We have to operate by american rules in the hope that something will catch on, and then pray european countries won't create legislation that outlaws or makes i

We have to operate by american rules in the hope that something will catch on, and then pray european countries won't create legislation that outlaws or makes it impossible to monetize your product. Schemes like the H2020 research grants are more of a UBI for Phd holders than a real attempt to outcompete the world. I don't think any funding scheme coming from the EU can be competitive, instead of a job-and-bureaucracy-creation machine. Europe lacks on marketing, distribution and ability to acquire and lock-in users, fast. This has been the american recipe to success time and again, not the quality of consumer-facing products which has been going downhill for a decade now. We can't bet on EU as a whole to create an ecosystem, instead the best use of EU funds would be for states to run the most basic consumer services for free for their citizens (such as email or a mastodon instance). It will be sub-par but it will at least create an alternative due to the EU's large distribution mechanism.