ECB Chief Lagarde Says Digital Euro Will Not Replace Cash — But Could Offer Convenient, Cost-Free Means of Payment – Regulation Bitcoin News

Christine Lagarde (CEB president) stated that a digital currency will not replace money but complement it. “A digital euro would give you an additional choice about how to pay and make it easier to do so, contributing to accessibility and inclusion,” the ECB explained.

Digitized Euro to Compliment Cash

Christine Lagarde (ECB President) spoke on Monday, the 20th Anniversary of Euro Banknotes’ introduction.

“Last year, we launched the digital euro project,” she said. “We will investigate how a digital euro could offer a convenient, cost-free means of payment, allowing people to pay anywhere in the euro area with risk-free digital money – for example, when making payments online, which preclude the use of cash,” the ECB chief continued, emphasizing:

A digital euro, in any case, would not replace cash. This is why we started the process of redesigning our banknotes.

Two-year investigations by the European Central Bank into digital euros were launched in October 2013. “Once the investigation phase has ended, we will decide whether or not to start developing a digital euro. We would then create and test possible solutions, working together with banks and companies which could provide the technology and the payment services,” the ECB clarified.

The ECB website details: “The digital euro would still be a euro: like banknotes but digital. It would be an electronic form of money issued by the Eurosystem (the ECB and national central banks) and accessible to all citizens and firms.” It adds:

The digital euro will give you more options for how you pay, and it makes it simpler to pay. This would increase accessibility and inclusion.

The European Commission plans to present a bill that will lay the legal basis for the digital euro. The legislation will support the ECB’s work on the digital euro. “Our goal is to table legislation in early 2023,” said Mairead McGuinness, European commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and the Capital Markets Union.

What do you think about ECB Chief Lagarde’s remarks on the digital euro? Please leave your comments below.

Kevin Helms

Kevin is a graduate of Austrian Economics. He discovered Bitcoin in 2011, and has been an advocate ever since. His main interests are in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, cryptography, and intersections between economics, cryptography, and Cryptography.