Leon Schumacher
Leon V. Schumacher is a technology leader, entrepreneur, author and senior advisor with decades of experience at the intersection of technology, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. He previously served as Group Chief Information Officer of Novartis and ArcelorMittal and is a co-founder of the open-source projects Taler Systems, Paivana, Anastasis and pEp Security. He holds degrees from ETH Zurich and HEC Paris and completed post-MBA studies at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His current work focuses on digital sovereignty, open-source technology, privacy, digital money and the strategic dependencies created by critical digital infrastructure.
Session
For the AI track:
Europe is investing heavily in payment sovereignty through the digital euro, European payment schemes and domestic infrastructure. But these initiatives are largely solving the payment problem we know today: humans and businesses paying other humans and businesses.
A new economy is emerging in which AI agents will search, negotiate, purchase data and services, consume APIs and computing resources, and initiate payments autonomously. The question is no longer only whether Europe controls its payment infrastructure, but whether European AI agents will depend on foreign platforms, proprietary payment protocols or non-European monetary rails in order to transact.
This talk explores sovereign agentic payments as the next frontier of European digital sovereignty. What does it mean to give machines controlled economic agency? How should identity, privacy, authorisation, auditability and accountability work when the payer is software? And why is open-source infrastructure essential before dominant proprietary standards become entrenched?
Paivana will be presented as an emerging open-source case study: payment infrastructure designed for AI agents, machines and humans, built on GNU Taler technology.
The central message is simple: Europe should not wait for the agent economy to arrive before deciding what sovereignty within it means. Open source gives Europe an opportunity to shape this infrastructure while the rules are still being written. Can it act fast enough not to lose this space as well?