Yay! The EU May Have A Chance To Escape CBDC

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Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is becoming real, quite a few countries are working on replacing cash with CBDC, among which, the most eager to do so is China, due to enormous pressures from Bitcoin, the two domestic electronic wallet companies and international threats.

The other pole is represented by Sweden, where control is not the reason why CBDC is going to be implemented. The decreasing use of cash is forcing the government to replace cash with digital currency. Another reason why cash is replaced with digital currency is the cost of handling cash, in countries like The Bahamas, where collecting cash from hundreds of islands is becoming a real problem, especially now that the tourism industry is almost dead.

What CBDC Means

I've been following the subject not because I'm eager to use digital currency, but because I'm against it and wanted to see how it evolves in the world.

The problem with CBDC is the enormous control governments can get over people's finances, throughout central banks. They not only can see every transaction you make, but can also take control of your finances. They will have the ability to block your account, take what you owe them.

Handling finances should be every individual's private business but once digital currency is implemented and replace cash, you can kiss privacy good bye.

CBDC In The EU

The European Union has been thinking of introducing the digital euro, but the whole project has only been at the level of talks, discussions, consultations.

Today I came across an article that gives room to hope though.

The Eurosystem, the monetary authority of the euro area has conducted a search launched a survey on 12 October 2020 until 12 January 2021, regarding CBDC. The results have been published recently.

Most of the respondents are from Germany (47%), Italy (15%) and France (11%). Five other European countries are making up the rest.

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If you look at the chart, it's obvious what's the most concern of the respondents.

I want my payments to remain a private matter

The keyword here is privacy! Privacy matters the most.

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Of you look at the chart above, it's obvious that respondents representing the tech industry, merchants and citizens in general want privacy. The banking industry is the least concerned about privacy as banks are controlled to a certain extent, they have to report to the government.

Any future European digital currency should ensure users’ payments cannot be tracked, according to respondents to a European Central Bank survey who highlighted the importance of privacy in any future monetary innovation.

More than 40 per cent of the over 8,200 respondents to the consultation about a digital euro said their priority was for payments to remain “a private matter”, reflecting the deep attachment of many Europeans to the anonymity of cash. source

The European Union is made of 27 countries and has millions of citizens. 19 countries are using the euro (€) as the official currency, so digital euro would concern them in the first phase, but the rest of the European Union as well.

Fabio Panetta, a member of the ECB executive board said digital Euro could be ready to launch in about five years. This estimation I think it's based on hoe much the technical process would take. However, to reach consensus in this specific question is a different matter.

“Electronic payments are becoming increasingly popular, so a digital euro would ensure that sovereign money — a public good that central banks have been offering to citizens for centuries — remains available in the digital era,” he said. “A digital euro would not mean the end of cash. It would complement cash, not replace it.source

Even if digital euro would be implemented, would not replace cash, it would complement it. This is very important for more reasons, one of which is elderly people will not be forced to drop using cash and learn to use digital wallets. The other is privacy, you can continue using cash.

Personally I'm not threatened by digital currency as although my country is part of the EU, we're not using euro yet and chances are adopting euro is far. My country is always first for all the wrong reasons, like corruption, implementing EU rules too late and things like that.

Regarding digital currency, we're not even in the study phase, so no threats for me yet. However, there's no time to waste. This is the time to work hard, build and consolidate the future.


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It is an optimistic sign. The longer they mess around with their surveys, studies, and discussions, the better it is for the industry. While they are doing that, we are developing and filling our bags. Time is an ally as long as we keep pushing forward as fast as we can.

The more decentralization we can achieve, the better it is when they finally do decide to do something.

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It is indeed optimistic, we agree on that. Instead of forcing CBDC on people, like China does, at least they are considering all the options and taking into consideration public opinion too.

Even if they decide to implement it, it will take awhile till they can get 19 countries to agree on it.

Time is on our side now, we have to make the most of it, push decentralization hard.

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Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

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