French Government Wants to Make France a ‘Blockchain Champion’

The roadmap will be released in the coming weeks and will contain four major pillars:

• Mass Use of Blockchain
• Ecosystem
• Financing
• Education

Mass Use of Blockchain

Mahjoubi explained that the role of the state is to show to the world what can be done. The chance France has, he stated, is to be able to identify, everywhere on French territory, and sometimes even abroad, the best uses of blockchain in the industry — and to put the spotlight on them while facilitating their diffusion.

Ecosystem

Mahjoubi stated that France cannot be passive on an international scale but rather needs to federate its efforts around values, standards, best practices, and the market. “What was important in 2018 was to identify the best players and to have a collective wake-up call and an international reach for French and European approaches to blockchain,” he said.

Financing

Mahjoubi explained that the state will help find the sources of finance and will assess when state financing must intervene when the private market does not fill the need — or every time there is a desire to catch up or accelerate. “State money is here to accompany and accelerate,” he explained, “and private money will come, too, because more and more investors are ready to invest in a French blockchain or in a European blockchain.” He continued:

For that to happen, we need to have the correct speech towards investors. We need to explain to them that the French legal framework is a favorable frame to invest in blockchain and that the way we support this tech — the way we integrate it in our law — is both open and protective.

Education

According to the minister, blockchain technology will create jobs in the short, mid, and long term. It will also transform a lot of existing jobs. “Our responsibility is to pose the question of the competences to be acquired by workers progressively,” he explained, continuing:

This is what we called “upskilling;” how state workers, public agents, private employees, in the next 5-10 years, will acquire progressively competences that will allow them to gain new missions on the market. We need to support this vision. The government will accompany this transformation with financial support. But French companies must participate, too, in a nation-wide wake-up call to the transformation that is happening — and what it can bring to their customers.

Mahjoubi finalized his thoughts by stating:

We are at the beginning of this blockchain story. The game is not yet over. It barely started. France can play an essential role in this transformation. Our objective is to make France a blockchain champion in Europe. And make Europe the territory for blockchain.

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