The European Central Bank Takes the Goal of Making the Euro Digital Offline Very Seriously

The bulk of the bank’s $1.3 billion contract allocation will go toward vendors who would facilitate digital Euro offline payments.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced its intention to award up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to prospective contractors in an effort to discover service providers for various elements, such as risk management, information security, and a user application. There will be over half going into the offline payment system.

A central bank digital currency (CBDC) is being considered by about a hundred economies as a means to enter the digital era and compete with private cryptocurrencies. Among important jurisdictions, the 27-nation European Union shows a heightened interest in being ready for one.

The European Central Bank has been considering the possibility of creating a digital currency similar to the euro for some time now. Approximately 340 million individuals across 20 EU nations utilize this fund. The executive branch of the group even suggested laws for digital money in 2023, which would have prohibited interest and big holdings and promised instantaneous offline transfers.

Despite the ECB’s repeated denials, the requests for suppliers suggest that the promises made in the legislative measures are exerting pressure on the bank to deliver on its digital euro plans.

The bank released an update on the CBDC rulebook’s development last week, coinciding with the application calls.

According to Jonas Gross, head of the Digital Euro Association (DEA), the European Central Bank is requesting an enormous sum of $1.3 billion, which is a significant sum. According to him, the budget is realistic in light of the ECB’s expectations.

Gross said, “Uh, man, this is really a lot of money.” This was his first response. “However, bearing in mind that it is a multi-year agreement, the ECB has high expectations that the partners will provide a product that is practically customized for commercialization.”

“It seems like they’re taking this seriously and really want it, but it could also mean that there are a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of vendor expertise needed to get it to market,” Gross said.

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