Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of economics and cryptography.
ECB Picks Amazon and 4 Other Companies to Help Develop Digital Euro – Regulation Bitcoin News
The European Central Bank (ECB) has selected five companies to help develop user interfaces for a digital euro. Each company will work with the ECB and focus on one specific application for the digital euro. Amazon has been chosen to focus on e-commerce payments.
ECB cooperates with 5 companies on digital euro
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Friday that it will work with five companies “to develop potential user interfaces” for a digital euro.
The ECB explained:
The aim of this prototyping exercise is to test how well the technology behind a digital euro integrates with prototypes developed by companies.
Each selected company will work with the ECB and focus on one specific application for a digital euro.
Caixabank and Worldline will focus on peer-to-peer online payments. EPI and Nexi will focus on payer-initiated retail payments. Amazon will focus on e-commerce payments.
The five companies were selected from a pool of 54 front-end providers, the European Central Bank said, adding that they best matched the “specific characteristics” required for the assigned use case.
The ECB emphasized:
The prototyping exercise is an important element in the ongoing two-year investigation phase of the digital euro project. It is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023 when the ECB will also publish its findings.
“Simulated transactions will be initiated using the front-end prototypes developed by the five companies and processed through the Eurosystem’s interface and back-end infrastructure,” the ECB noted. “There are no plans to reuse the prototypes in the subsequent phases of the digital euro project.”
The ECB began formally investigating what the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC), a digital euro, might look like last October, noting that the investigative phase would last about two years. ECB President Christine Lagarde said in February that a digital euro would not replace cash but would complement it. “A digital euro will give you an extra choice about how you pay and make it easier to do so, contributing to accessibility and inclusion,” she explained.
What do you think of the ECB choosing these five companies to develop user interfaces for a digital euro? Let us know in the comments section below.
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