Between the open letter to the Macron government published on January 9 and their positions clarified during a LinkedIn live two days later, what should be withheld of the ideas, proposals or concrete plans expressed by five of the most promising players on the European or even global scene Web3 ecosystem?
“Let’s make France a major player in Web3”
This is the title chosen by the authors of the letter. Talking to their government through the media The big whaleSébastien Borget (The Sandbox), Pascal Gauthier (Ledger), Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel (Arianee), Nicolas Julia (Sorare) and Frédéric Montagnon (Arianee) call for more to be done to support the Web3 ecosystem, and in particular through the instruments of public power.
It arises from the reflection aroused by the declarations of the Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, who invited, last autumn – shortly before the sinking of FTX – to “do Europe the largest economic zone in the world in the structuring and organization of the market for crypto assets and of France is the European hub of this ecosystem.”, this letter is in short a call to take strong decisions in this direction.
Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, co-founder of Arianee, the reference NFT exchange for the luxury and fashion industries, explained during the LinkedIn live that:
If you want to be a land of Web3, you must be a land where there are Web3 users!
In fact, France, like many countries with promising FinTech industries, does not have a sufficiently large pool of Internet users to trigger a dynamic and virtuous process of ecosystem development. In economic terms, this simply means that the market is not yet mature, because it is lack of consumers.
But, Pierre-Nicolas continues:
We are not complaining. We are here to bring a positive view of an incredible market opportunity, which responds to positive and ambitious announcements.
His message couldn’t be clearer: the French web3 industry it does not need subsidies any by the state; who is she anymore is in favor of its legal framework of the European Union, in order to protect consumers, in particular in the context of the bill Not pushed by France when it held the presidency of the European Council, the effects of which will enter into force in 2024 – 2025.
“Digitize the gray card”
It is the fortuitous and in any case sensible proposal by Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, live on LinkedIn from his smartphone, in a taxi crossing Paris. Very seriously, the Arianee boss is pursuing his thesis that public authorities could provide a real strategic advantage to his Web3 industry to make it a flagship of its economy, simply by digitizing any official and state-recognized document.
According to him there is also an unstoppable and well-founded logic that would require the digitization of these documents. Their digitization and subsequently their individual holding in wallets go hand in hand the advantages offered by the blockchain technology : traceability, security, inviolability, immutability, etc. The government could easily appropriate this technology and, in the words of the head of Arianee, “create the conditions for a general acquisition” of these new technologies. Thus the French and European ecosystem would have a great advantage.
And Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel to react to a comment suggesting turning the vital card into an NFT:
Suddenly, more than 20 million French people have access to a wallet
We recall that A blockchain wallet, or cryptocurrency wallet, is your first step into the increasingly diverse world of Web3. Allows the user to send, receive and store cryptographic assets such as ETH or BTC as well as NFTs; it also allows the user to navigate DApps (decentralized applications), which are to Web3 what applications like Instagram, Twitter, Amazon or Google are to Web2.
Recognition of the right to digital property
Sebastien Borget, head of The Sandbox, a metaverse built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows its users to create, share and monetize digital assets intrinsic to the metaverse and its various gaming experiences, focuses on the legal frameworks that could make NFTs and digital property as common as a video game console.
According to Sebastien Borget, recognition of this digital property by the judicial authorities of the country, as well as the rights of individuals to this property, would allow a range of multiple possibilities:
In the same way that the ownership of a physical good allows the development of an economy around this type of goods.
Thus the development of businesses related to NFTs, metaverses and avatars, which in turn produces jobs and captures funding, could flourish like any other industry, without having to worry about special statutes that digital assets could have with financial authorities, banks and government.
In addition to his insistence on digital property and the need for the government to pronounce itself on this matter, the boss of The Sandbox recalls an essential point of the open letter he co-signed.
Using crypto assets means becoming platform independent, it is… an architecture where every user owns and controls their own dataand where a company cannot build a monopoly by getting its hands on all user data or restrict its use outside of it.
The protection of user data has long been a sensitive topic. Despite attempts at regulation such as that of the European Union with heavy fines imposed on Gafam (a record held by Google which, in 2017, had to pay a fine of over 2 billion euros), the sovereignty the digital is not acquired yet.
On this point the Web3, the practices of the individuals who make up this ecosystem as well as the ways in which they interact, promise considerable progress. An education in its new uses still needs to be dispensed.