The world seemed not to be prepared for the end of cash. The digital euro makes it clear that yes

The unknown about Why datáphones worked in full blackout He brought another question: if the end of effective money made sense or not. Without operating offline TPVs, the cash It was the only form of payment.

But not having a connection and having an alternative payment method does not evide on digital alternatives. This is something that Europe was raised with the digital euro more than two years ago

The digital euro. After years of study, the European Commission approved in 2023 the First legal framework For him Digital euro. As its name indicates, this will be the digital version of our currency. It is born as an alternative and not as a replacement, at least with the information currently available.

The ECB has everything thought. The European Central Bank detailed in that first framework that the digital euro would operate offline to guarantee privacy.

The technical details have not yet transcended, since this is a development currency, but the transactions without connection will be one of its bases. Both cards and smartphones will temporarily store the funds, synchronizing with the central system when recovering the connection.

A blackout that has not demonstrated so much. Although the blackout left on the table that without TPV there is no way to pay that is not cash, it has failed to show the need for physical money to respond to the need for payment.

If the digital euro manages to operate offline, it will be possible to make transactions even in scenarios such as the one lived this week.

The methodology. Without too much technical depth, the ECB advanced that short -range technologies (Bluetooth, NFC, etc.) are used to make connections between devices, imposing certain limits for transactions in order to mitigate fraud risks.

“The Eurosystem has no interest in collecting data from individual user payments, or in monitoring payment behavior or sharing of those data with government agencies or other public institutions.”

While the ECB stated that privacy will be one of the pillars of the digital euro, with a certain degree of anonymization (intermediaries will not be able to access concrete details about transactions),

Spain, a ticket country. In countries like GermanySurveys collect that half of the population is not willing to use the digital euro. If we focus on Spain, a study by the IPSOS agency evidenced that 65% of respondents were comfortable with current payment methods and would not use this alternative.

Payments are still linked to the private, especially in Spain. According to data from the Bank of Spain 65% of the population used cash in 2023, being the main payment method for purchase in physical stores. Europe wants to have the digital euro ready in the short term (two years ago there was already talk of 2025 and 2026). You won’t have it easy.

Image | Greegrose and Moerschy

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