The ECB's forced march towards a digital €

Europe has discovered, hopefully not too late, that sovereignty still matters.

The vast majority of central banks is contemplating the issue of a digital version of their currencies. Although money is a state’s creature, retail payments are increasingly performed through privately controlled infrastructures, thus challenging sovereignty.

Regulation will remain Europe’s most powerful weapon if properly and timely used, as evidenced by Alipay’s difficulties to export its model or the postponement of the Libra project.

In order to contain foreign ambitions over its strategic but particulalry vulnerable retail payment infrastructure, the EC and the ECB have designed a defensive strategy.

The latter is likely to be complemented with the issuance of a digital euro.

• What is a digital euro?
• How does it differ from other digital coins?
• Will it be a powerful weapon and how will it be used?
• How transformational will it be for the financial industry and our lives?
• Is it the begginning of the end of the USD supremacy?