ECB to pilot Blockchain-based euro settlement system by 2026

[Gozie51]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ecb-launches-two-track-dlt-settlement-plan-2026

ECB to pilot blockchain-based euro settlement system by 2026
The European Central Bank will launch a blockchain settlement pilot by late 2026 under its new Pontes initiative, aiming to connect DLT platforms with the eurozone’s core payment systems.  

So can this be it?

Contrary to the believe that banks will have nothing to do with cryptocurrency but now with this, we are seeing euro zone taking the lead to introduce more collaboration with blockchain. Banks are already using blockchain to improve security, reduce transaction cost etc but I believe this will further increase the possibility of banks issuing cryptocurrency or hodling for exchange.

Again, recently the Euro zone seem to have opened their doors for crypto business as exchanges have been moving in to secure license, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit and Crypto.com have all secured licenses under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

Do you think Europe is now for crypto investment? What's your view...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/competition-heats-crypto-exchanges-europe

[alani123]

I'll be honest, I'm not impressed.

We already have to trust banks and global capitalism to do bank transactions.
We already have SEPA instant in most banks, and it's mostly free or very inexpensive with instant finality for up to 100k for retail users.
That covers 99% of use cases. What's good to bring the Blockchain in a trust based system? It just makes things more complicated.

[o48o]

-cut-
So can this be it?

Do you think Europe is now for crypto investment? What's your view...
-cut-

Again, it's just another pilot program.
While it's a positive thing they are looking into it, it's far from being anything tangible.
Different companies and different regions have pilot programs all the time, and huge of them won't go anywhere from that.

They are experiments for collecting data and for giving insights that we can use if future planning.
From quick googling i found over nearly 30k ongoing pilot projects and preparatory actions in EU.

[coupable]

I'll be honest, I'm not impressed.

We already have to trust banks and global capitalism to do bank transactions.
We already have SEPA instant in most banks, and it's mostly free or very inexpensive with instant finality for up to 100k for retail users.
That covers 99% of use cases. What's good to bring the Blockchain in a trust based system? It just makes things more complicated.

I don't imagine a bank the size of the ECB would ever let people enjoying the decentralized features of blockchain. Is it true that this giant bank will allow financial freedom and privacy protection on the network? Frankly, I don't think this will happen even in a thousand years. Perhaps they will launch an encrypted version of the euro using blockchain, but with guaranteed control over the mining algorithms and network, enabling continued tracking of transactions and monitoring of financial activity.

[Gozie51]

Again, it's just another pilot program.
While it's a positive thing they are looking into it, it's far from being anything tangible.

Sure but as we know, there's no smoke without fire. Euro zone is already making out plans for digital euro. That's for sure with the CBDC agenda to ease accessibility and convenience of transaction. We are going to see more of this kind of thoughts with more countries from Asia apart from US making bitcoin their reserve.

Euro is made of different countries and now Czech is considering bitcoin as reserve too.

The ECB pilot agenda as such will further engineeer such kind of thinking.

[Kelward]

-cut-
So can this be it?

Do you think Europe is now for crypto investment? What's your view...
-cut-

Again, it's just another pilot program.
While it's a positive thing they are looking into it, it's far from being anything tangible.
Different companies and different regions have pilot programs all the time, and huge of them won't go anywhere from that.

Could be a pilot program that won't be accomplished in the end but Blockchain technology is an added advantage and innovation in modern finance. Cryptocurrency adoption is increasing and I know that in the near future the demand for crypto transactions will increase. I believe that ECB wants to position itself before then to be a part of the movement that is why the project will most likely go beyond pilot stage and be fully implemented. Anyway we will wait and see how far it goes but from my standpoint I see it becoming a reality. Institutions and governments that were skeptical are now embracing Blockchain cryptocurrency and why not ECB?

[Webetcoins]

Blockchain developments are different and in most cases these got nothing to do with bitcoin markets or its speculations. I read lots of banking related developments in regards ripple specifically but I am not seeing xrp going anywhere. But here we are discussing another one where it is going to use blockchain technology and most probably got nothing to with bitcoin. Overall these type of news are not exciting me unlike a new player for strategic bitcoin reserve.

Long back itself, I have learned that governments and corporates will adapt blockchain for various applications but not sure that they will use bitcoin's network. If they adapt bitcoin means that would be a great development.

[Fortify]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ecb-launches-two-track-dlt-settlement-plan-2026

ECB to pilot blockchain-based euro settlement system by 2026
The European Central Bank will launch a blockchain settlement pilot by late 2026 under its new Pontes initiative, aiming to connect DLT platforms with the eurozone’s core payment systems.  

So can this be it?

Contrary to the believe that banks will have nothing to do with cryptocurrency but now with this, we are seeing euro zone taking the lead to introduce more collaboration with blockchain. Banks are already using blockchain to improve security, reduce transaction cost etc but I believe this will further increase the possibility of banks issuing cryptocurrency or hodling for exchange.

