"The Sovereign Tech Agency started in October 2022 as the Sovereign Tech Fund and is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. It is a subsidiary of the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND GmbH."
Guess they should update their FAQ... according to the footer, they are now part of the (brand new) Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation. If as a 69-year-old chancellor, who has finally got his chance at the top job after being sidelined for years, you really want to stress that you are into all that digital stuff, creating an entire new ministry dedicated to it is the way to go!
(to prevent any misunderstanding: I don't like Mr. Merz, but the Sovereign Tech Fund - founded by the previous government BTW - is definitely a good idea).
Ukraine has ministry of digital transformation since 2019, but for all I know the minister mostly goes around hyping Diia and larping CEO from cool places.
A good initiative, but there seems to be nothing on the horizon that can limit the increasing dependence on iOS / App Store and Android / Play Store / Play Services in European citizens' lives, and Microsoft in European corporate and government desktops. If anything, policy makers seem to prefer to increase the dependence, e.g.
The loopholes in this "commitment," e.g. allowing Apple to determine unilaterally whether, say, Servo has a well-enough-monitored software supply chain before giving it access to JIT capabilities, give Apple an iron fist over the ability to use this engine in practice in the EU.
But there's also a world where Servo, with funding like this, can achieve these requirements and Apple (begrudgingly) follows the intent of this policy to avoid further regulatory action. And suddenly there's a new browser on the block that can push the boundaries of mobile web capabilities in ways that make the web better overall, and push standards forward as well so that maybe, just maybe, non-EU folks get the benefit of these innovations down the road. One can dream :)
A pipe dream. Android (with significantly higher market share in Europe than iOS) has no limits on alternative web engines. But all the critical mobile security and payments apps are built on Android/Play Services, not in mobile browsers.
> The EU Digital Identity Wallet Reference Implementation helps EU countries and stakeholders to build their own wallets. It consists of open-source code libraries, modular components, and a fully functioning reference application based on the ARF.
Sure, nothing strictly requires iOS/Android in paper specs and in presentations. But we all now that the only working practical implementations will be one iOS/Android. I mean, look at the actual code in the (Microsoft) github repo.
The EU forced Apple to open NFC for third party payments, which is great. But all the banks in the Netherlands only have working card payments in Apple and Google Wallet. Including the largest bank (ING), that used to have independent in-app NFC payment on Android (where NFC was always open) but seems to have capitulated and now only offers it via Google Wallet.
The Sovereign Tech Agency is doing a great job, I hope other countries will follow Germany's example and fund similar agencies. If we want to rely on Open Source software, we need to pay for maintenance.
Glad to see Europe (in this case Germany https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund) is doing something to support Open Source as part of its bid to make itself less reliant on the US tech giants. They could of course do more, but still...
As the article says, they are currently planning to use it as a WebView component first - which makes sense, because applications using WebViews can work around possible quirks in the engine much better than browsers. Maybe Tauri (https://v2.tauri.app/) will be able to switch to Servo (or offer it as an alternative) soon?
Yeah, the great thing about applications that wrap a WebView is that they benefit from a fixed target - if Servo doesn't support some specific CSS feature the application developers can notice and just not use that feature.
so glad about the accessibility part. it is a struggle sometimes. also, as far as both chrome and ff converged on the same accessibility architecture, I hope that the project will be using it from the very start and will have tangible results soon.
I don't know why it matters to you, but if the end product is accessible, I don't care if it is an EU directive or a german one. Keeping in mind where the team are coming from, there is a high chance that the implementation won't be checking boxes for grand reasons only.
This is such a profoundly stupid idea. VC is all but dead now due to this horrific AI bubble. It created one of the largest siphons of wealth up to the billionaire class.
If Germany was serious about raising money and driving innovation it would tax unicorns and use that money to provide equitable education and graduate more entrepreneurs.
I think you misunderstand what Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund is trying to do. They take no stake in Igalia, which also isn't a German company, so best case the tax money goes to Spain.
They are trying to build digital sovereignty through open source software. Thinking about the commission from the Sovereign Tech Fund as a VC investment is a bit of a misunderstanding. You're right that VC is all but dead, due to AI, so this is exactly why we need some one thinking about the future or our joint digital infrastructure, rather than profit, to invest in projects like Servo.
It's far from all they can do, but it seems like they are focused on some important and achievable goals. These then feed into adoption which will bring other investment because Servo will be viable for more use cases. I see this investment more at the level of basic science research.
Which VC is going to be interested in implementing accessibility in this situation? The Sovereign Tech Fund is an organization that values this. It's too long term and uncertain of a project for most entrepreneurs to be involved in too.
https://www.sovereign.tech/faq
"The Sovereign Tech Agency started in October 2022 as the Sovereign Tech Fund and is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. It is a subsidiary of the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND GmbH."
Guess they should update their FAQ... according to the footer, they are now part of the (brand new) Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation. If as a 69-year-old chancellor, who has finally got his chance at the top job after being sidelined for years, you really want to stress that you are into all that digital stuff, creating an entire new ministry dedicated to it is the way to go!
(to prevent any misunderstanding: I don't like Mr. Merz, but the Sovereign Tech Fund - founded by the previous government BTW - is definitely a good idea).
