ECB is building an app for the digital euro
The European Central Bank (ECB) published yesterday, April 24, a report on CBDC development.
The European Central Bank (ECB) published yesterday, April 24, a report on the development of a CBDC. The focus right now is on access to the digital euro, for example through its own app.
According to the report the top priority is the accessibility of the digital euro. EU citizens and governments are the first to be included in the system, the report says. But people who don't live in the euro area can also be integrated into the system. The report says the CBDC would likely be made available to people through popular existing financial apps or a brand-new ECB-developed app.
"It is important that all participants embrace the digital euro... A smart-contract-like feature is also not ruled out. Conditions-based payments that are automatically executed when predefined conditions are met," the ECB goes on to say.
The European Commission intends to issue a regulation in the second quarter of this year on the rollout of a digital euro. CBDCs are controversial in the crypto community. Some hail them as a cheap alternative for international payments, others worry about privacy and total government control.
At the end of March, a Bitcoin collective projected the BTC logo onto the ECB's headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. The motive: to show the central bank an alternative.
