Open letter from Web3 bosses to the government
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"Let's make France a major player in Web3". In an open letter to the government published exclusively in The Big Whale, Sébastien 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.

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We, the French Web3 entrepreneurs, enthusiastically welcome the statements by Mr Bruno Lemaire, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, calling for "Europe to become the world's leading economic zone in terms of structuring and organising the crypto-asset market and for France to become the European hub for this ecosystem." We share this ambition and are convinced that France can, indeed, play a major role in this Internet, new generation.

Behind "the crypto assets market" lies a major issue, that of digital sovereignty. That of our personal data and our companies' data: the digital sovereignty of France and Europe.

Using crypto assets means becoming independent of platforms, participating in the deployment of an architecture where each user owns and controls his or her data, and where a company cannot build a monopoly by getting its hands on all users' data or limit its use outside of it.

There is just one thing missing to turn the tide and take a decisive lead: putting these new technologies in the hands of the French and becoming the first country in the world to recognise the right of ownership of digital content. In a sector where competition is global and innovations are developing faster than regulations, we need nimble and creative regulators and a responsive administration and legislature.

A teeming ecosystem

It is by creating a favourable environment, by having the market most educated in uses that we will make France an attractive country at global level. While some industries are helping to familiarise their customers, the State has the opportunity to create the conditions for much faster and mass adoption in the service of individual freedoms.

NFTs can be used as proof of ownership of any type of physical or digital content, whether it's a document, a driving licence, a vehicle registration document, a diploma, a transport ticket, a work of art, a video game character. Used as digital passports for our digital identities and our products, they will help to facilitate their reparability and circularity. Public authorities and regulation can help to speed up this adoption.

France is fortunate to have an ecosystem of projects and experts that is already highly developed, some of whom are already world leaders in their category. The luxury goods, fashion, cosmetics and video game industries, to name but a few, are beginning to appropriate Web3 technologies to pass a major milestone in their digital transformation. French Web3 players are already world leaders who have penetrated the American market, which represents a radical departure for France in the digital world.

If France wants to remain at the forefront of this revolution, it can choose to be bold and use public power to change usage. Companies in the sector have managed to make themselves attractive to private investors. They don't need subsidies. What they need is an ambitious movement that will benefit all citizens by making these technologies available to them in their daily lives.

For the first time in the history of digital transformation it is possible to take back control. Let's seize this opportunity.

Format
Op-eds
Nicolas Julia

Nicolas Julia is Co-founder and CEO of Sorare, a Paris-based blockchain gaming company he founded in December 2018. His stated goal is to create the global leader in sports entertainment by enabling fans to own digital player cards, build teams, and compete in fantasy sports competitions. Sorare raised a $680 million Series B round in 2021, valuing the company at $4.3 billion, and has secured partnerships with over 400 sports organisations including the NBA, MLB, Premier League, LaLiga, and Bundesliga. The company has expanded into the US market and operates across football, basketball, and baseball.

Julia built Sorare around the use of NFTs to represent player cards, creating a model in which digital ownership is tied to real-world sports performance. Before founding Sorare, he served as VP of Operations at Stratumn, a blockchain technology company, from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, he co-founded La Javaness in 2015, and before entering the tech sector worked as a Senior Consultant at Eurogroup Consulting France from 2010 to 2014, and earlier as an M&A analyst at Rothschild. He holds an MSc in Management from Ecole de Management de Lyon, completed an exchange semester in Economics at Hanken School of Economics in 2009, and attended Lycée Saliège for his classe préparatoire in the economic track.

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Pascal Gauthier

Pascal Gauthier is Chairman and CEO of Ledger, a Paris-headquartered manufacturer of hardware cryptocurrency wallets. He became CEO in January 2019, succeeding co-founder Eric Larchevêque, and was appointed Chairman in December 2020. He had previously joined Ledger as a seed investor and board member in 2014, and served as President from 2017 before assuming the CEO role. Under his leadership, Ledger expanded its product line to include Ledger Live, a digital asset management application, and Ledger Stax, a consumer hardware device. He has publicly advocated for self-custody of crypto assets, arguing that centralised platforms should be used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies rather than to hold them.

Gauthier co-founded Kaiko, a financial data platform focused on Bitcoin and digital asset market data, in 2014. He serves as a board member at Komainu, a regulated digital asset custody solution established as a joint venture between Nomura, Ledger, and CoinShares. Earlier in his career, he was COO at Criteo, the advertising technology company, where he contributed to the company's expansion to a EUR 2.17 billion market capitalisation. Prior to Criteo, he was involved with Kelkoo, a price comparison service sold to Yahoo for EUR 475 million. Before joining Ledger as President in 2017, he worked as a Venture Partner at Mosaic Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm focused on Series A investments.

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Pierre Nicolas Hurstel

Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel is CEO and Co-founder of Arianee, a Paris-based blockchain company that provides digital product passports and digital membership cards to brands, built on the Arianee Protocol. In this role, he has led Arianee to work with over 50 global brands including Breitling, Moncler, Mugler, IWC, Lacoste, YSL Beauty, and Richemont Group labels such as Panerai, Vacheron Constantin, and Jaeger-LeCoultre. The company has raised $28 million in venture capital from investors including Tiger Global, Commerce Ventures, BPI France, and ISAI, with over 2.2 million physical products tokenized on-chain via the protocol.

Prior to Arianee, Hurstel founded ReMode and was a partner and co-founder of strategy consulting firm Blue Change, as well as curator of the Foundashion online community. He is a permanent board member of NFT Paris and speaks regularly at events including Web Summit, NFT NYC, EthCC, and BoF VOICES. He is an active investor and advisor in several tech companies. Hurstel is an alumnus of Toulouse Business School.

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Frédéric Montagnon

Frédéric Montagnon is Co-founder & Chairman of Arianee, a Paris-based protocol for tokenized digital product passports that enables direct connections between brands, physical products, and owners. He has held the Chairman of the Board role since August 2017. The Arianee Protocol is used by over 50 global brands including Breitling, Audemars Piguet, Moncler, and Richemont Group subsidiaries such as Panerai, IWC, Vacheron Constantin, and Jaeger-LeCoultre, with over 2.2 million physical products tokenized on-chain. The protocol supports circular business models, including repair, resale, rental, and remanufacturing services, with a focus on data sovereignty for both brands and consumers.

Prior to Arianee, Montagnon co-founded LGO, a cryptocurrency exchange targeting institutional investors, serving as Executive Chairman from June 2017 to December 2020, and subsequently as Président of LGO Europe until September 2021. Before that, he co-founded Secret Media Inc. in March 2014, a company focused on ad-blocking solutions for publishers, a role he held until July 2017. He is currently also an investor and advisor at p00ls, a Web3 platform, a position he has held since June 2021. The Arianee about page references earlier ventures including Overblog and Teads as part of his entrepreneurial background.

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