in alignment with EU norms like GDPR and eIDAS. “We don’t store identity, we store the trust structure,” José said.  “And we decouple who someone is from what they’re authorized to do.”

That separation, between identity and accreditation, enables a more flexible, privacy-preserving system that’s still deeply rooted in public oversight.

Calling Home, Or Not

One of José’s most compelling examples came from everyday digital life: your mobile wallet, your bank, your browser. He explained how most digital services today rely on what he called “calling home”, checking back with a central system to verify your data.

But what happens when that system fails? What if the power goes out? What if your bank gets bought overnight?

In contrast, José sees blockchain infrastructure as a way to decentralize trust without decentralizing responsibility. With verifiable credentials and trust lists stored on-chain, users don’t have to call home, they just ask the network. “Privacy and trust are not opposites,” he argued. “With the right architecture, you can have both, and Europe is proving it.”

From Regulation to Reality

Beyond infrastructure, José also walked Mat through the regulatory foundation making all this possible. From the eIDAS amendment enabling qualified trust services to the role of EDICs (European Digital Infrastructure Consortia) and early use cases in education, intellectual property, and supply chains, the groundwork is already in place.

And while public perception of decentralization is still evolving within the EU, José made it clear: this isn’t theory anymore. It’s implementation. With over 25 projects using EBSI today and services transitioning from the Commission to member states, the network is on track to become the backbone of Europe’s digital trust layer.

Trust, Passion, and Public Service

Toward the end of the episode, Mat asked what keeps José motivated. The answer was personal,  and rare to hear in the policy world.

“I’m doing what I love,” he said.  “I joined the ride of my life.”

For José, working in the Commission isn’t a bureaucratic post. It’s a passion project. And that passion is helping shape how 450 million citizens may experience identity, verification, and privacy in the years to come.

In a time when trust in institutions is waning and digital systems are under scrutiny, The Future of Trust returns to a simple idea: that trust can be designed, not just hoped for and this episode with José Manuel Panizo shows us how.

🎧 The episode is now live wherever you get your podcasts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SKyAp1Q0mKp49LDO7gYys?si=eb13fcb900f74732