Ukraine has ministry of digital transformation since 2019, but for all I know the minister mostly goes around hyping Diia and larping CEO from cool places.
A good initiative, but there seems to be nothing on the horizon that can limit the increasing dependence on iOS / App Store and Android / Play Store / Play Services in European citizens' lives, and Microsoft in European corporate and government desktops. If anything, policy makers seem to prefer to increase the dependence, e.g.
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-...
https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/.github/blob/m...
How https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-browser-engi... shakes out will be a critical part of this.
The loopholes in this "commitment," e.g. allowing Apple to determine unilaterally whether, say, Servo has a well-enough-monitored software supply chain before giving it access to JIT capabilities, give Apple an iron fist over the ability to use this engine in practice in the EU.
But there's also a world where Servo, with funding like this, can achieve these requirements and Apple (begrudgingly) follows the intent of this policy to avoid further regulatory action. And suddenly there's a new browser on the block that can push the boundaries of mobile web capabilities in ways that make the web better overall, and push standards forward as well so that maybe, just maybe, non-EU folks get the benefit of these innovations down the road. One can dream :)
A pipe dream. Android (with significantly higher market share in Europe than iOS) has no limits on alternative web engines. But all the critical mobile security and payments apps are built on Android/Play Services, not in mobile browsers.
Please don't spread FUD. This is only REFERENCE implementeation of the specification: https://eu-digital-identity-wallet.github.io/eudi-doc-archit... which doesn't mention anything about being exclusive to iOS/Android.
From the linked repository:
> The EU Digital Identity Wallet Reference Implementation helps EU countries and stakeholders to build their own wallets. It consists of open-source code libraries, modular components, and a fully functioning reference application based on the ARF.
Sure, nothing strictly requires iOS/Android in paper specs and in presentations. But we all now that the only working practical implementations will be one iOS/Android. I mean, look at the actual code in the (Microsoft) github repo.
The EU forced Apple to open NFC for third party payments, which is great. But all the banks in the Netherlands only have working card payments in Apple and Google Wallet. Including the largest bank (ING), that used to have independent in-app NFC payment on Android (where NFC was always open) but seems to have capitulated and now only offers it via Google Wallet.
The Sovereign Tech Agency is doing a great job, I hope other countries will follow Germany's example and fund similar agencies. If we want to rely on Open Source software, we need to pay for maintenance.
> ...other countries will follow Germany's example
Believe, the US government run biggest such fund viz. https://opentech.fund/ (WireGuard & Tor being some of the past grantees).
It’s nice that someone is funding it :)
Igalia has been able to push quite a few set of cool projects, nice to see Servo going as well.
Glad to see Europe (in this case Germany https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund) is doing something to support Open Source as part of its bid to make itself less reliant on the US tech giants. They could of course do more, but still...
You can also donate to the Servo project on https://servo.org/sponsorship/
That's nice ! Servo is a good modern engine, it's a pity it's not used in a real browser.
As the article says, they are currently planning to use it as a WebView component first - which makes sense, because applications using WebViews can work around possible quirks in the engine much better than browsers. Maybe Tauri (https://v2.tauri.app/) will be able to switch to Servo (or offer it as an alternative) soon?
Yeah, the great thing about applications that wrap a WebView is that they benefit from a fixed target - if Servo doesn't support some specific CSS feature the application developers can notice and just not use that feature.
Yes Tauri is keeping an eye on Servo
There is Verso, but it is on hiatus right now.
https://github.com/versotile-org/verso
Webview API focus - I'm sure the Tauri folks are happy to hear that
Sovereign's grant to Servo (fy 2025 & 2026) is €545,400.00
https://www.sovereign.tech/tech/servo / https://archive.is/kryIb
so glad about the accessibility part. it is a struggle sometimes. also, as far as both chrome and ff converged on the same accessibility architecture, I hope that the project will be using it from the very start and will have tangible results soon.
It's mandated by law nowdays, so they just have to mention it (and do it) to tick all the boxes, especially if they take grants from EU.
I don't know why it matters to you, but if the end product is accessible, I don't care if it is an EU directive or a german one. Keeping in mind where the team are coming from, there is a high chance that the implementation won't be checking boxes for grand reasons only.
This is such a profoundly stupid idea. VC is all but dead now due to this horrific AI bubble. It created one of the largest siphons of wealth up to the billionaire class.
If Germany was serious about raising money and driving innovation it would tax unicorns and use that money to provide equitable education and graduate more entrepreneurs.
I think you misunderstand what Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund is trying to do. They take no stake in Igalia, which also isn't a German company, so best case the tax money goes to Spain.
They are trying to build digital sovereignty through open source software. Thinking about the commission from the Sovereign Tech Fund as a VC investment is a bit of a misunderstanding. You're right that VC is all but dead, due to AI, so this is exactly why we need some one thinking about the future or our joint digital infrastructure, rather than profit, to invest in projects like Servo.
It's far from all they can do, but it seems like they are focused on some important and achievable goals. These then feed into adoption which will bring other investment because Servo will be viable for more use cases. I see this investment more at the level of basic science research.
Which VC is going to be interested in implementing accessibility in this situation? The Sovereign Tech Fund is an organization that values this. It's too long term and uncertain of a project for most entrepreneurs to be involved in too.
It is possible to do more than one thing.