In our rapidly evolving payment landscape, consumers across the euro area are increasingly opting for electronic transactions over cash, using private payment service providers. As we navigate this digital transformation, safeguarding the integrity of public money becomes paramount. Therefore, the Digital Euro represents a crucial step in modernizing our financial systems, maintaining trust in our euro currency.
Digital euro is envisioned as a public electronic instant payment method that would complement physical banknotes and coins, offering a secure, privacy-friendly and cost-free option for natural persons (for the provision of basic payment services in digital euro), along with the other private electronic means of payment currently being used. It would be stored in an electronic wallet, such as the EU Digital Identity Wallet – a pilot project of the European Union – set up through a user’s bank or a public intermediary. With respect to the technological underpinnings of the Digital Euro, the European Central Bank (ECB) has yet to determine whether to employ distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain.
(Contribution by Maria Katsioti, Associate at Rokas Thessaloniki, and Kosmas Karanikolas, Senior Associate at Rokas Athens, published in Lexology, April 10, 2024).
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