Members of the French parliament have put forward an initiative to invest 500 million euros in the development of the country's blockchain ecosystem.
Сo-rapporteur of the report for the recommendation, Jean-Michel Mis, claims "2018 was the zero year for the popularization of the blockchain in France."
"The year 2019 must be that of the emergence of this ecosystem,” Jean-Michel Mis added.
It’s expected the funds would be received from the National Research Agency of France and the French investment bank Bpifrance.
“With the help of the blockchain, we would like France to take the lead this time,” said Laura de La Roudier, another co-rapporteur for the report.
The initiative also makes a proposal to create a “digital currency,” which will be issued by the central bank of France.
Such kind of initiative sounds ambiguous if not strange given the recent event in Paris. For instance, the Bank of France lowered its forecast for GDP growth in October-December from 0.4 to 0.2 percent in quarterly terms. In the third quarter, GDP grew by 0.4 percent.
Moreover, the Federation of French Retailers (FCD) reported the sector lost about 1 billion euros in revenue due to the Yellow Vests movement.
With the current events in Paris, the realization of the initiative is quite unlikely.
One way or the other, France is far from being a hermit in the crypto space. Previously, for instance, twenty-six French companies and five major banks completed a trial of the KYC (Know-Your-Customer) application built on the Corda blockchain platform.
According to the press release, members of the R3 consortium, RCI Bank and Services participated in the POC that the firm organized around the customer knowledge in France.
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