Lagarde send clear signs of interest in the Digital Euro

[paxmao]

https://www.pymnts.com/cbdc/2022/cbdc-weekly-european-union-says-stablecoin-bill-co

European Union Commissioner for Financial Services Mairead McGuinness announced Feb. 9 plans to introduce a bill creating a digital euro next year, according to Politico.

Based on current experiments, that means an EU CBDC could launch as soon as 2025. The EU has been largely bullish on a CBDC for several years. Notably, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde announced on Twitter in July that the bank had “decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project.”

The project is slowly moving ahead - this is not an ICO, but a project with potential to change and disrupt many existing business that are based on third party intervention in payments.

Lagarde stated in twitter that:

We have decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project. In the digital age people and firms should continue to have access to the safest form of money – central bank money.

While it is a funny way to put it and most of us in crypto may be laughing our asses off on that declaration, essentially this is going ahead. The fintech sector and the banking sector may feel the pressure, although I do not see the EU trying to crash the banks.

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[NeuroticFish]

Lagarde stated in twitter that:

We have decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project. In the digital age people and firms should continue to have access to the safest form of money – central bank money.

While it is a funny way to put it and most of us in crypto may be laughing our asses off on that declaration, essentially this is going ahead. The fintech sector and the banking sector may feel the pressure, although I do not see the EU trying to crash the banks.

Well, investigation is the obvious next step. Probably they've also allocated funds for this.
Now, it depends who will be doing this investigation, because in a best case scenario the conclusion would be that Bitcoin can do the job. But I expect the investigation will be done by "specialists" from the banking sector, with biased opinions. And then it will not crash the banks, actually then it may not even come to life, to make sure the bankers' sleep is not disturbed.

All we can do is wait and see, really...

[avikz]

It's not surprising at all! Every country is planning to create their own digital currency because of the benefits it can provide to them,

1. No black money. Every single transaction can be and will be tracked
2. No money laundering possible
3. Hacking activities will be effectively stopped as the entire trail of the money will be tracked
4. Will effectively stop terrorism financing
5. Higher tax collection as it will become very difficult to hide income

Physical cash still have a certain degree of anonymity. But with digital currency, everything will be clear as daylight. That's what brings a huge value to the government to invest in creating a digital fiat currency.

[Vaskiy]

CBDC are digital form of fiat money. More countries are with plans of having their own CBDC. When cryptocurrency is doing the same function, why different governments push themselves to have their own CBDC. The reason behind this is the lack of control. Countries prefer having their own CBDC for various reasons, but if the traditional fiat is in use people will avoid using the CBDC. As in the previous quote CBDC gives the government the ability to track every transaction. As of now Nigeria only have launched its CBDC and is there any progress after the launch of e-naira

[paxmao]

Lagarde stated in twitter that:

We have decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project. In the digital age people and firms should continue to have access to the safest form of money – central bank money.

While it is a funny way to put it and most of us in crypto may be laughing our asses off on that declaration, essentially this is going ahead. The fintech sector and the banking sector may feel the pressure, although I do not see the EU trying to crash the banks.

Well, investigation is the obvious next step. Probably they've also allocated funds for this.
Now, it depends who will be doing this investigation, because in a best case scenario the conclusion would be that Bitcoin can do the job. But I expect the investigation will be done by "specialists" from the banking sector, with biased opinions. And then it will not crash the banks, actually then it may not even come to life, to make sure the bankers' sleep is not disturbed.

All we can do is wait and see, really...

Bitcoin can not do the job, that is for sure. They are not really looking at a decentralised community nor anything of the like, but rather to an Euro pegged coin that is controlled centrally. This is not really about cryptocurrencies but rather a way to make money ownership easier yet at the same time more controlled by a central bank.

I do see the possibilities of avoiding intermediaries and perhaps the ability to bank the unbanked.

[NeuroticFish]

Bitcoin can not do the job, that is for sure.

It depends on what they want to be "the job". And I guess that even inside their "board" different entities have different goals there.

They are not really looking at a decentralised community nor anything of the like, but rather to an Euro pegged coin that is controlled centrally. This is not really about cryptocurrencies but rather a way to make money ownership easier yet at the same time more controlled by a central bank.

It can be the price of the printed money they want to get rid of, it can be VISA/MC fees they want to get rid of, or, obviously bigger amount of tracking and control.
As I said, there are probably multiple goals there.
Of course, imho Bitcoin would be the best, but I won't hold my breath for such a decision.