Again, recently the Euro zone seem to have opened their doors for crypto business as exchanges have been moving in to secure license, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit and Crypto.com have all secured licenses under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

Do you think Europe is now for crypto investment? What's your view...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/competition-heats-crypto-exchanges-europe

It's worth distinguishing the European central bank from commercial/retail banks, because you seem to be mixing up the two. The ECB is controlled by governments, while the other banks are all just private/public companies which are controlled by their shareholders. It's nice to see the ECB piloting such a scheme, but they are much more independent and free to do such trials, because many governments are perceiving value in these equivalents to the notes & coins that societies have used for centuries. However I'm pretty sure there have been fruitless trials in the past, so don't hold out too much hope that it will go anywhere, but it does encourage other countries to follow suit.

[o48o]

Could be a pilot program that won't be accomplished in the end but Blockchain technology is an added advantage and innovation in modern finance. Cryptocurrency adoption is increasing and I know that in the near future the demand for crypto transactions will increase. I believe that ECB wants to position itself before then to be a part of the movement that is why the project will most likely go beyond pilot stage and be fully implemented. Anyway we will wait and see how far it goes but from my standpoint I see it becoming a reality. Institutions and governments that were skeptical are now embracing Blockchain cryptocurrency and why not ECB?

It literally is a pilot program that is starting from nearly year from now. It says so in the article. And blockchain is just decentralized ledger. How the protocol is done, and what the use cases are determines if it's an advantage or disadvantage.

Experiment however probably doesn't remind anything that pseudonymous crypto users would recognize as crypto use case.

And again, of course they are interested. I can find 409 pilot programs with term "blockchain", and 59 results with "distributed ledger". Most of them have already ended. All i am saying that this is still a far from anything tangible.

[AmoreJaz]

Could be a pilot program that won't be accomplished in the end but Blockchain technology is an added advantage and innovation in modern finance. Cryptocurrency adoption is increasing and I know that in the near future the demand for crypto transactions will increase. I believe that ECB wants to position itself before then to be a part of the movement that is why the project will most likely go beyond pilot stage and be fully implemented. Anyway we will wait and see how far it goes but from my standpoint I see it becoming a reality. Institutions and governments that were skeptical are now embracing Blockchain cryptocurrency and why not ECB?

It literally is a pilot program that is starting from nearly year from now. It says so in the article. And blockchain is just decentralized ledger. How the protocol is done, and what the use cases are determines if it's an advantage or disadvantage.

Experiment however probably doesn't remind anything that pseudonymous crypto users would recognize as crypto use case.

And again, of course they are interested. I can find 409 pilot programs with term "blockchain", and 59 results with "distributed ledger". Most of them have already ended. All i am saying that this is still a far from anything tangible.

Many will try their hands on blockchain technology, as it is the hype in the market. However, very few will succeed to integrate this tech in their business. Just like any other business, few will succeed with their endeavors. As this is the current hype, it will surely attract a lot of interested parties because they want to get in and try if they can indeed get a share of profits.

As the number of companies are growing integrating blockchain tech in their operations, it means, more and more people are learning and understanding how blockchain tech will support their business to come up with a more transparent and fast operations. And with such knowledge, I believe, the number of companies that will utilize this tech will grow in the coming years. Who wouldn't want a fast moving business and a transparent one? Only those that are still traditional and doing business under the table.

[Darker45]

Certainly, this isn't it. And this isn't impressive. Blockchain isn't the magic word. Decentralization is. Blockchain is often wrongly equated with decentralization because it's closely associated with Bitcoin. But decentralization doesn't automatically result from blockchain.

If it's ECB-controlled blockchain facilitating transactions involving fiat currencies, then it's fundamentally the same. There may be improvements in speed, transparency, or whatever, but nothing that addresses underlying fiat problems.

[Zlantann]

Do you think Europe is now for crypto investment? What's your view...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/competition-heats-crypto-exchanges-europe

The crypto sector is an important part of the global financial system that it cannot be neglected. Europe has made a robust law to regulate the crypto space because it wants to control the sector. Centralized exchanges know that Europe is a big crypto market, so they are doing all they can to secure licenses to operate in the bloc because a single license gives them access to many countries.

EU officials are making the zone more secure for both investors and crypto users who use centralized platforms. And they also want to attract more investors to gain more revenue for taxes and also create job opportunities. The government is involved in crypto to control it or make a profit from it.

[joniboini]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure we have multiple trial systems for blockchain-based payment in the EU already. Most of them are small trials, some even failed to launch, afaik so I wonder whether this new trial will be bigger or not. It's no surprise they're trying to use the new tech to make everything faster or cheaper, especially when they still control the network.

I don't think we can stop them from using blockchain or anything similar in the future. What we can do is educate people about the differences and why they should be careful about it if what they want is a decentralized payment network.

[Free Market Capitalist]

So can this be it?

Yeah, that's typical fucking bullshit that the EU is going to use to control transactions along with the digital Euro.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure we have multiple trial systems for blockchain-based payment in the EU already. Most of them are small trials, some even failed to launch, afaik so I wonder whether this new trial will be bigger or not. It's no surprise they're trying to use the new tech to make everything faster or cheaper, especially when they still control the network.

Bolded the relevant word here.

I don't think we can stop them from using blockchain or anything similar in the future. What we can do is educate people about the differences and why they should be careful about it if what they want is a decentralized payment network.

I don't think we can make anything out of this forum and neither at the individual level. The many EU citizens who trust the EU states and structures will accept whatever comes from the EU without complaint. Those of us who are skeptical will already take our measures to try to protect ourselves without anyone having to teach us anything.