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for all intents and purposes the Euro is already digital. you send money to persons and companies via instant wire transfer, you pay digitally when shopping onl
by dinkblam 1y ago
for all intents and purposes the Euro is already digital. you send money to persons and companies via instant wire transfer, you pay digitally when shopping online and you pay digitally in physical stores with your card or NFC phone.
what possible benefit over what already exists and is in wide use could a "digital euro" offered by the ECB provide to any EU citizen?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mejutoco 1y agoIf they give money as some sort of relief they could specify what it can be used on: groceries, education etc
- zmgsabst 1y agoUS already does that just fine with EBT. I think most discussion of “digital dollars” is just jingling your keys in one hand while taking away physical currency with the other — as the final step in their long war on using cash.
- baq 1y agoevery euro account ultimately ends up on the ECB's balance sheet, so why keep middlemen?
- lotsofpulp 1y agoSo there is a middleman that can be blamed or used as a fall guy or whatnot. Also, non governments can arbitrarily deny services without recourse for customers, whereas governments in developed countries have to provide justification.
- broeng 1y agoI haven't looked into it much, but I assume the point is that it avoids the SWIFT system.
- jagermo 1y agoI think it would help create fintech local alternatives to Visa and Mastercard, if it gets feature parity. It could be cool and, to be honest, this market could use a bit of a shakeup.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- gus_massa 1y agoHere in Argentina we have as altetnatives the debit card (mostly a Visa variant), and QR from MercadoPago (MercadoLibre) and Modo (¿a alliance of the banks?) and a few minor ones. Even the guy that sells dobious products in the subway or sing or just ask for money my have a QR or a text alternative (like house.banana.dog). It's not necesary to create digital pesos, they are already digital.
- jagermo 1y agoWe have that too, but it basically moves money around, like a debit card. A few key features from credit cards are missing, like reserving an amount for a car rental. That would be the most relevant thing to get right.
- usrnm 1y agoBoth Visa and Mastercard work just fine with the regular old school euro, why would you need something entirely new to create a local competitor to an already existing service?
- lexicality 1y agoWhy might someone be interested in replacing two monopolistic entities headquartered in a foreign and increasingly irrational power both of which have long histories (and recent controversies) in applying their own moralistic framework to economic activity? That's a great question!
- 1y ago