From the 7th of April to the 9th, the European Central Bank spoke extensively about the Digital Euro, expressing hope about its potential and publishing an update of its rulebook. Its President, Christine Lagarde, also called for it, wishing to end European reliance on international payment solutions providers such as VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe and others.

    • Mad_Punda@feddit.org
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      9 days ago

      From their FAQ:

      Privacy is one of the most important design features of the digital euro.

      The digital euro is designed to be able to function offline in a way that would offer users a cash-like level of privacy, both for sending money to other people and for paying in shops. When paying offline, only the payer and the payee would know the personal transaction details of the payments made.

      For online digital euro payments, privacy would be implemented so that the Eurosystem itself – the issuer and payment infrastructure provider – would not be able to directly connect transactions to specific individuals.

      Further reading link they provide: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/features/privacy/html/index.en.html

      • iarigby@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        not really

        As with other digital payment methods, intermediaries like your bank would have access to the personal data that are necessary to comply with EU law, such as anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regulations

    • Microw@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Yeah it confuses a lot of people that it is called “digital euro” when it is in fact a new currency, my guess is they chose that name because there would be more resistance against it otherwise

    • insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      We need this so we can choose between providers, all we have now are private profit making companies like PayPal. And they can hold your cash, cut you off, etc.