I do see the possibilities of avoiding intermediaries and perhaps the ability to bank the unbanked.

Most of unbanked are so because of the lack of internet or because they cannot use technology (usually old people and/or from remote areas).
And of course, it's also those don't trust anything else than "hard money".
So the CBDCs won't do wonders. They can help, but won't do wonders.

[Lucius]

There is nothing new in what they are discussing now, the same things were in their focus last year -> ECB starts 24 month digital euro project.

The need for politicians to keep repeating the same things is clear evidence that they are not very intelligent, but in this case, the EU does not want to stay away from the CBDC, not because they are afraid of BTC, but because they are afraid of everything we can classify as category stablecoins. When Libra was in full swing, the big question is whether US or EU politicians protested more because they feared it could disrupt their plans to continue using fiat as one of the main levers when it comes to controlling people.

“Our work aims to ensure that in the digital age citizens and firms continue to have access to the safest form of money, central bank money,” said ECB  President Christine Lagarde. Without a CBDC, there’s a risk that private digital currencies, including stablecoins, will dominate, and they still might. Such a scenario would make it harder for the central bank to control monetary policy, maintain financial stability, ensure low cost payments and enable financial inclusion.

[DooMAD]

the EU does not want to stay away from the CBDC, not because they are afraid of BTC, but because they are afraid of everything we can classify as category stablecoins.

In fairness to them, it's a justified concern from their perspective.  I find both stablecoins and CBDCs equally unappealing, so I still can't decide which one I'd prefer to see lose in that particular battle.  Mostly I'm just content that the EU have identified stablecoins as the higher priority enemy to engage and they'll (hopefully) leave Bitcoin in peace a little longer.

[Flexystar]

Well this is more or less catching the new era trend of digitalisation. I mean it’s nothing like only developed countries and continent are following these new trend but also poor or underdeveloped country like Nigeria and parts of African countries are into it. This is all out of the settlement of good future for their governments through proper collection of taxes, royalties, business model set ups etc.

I think this is for the best of government as well as we as crypto investors. There is direct or indirect relationship here. In case of direct, they merge the whole thing with blockchain and in the indirect sense they want to run alongside crypto currencies and win hearts of the investors.

[Fortify]

https://www.pymnts.com/cbdc/2022/cbdc-weekly-european-union-says-stablecoin-bill-co

European Union Commissioner for Financial Services Mairead McGuinness announced Feb. 9 plans to introduce a bill creating a digital euro next year, according to Politico.

Based on current experiments, that means an EU CBDC could launch as soon as 2025. The EU has been largely bullish on a CBDC for several years. Notably, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde announced on Twitter in July that the bank had “decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project.”

The project is slowly moving ahead - this is not an ICO, but a project with potential to change and disrupt many existing business that are based on third party intervention in payments.

Lagarde stated in twitter that:

We have decided to move up a gear and start the investigation phase of the digital euro project. In the digital age people and firms should continue to have access to the safest form of money – central bank money.

While it is a funny way to put it and most of us in crypto may be laughing our asses off on that declaration, essentially this is going ahead. The fintech sector and the banking sector may feel the pressure, although I do not see the EU trying to crash the banks.

If you consider a digital, blockchain backed stable coin as the equivalent of cash you have in your wallet - it can be very useful to create a savings system for people who never have the security of carrying cash around (e.g. if you're homeless) while still giving a reasonable control to central banks. Inflation can be integrated and should not be demonized as much as it sometimes is here - the money supply needs to be able to expand and contract. It's nice to hear more countries talking about it, and it's clear they are probably looking at the research that China claims to be doing in this area and does not want to be left behind - although it could have much more sinister undertones in countries that are highly oppressive to their citizens.

[Lucius]

In fairness to them, it's a justified concern from their perspective.  I find both stablecoins and CBDCs equally unappealing, so I still can't decide which one I'd prefer to see lose in that particular battle.  Mostly I'm just content that the EU have identified stablecoins as the higher priority enemy to engage and they'll (hopefully) leave Bitcoin in peace a little longer.

Bitcoin definitely has a better chance in the EU than in the US, but not because EU politicians are in favor of BTC, but because it is difficult to reconcile attitudes between the 27 countries, each with its own cryptocurrency policy. In addition, Bitcoin is increasingly being presented to the public as an investment in digital gold rather than a currency.

However, there is no doubt that they will find a way to deal with Bitcoin if they assess that it poses a threat to them.