Some very interesting developments have been going on with Tezos lately.
Recently, Bruno Le Maire, who serves as France’s Minister of the Economy and Finance spoke about Tezos in an interview to Magazine Capital.
Capital: What role does the government intend to offer blockchain in its strategy?
The development of the blockchain ecosystem is a priority for the government: it is a potential technology that can contribute to the modernization of our businesses and our economy. That’s why the government has an ambitious blockchain strategy. We have all the assets to make France a country at the tip of the blockchain, we must value them. A sign of the vitality of our ecosystem: we have identified more than 200 innovative blockchain projects developed in France.
Bruno Le Maire
Very interesting to hear the Government of France is placing a priority on developing the blockchain ecosystem and has “an ambitious blockchain strategy”. Equally more so interesting, is there are more than “200 innovative blockchain projects” the French Government has their eyes on.
Hmm I wonder what one of those could be?
Capital: What is the amount of the envelope allocated to this ambition?
“Over the next five years, the state will invest 4.5 billion euros in breakthrough innovations, including blockchain technologies. It is an important commitment. The goal is to take a technological lead to be able to fight, French and European, against the Chinese and American technological giants. Blockchain technologies are evolving very fast. To avoid wasting time, funding has already been proposed in the form of calls for projects. We have therefore launched the “Innovation – Growth Competition” this spring, to support projects, particularly in the context of blockchain technology”.
Bruno Le Maire
It seems France is placing greater importance on developing the blockchain ecosystem, and conversely, wants to make their position in blockchain much greater.
France recognizes the applications that blockchain can have on its economy and this is another step closer to adoption.
Capital: France already has some nice start-ups in the sector. Which ones caught your eye?
“France has some nuggets on the entire value chain of new services to companies, hardware and protocols. I am thinking in particular of Tezos and which allows the development of a blockchain protocol overcoming the known defects of public blockchains. I am thinking of Liquidshare, which seeks to improve the access of SMEs to capital markets. I am also thinking of Iznes for the distribution of fund shares via blockchain or of course to Ledger, who has everything to become very quickly our first French unicorn blockchain. There are many more. France has many talented entrepreneurs active in this sector with promising projects. I am confident about our ability to establish ourselves as a center of excellence at the global level”.
Bruno Le Maire
Bruno Le Maire, of all projects to mention, mentions Tezos as the very first start-up that has caught his eye. The fact he mentioned it and mentioned it first, shows it’s definitely something the Government of France has been eyeing.
Additionally, Bruno Le Maire has spoken about Tezos at the 2019 Paris Blockchain Conference.
The Bank of France Tests a Tezos Node
On March 26, 2019, Thierry Bedoin who serves as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of the Bank of France, tweeted about testing a Tezos node back in October 2018. Bedoin also praised Tezos’ use of formal verification, to prove the validity of smart contracts.
Banque de France is one of the largest banks in France and serves as the country’s monetary authority if this was not already known. Let me repeat, the Bank of France serves as the country’s monetary authority.
With over $1 trillion in deposits, over $80 billion in gold reserves, and more than 11,000 full-time employees, getting attention from the Bank of France is quite a big deal.
Additionally, Jacob Arluck of TQTezos posted earlier today, that the Bank of France will deploy the Tezos protocol and utilize it at the central and commercial banks they have around France.
”We can’t deploy protocols for use at the central or commercial banks without fine-tuned privacy!”
Jean-Baptiste of the Bank of France
In slightly related news, Thierry Bedoin, the CDO of the Bank of France has even gone on to pin the tweet about them testing a Tezos node at Lab Banque de France, on his profile. The fact that Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance for France, and the Bank of France have taken such a high amount of interest in Tezos, is overwhelmingly positive.
zK-SNARKs Will be Voted on as “Soon as Possible”
Earlier today, at TQuorum, Marco from Nomadic Labs, the group behind the historic Athens proposal, announced that zk-SNARKs is Nomadic Labs next Tezos upgrade proposal and will be voted on in the coming months.
“We are currently including the Sapling library from ZCash … We hope to propose it as soon as possible”
Marco of Nomadic Labs
This new announcement is taken from a previous statement Benjamin Canou, CTO of Nomadic Labs told Coindesk back in late March.
“We are indeed working on adding zero-knowledge cryptography via a future protocol upgrade proposal later this year. The exact shape that this integration will take is not yet decided.”
Benjamin Canou of Nomadic Labs
Given that Marco from Nomadic Labs has specified that they are including the “sapling library from Zcash” it’s reasonable to conclude with absolute certainty, that the next proposal from Nomadic Labs will revolve around zk-SNARKs.
This will be an interesting vote that will garner a lot of support. The Bank of France has made its intentions known that in order to deploy the Tezos protocol and utilize it at their central and commercial banks around France, they want “fine-tuned privacy”.
Conclusion
The developments and news surrounding Tezos have been overwhelmingly positive and the market is reacting well to it. With the Bank of France showing high interest in Tezos and France’s Minister of Economy and Finance praising Tezos, it is being further legitimized and known.
Additionally, the long awaited zk-SNARKs protocol upgrade is coming very soon. It will be truly, an exciting vote to watch how the community reacts to it.
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