€400 million was decided to be funneled into AI and blockchain projects in Europe. The decision was made by the European Commission as well as the European Investment Fund. The investment is going to put the European Union in a leading spot in terms of funds invested in the blockchain technology in 2019.

The reasoning behind the investment is pretty clearly laid out by the two parties, but that doesn’t mean that the funds are already secured. The European Commission and the EIF have dedicated around €100 million to the cause, and are expecting the last €300 million to come from private companies all over the Union.

Why was the initiative made?

Blockchain and AI technology are quite popular in the European Union. Thousands of software companies are developing these products almost every month and releasing it on the global market while having very small venues of using them locally.

In most cases, these companies receive their funding from American investors rather than European ones. Because of this, most of the products developed in the blockchain and AI industries tend to be exported into the Western Hemisphere.

With this massive fund, the European Commission guarantees that most of the future projects developed by European programmers and entrepreneurs will remain in the region to serve the purposes of not only the consumers but also the government as well.

Trickle-down funds

This news is especially exciting for developers in nearby Eastern European countries, where EU software companies usually outsource most of their operations teams. Countries like Ukraine and Georgia currently represent one of the biggest and most in-demand countries for outsourcing companies and it’s starting to show.

Blockchain development is quickly starting to become popular in these countries, especially Ukraine, but according to Kapitali, a popular Georgian financial website, crypto trading in Georgia has convinced multiple local developers to get their feet wet in the new technology.

This has produced dozens of blockchain-savvy entrepreneurs working on innovative projects, but struggling to get their hands on government funding.

Considering that EU-based companies will now receive sufficient funds for developing their projects, it’s very likely that most of it will be outsourced to these two countries, therefore giving the whole process a “trickle-down economics” kind of feature.

Working on the e-Euro

Many crypto experts also believe that this decision by the European Commission was made due to a new step towards adopting a digital Euro. Considering that China is preparing to launch its own CBDC within the next 6-12 months, and the Unites States starting to seriously consider a digital dollar, it would be a disaster for the Euro to remain the way it is now.

Thankfully, the current Euro has quite a lot of demand and market volume to remain relevant, but as soon as these two behemoth economies collide with their new financial tools, it’s very likely for the EU to be caught in the crossfire.

In order to have their own tools to survive the storm to come, the e-Euro is absolutely essential. Considering the aversion towards Facebook’s Libra, which seems to have quieted down in the recent weeks, the EU would massively benefit by a digital Euro, simply because it would render Libra completely useless.

This could be the first step towards a new major digital currency.

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