A presentation by Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank's Executive Committee, published on Wednesday, said a “digital euro,” which he called “the future of money,” could be available to the public by November of 2025.
The central bank governor said the digital euro would bring cash-like features to the digital world, saying it would be effective both online and offline, free for basic use, would have a “pan-European reach,” “respect private life” and, above all, be issued By the central bank.
“Currently, there is no European digital payment instrument that covers all eurozone countries: 13 out of 20 eurozone countries do not have a national card system and rely instead on international digital payment systems, which settle 69% of all digital transactions in European Union,” Cipollone wrote.
“A digital euro would bridge this gap, providing a European digital payment method that is accessible and accepted in all eurozone countries. The digital euro would provide a pan-European platform that would standardize digital payments across the eurozone,” he added.
The central bank governor argued that the introduction of the digital euro for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) does not mean the disappearance of other forms of payments, including cash, cards, bank accounts and other digital payments.
The presentation also claimed that the ECB plans to build various privacy safeguards into the system, such as anonymizing transactions, with the central bank only able to see “a handful of pseudonymous data.”
However, other concerns remain about the implementation of central bank digital currencies, particularly around their potential use as a means of social engineering. In fact, the Bank of England has previously admitted that central bank digital currencies — unlike decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — will be “programmable,” meaning the state will likely decide how and where people spend their money.
For example, the CBDC could put a cap on the amount of money someone can spend on gas to fill up a car in order to meet EU emissions targets.
As expected, the European Central Bank has been highly critical of Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrencies that are not under the control of a central bank.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde — a lawyer who has never worked as an economist — said she believes cryptocurrencies are “worthless,” arguing that their value “does not depend on anything, there are no underlying assets that act as a safety anchor.” “.
Lagarde, on the other hand, has been a major supporter of an ECB digital currency, saying: “The day we get a central bank digital currency, a digital euro, I will guarantee it… so the central bank will be behind it.” “I think this is very different from any of those things.”
The EU is not the only one wanting to implement a CBDC, as Rishi Sunak's Conservative government in the UK is working on a 'digital pound' and the Biden administration in the US is also working on creating a 'digital dollar'. Central bank digital currencies have also been endorsed by the globalized World Economic Forum (WEF), which included them in a list of technologies that will “change the world by 2027.”
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