30.08.2024 04:18 PM

The digital euro: The future of currency in Germany?

Tech

Vortrag

A new edition of our “Between the Towers” (#btt) took place at the beginning of March. For those who are not yet familiar with our event series: We dedicate the first Tuesday of every month to current and future trends in the financial services sector. This time, the focus was on the digital euro – a topic that is often overshadowed by the dominant discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), but which the European Central Bank (ECB) is currently investigating. However, the digital euro promises far-reaching changes and new opportunities that should be viewed independently of AI trends. Will we soon be moving away from cash and towards a purely digital form of payment?

In a series of presentations, three experts shed light on the different facets and implications of the digital euro and discussed how its introduction is linked to the protection of privacy. Read for yourself!

Digital euro as a social function

What does the digital euro have to do with Donald Trump? Quite a lot! Dr. Carola Westermeier (Justus Liebig University Giessen) explains why this is the case in her keynote speech on digital payments. She looks at the digital euro from a social science perspective. The key finding of her presentation: We need the Digital Euro in order to reduce dependencies and thus be able to introduce a new means of payment. This need became particularly clear when the Trump administration announced sanctions against Iran. The EU initially did not want to go along with this, but ultimately had to give in.

Watch the video to find out why this was the case and what the digital euro could change throughout the eurozone.

The possible introduction of a digital euro - use cases and benefits

Pay-per-minute on Netflix? This is one of the possible use cases promised by the digital euro. Whether this is good if you fall asleep in the evening or are offline remains to be seen. Although the digital euro is still a long way off, there are already some companies that are thinking about use cases and opening the investigation phase into the advantages and disadvantages of the digital euro.

In their presentation, Philipp Misura and Christian Nostiz (Horn & Company) will take a closer look at what these are and what the potential abolition of cash means for the financial industry.

The digital euro project: state of play

“Eurosystem launches the next phase of the digital euro project” In October 2023, this news reignited the debate surrounding payment with the digital euro (D€). And the critics were immediately back: “Superfluous money”, “Danger of bank runs” and “Warnings of surveillance potential” were the most harmless headlines.

In her presentation, Dr. Heike Winter from the Bundesbank sheds light on the current status of the project surrounding the possible introduction. The Eurosystem is currently in an intensive research and development phase in which numerous technical, legal and economic issues need to be clarified.

In this video, you can find out what is really going on and where the digital euro project currently stands, which issues still need to be clarified and why the introduction will not take place until 2028 at the earliest:

Click here for the video