Three questions to Hugo de Choisy, Consultant at Havas Sovereign Technologies

They are our clients, our friends, good contacts or just people we met in the crypto-community. They have new vision, they are running great projects, they are developing new services, or they just want to share their story. Havas Sovereign Technologies is interviewing key people of the blockchain ecosystem.

Let’s meet today with Hugo de Choisy, Consultant at Havas Sovereign Technologies:

1- First of all, can you present your background and your relation to tech?

Initially, I have an academic background in European affairs, which I studied at King’s College London and at LSE, in London. Through the political angle, I started to be increasingly interested in new technologies, and how they could be used to reach European strategic autonomy.

I remember being curious about how European authorities were increasing their political and economic investments in supercomputing, AI, and cybersecurity, via a network of Digital Innovation Hubs across Europe.

I was quickly impressed by the density of the tech ecosystem in Europe and globally. However, I noticed that very few actors were conscious of the prospects and risks those new technologies could bring at the European level.

2- Why did you decide to work at Havas Sovereign Technologies?

To be completely fair, this interest in tech did not bring me to consider a career in this sector right after my scholarship. However, as I started my internship at Havas Paris, I had the luck to work with the Havas Blockchain team.

This encounter allowed me to gain tangible insight into what all the fancy words I learnt at university meant in practical terms. But most of all, I had a privileged view of the scope that blockchain and new technologies could bring to the private and public sectors.

Therefore, I was highly interested when Fabien Aufrechter, Head of Havas Blockchain, re-reached me to join Havas Sovereign Technologies. With an extended scope, I knew that the ambition of this offer would be able to respond efficiently to the increasing demands regarding tech. From a personal point of view, this was a unique opportunity to work on diversified projects while participating in making tech at the centre of society.

3- According to you, how tech could help the European Union in the future?

I believe that new technologies can help the European Union in many ways to reach strategic autonomy. It has the economic and the technical ability to do so. It only misses the political and institutional will to push further in that domain.

However, noticeable signs of progress are worth highlighting. In my opinion, the project of a digital euro launched by the ECB and its president Christine Lagarde proves the EU’s increasing interest in sovereign technologies.

It would be a strong message sent from Europe in favour of sovereign technologies as it would avoid reliance on digital payment instruments issued and controlled outside the euro area, which could lead to financial instability and loss of monetary sovereignty.