The Bitcoin Foundation today announced the addition of Bitcoin France, the tenth chapter affiliate to join the foundation’s growing international network of leaders providing education to local media, merchants, consumers, policy-makers and regulatory agencies. Philippe Rodriguez serves as President, Thomas France as Treasurer, Pierre Noizat as Secretary General and board members Thomas Voegtlin, Gonzague Grandval, David François and Eric Larchevêque.
“France is a country where liberty ranks high as a top value, making the country fertile ground for innovative services and companies using the Bitcoin protocol,” said Jon Matonis, Executive Director.
“We are delighted to join forces with the Bitcoin Foundation to promote the Bitcoin protocol and educate policy-makers in France. We deeply believe that bitcoin has the potential to disrupt not only part of the financial system as we know it, but, down the road, other markets where trust in a central organization is the current status quo,” said Philippe Rodriguez, President of Bitcoin France.
France currently ranks fourth worldwide in global active bitcoin nodes and recently, Minister of Finance Michel Spain stated, “We believe that France should let people try, invest and develop business with bitcoin before we tax it.” He also noted that when it comes to regulation, they prefer to take the middle road, “halfway between the strictest regulations [from] China, Japan or Russia or the lightest regulations adopted by countries such as the United States, Canada or Israel.”