As a reminder, national central bank digital currencies, or so-called CBDCs, are the next generation of conventional money. In essence, it is a purely digital version of the latter. Although there are advantages to this solution – electronic money does not require any transportation or maintenance costs compared to traditional money – it is understandably questionable for ordinary people.

After all, CBDCs are completely controlled by banks, and every transaction will be traceable. Additionally, in comparison to full cryptocurrencies there will be no pseudo-anonymity, so, any citizen’s activity will be on the palm of his hand.

Euro

The authorities' desire to implement the digital euro has been known before. In particular, in April 2021, the head of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde said that it would take about four years to develop an electronic version of the currency.

What will happen to national digital currencies?

As well as an open comments section on the website, a targeted consultation questionnaire has also been compiled to gather input from industry, authorities and experts. This is about data regarding aspects of the digital euro such as privacy, data protection, anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) rules, the impact on financial stability, and user needs and expectations.

During last year's round of consultations on the digital euro, a majority of respondents favoured making payments in the new currency private. Despite this, European Commission economic commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said that "a completely anonymous digital euro is undesirable".

European Commission economic commissioner Paolo Gentiloni

There are other points of view – for example, one anonymous commentator thinks the idea of a digital euro is inadvisable at all. Here is his rejoinder.

No! Digital means of payment already exist! So why else would a central bank need a digital currency? For even more surveillance, to prevent customer churn in banking, dependency and subsequent enslavement of humanity? The digital euro will not prevent money laundering. The 10,000 largest companies are already well established in many tax havens – e.g. the Cayman Islands, Macao, Dubai and so on.

This view is close to that of another commentator, Michael Hagmuller. Here is his point of view.

I am against the digital euro for the EU. My concern is that basic freedoms could be threatened here too, with authoritarian governments then gaining full control. The example of the Maastricht criteria shows that previous governments don’t follow the rules, while with the digital euro the state will be able to do whatever it wants with its citizens and suppress any opposition.

In other words, users are not happy with absolute control of the currency by the state. However, conventional fiat money in paper form allows payment for goods and services offline, i.e. unnoticed by the issuers of the money. In the case of digital money this will be part of history - and it is this feature that makes ordinary people so anxious.

The digital euro

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, the public comments section is dominated by German – that is, it seems that just the majority of Germans are against the currency. Only by scrolling through a few pages can you see comments in other languages.

Here is, for example, an opinion published by one Marcel Dipstra. He insinuates that a centralised digital currency is not really needed by the EU.

Over the past thirteen years, we have seen that crypto-based digital currencies can be secure and trustworthy by being fully decentralised. Such a currency cannot be changed without the agreement of a majority of all stakeholders.

Discussion on the European Commission website

In the comments of citizens of smaller EU member states, there is also noticeable anxiety about the possibility of further consolidation of power in the hands of the largest EU economies. For example, Milan Golje from Slovakia called for preserving the sovereignty of Union members.

Neither I nor my whole family agrees with this. I think the EU has gone too far, the economic aid grouping between sovereign states is gradually turning into a dictatorial system run by two big players. We certainly didn’t want that.

It is worth noting that a poll on the European Commission website cannot be considered the “final authority” in deciding on the integration of the digital euro. However, such a negative reaction will surely make EU members question the feasibility of the initiative.

Burning dollar


We think people's fears here are well founded. After all, full-fledged cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherium allow you to maintain some semblance of anonymity while fully owning and disposing of your assets. But the introduction of digital fiat currencies and the gradual displacement of cash will threaten citizens' freedom of action. And while this is sure to be presented in the name of anti-money laundering, people should still be able to conduct transactions without the scrutiny of the authorities. And cryptocurrencies provide that opportunity.


What do you think about this? Share your opinion in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. We’ll talk about other blockchain-related topics there as well.