Today a press release was presented that revealed that the first smart contract ever developed by a public authority was deployed on Tezos. This is huge validation of the Tezos project. It shows the amount of trust authorities have in the security and development possible on Tezos.

The full press release:
November 19,2019

"The French Armies and Gendarmerie’s Information & Public Relations Center (SIRPA) announced that since September 2019, the Gendarmerie’s cybercrime division (C3N) has been validating judicial expenses incurred during investigations and recording them on the Tezos blockchain.

Debuting on the Tezos network, this is one of the first examples of a government entity using a smart contract for operational purposes.

The new program allows C3N to acquire cryptocurrency from Europol-allocated funds in order to cover operational costs. Utikizing a blockchain protocol like Tezos for this process simplifies administrative overhead by ensuring C3N funds remain auditable and traceable while maintaining strong security. The smart contract was deigned to only allow access to permitted individuals, effectively allowing C3N to justify an expense without any risk of disclosing operational activities and jeopardizing ongoing investigations.

Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications backed by a global community of validators, researches, and builders, with funding from the Tezos Foundation. Nomadic Labs is Tezos'main research and development centre. Based in Paris, it brings together more than 40 research engineers working on the development of a Tezos implementation."

Tezos if focussing on financial institutions. The absence of hard forks due to Tezos' unique governance model and high security standards, combined with functionalities like the formally verified contracts that gives you the option to test high-value transactions before you publish them on the blockchain, gives big confidence to institutions using Tezos for high value and regulated transactions necessary for STO offerings. So far billions of future value is announced to be deployed as STO's on Tezos:

• TokenSoft is "projecting that within the next year, 25–35% of the amount processed through our platform will be on the Tezos blockchain. Currently our clients have processed half a billion through our platform, and they are currently seeking to issue $3 Billion+ onto the blockchain." Which comes down to about $1 Billion. 
• BTG Pactual and Dalma Capital adopt Tezos for STOs worth $1 billion
• Bonda Vinci Signs Business Agreement with Tezos Korea for Joint Venture of Art and Real Estate Securities Token (STO)  
• Elevated Returns sets to Tokenize Thai Real Estate with a Target of US$100m This Year
• The Fundament Group has developed Germans first real estate crypto token and has just formed a strategic partnership with Tezos.
• The Security Token platform tZERO will Tokenize about $640 million in UK Real Estate. 

Now the first public authority has chosen Tezos with enough confidence to deploy the presented smart-contract speaks volumes of a great platform with a great future.