The European Central Bank (ECB) is working with Amazon, CaixaBank, Nexi and others to Euro digital trial launch.
The central bank has selected five companies from among 54 candidates to help develop the Euro Digital Prototype (CBDC). Stay with magentabyte.
Euro Digital trial launch
On September 16, the European Central Bank selected five companies to help develop the digital euro interface: e-commerce giant Amazon, Italian bank Nexi and Spanish bank CaixaBank, it noted.
The central bank intends to examine and measure the interaction and integration of the digital euro in various applications. Each of the selected companies will focus on a EuroDigital use case.
Amazon is responsible for testing e-commerce payment systems. Caixa Bank and Worldline are responsible for prototyping P2P payments. EPI and Nexi are supposed to work on retail payments.
Despite the work of private companies on the use cases and integration of the digital euro, the European Central Bank is solely responsible for the development of the CBDC code and infrastructure. The prototypes created by these five companies will only be used for the Euro Digital test launch. According to the European Central Bank, the data obtained will not be used in the next stages of the project.
The ECB announced that the trial launch of the digital euro will be completed in the next few months. According to expectations, the digital version of the euro will be released by the first quarter of 2023.
Roberto Catanzaro, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer of Nexi Group, announced in a statement that Nexi Group will contribute to the development of Euro Digital.
Security challenges of launching Euro Digital
According to El Economista, a local Spanish media outlet, the European Central Bank is worried about the launch of the digital euro. The digital euro may lead to exposure of commercial bank deposits. That is why the ECB works with several leading payment service providers.
Companies selected by the European Central Bank analyze the risks and opportunities associated with the launch of a CBDC. The European Central Bank’s concerns are largely related to the deep economic collapse of Spain’s Banco Popular in 2017.
After the collapse of Spain’s Banco Popular, several companies and public institutions withdrew their funds in less than two months. This issue caused the loss of capital of about 300 thousand minor capitalists.
ECB officials recently announced that the digital euro will be marketed with the aim of retail trading.
The use of digital euro is only for a certain number of people, and companies do not have the right to use this asset to settle bills or invoices.