Gain insights into the European Central Bank’s prototype exercise for the digital euro, evaluating design decisions’ technological viability and compatibility with the European payments system.
The overview and lessons gained from the prototype exercise that took place from July 2022 to February 2023 have been released by the European Central Bank. It evaluated the technological viability of design decisions for the digital euro and their compatibility with the current European payments system.
The experiments shown that it is feasible to seamlessly combine them while still providing lots of room for novel features and technology. The results also shown that a digital euro would function both online and offline using distinct designs, boosting the robustness of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Europe.
The investigation stage of the digital euro project’s prototyping exercise is crucial. To make sure that central bank money is still available in the digital era, the ECB and the national central banks of the euro area started this effort. The inquiry phase got started in October 2021, and it will end in the fall of 2023. It intends to resolve important concerns regarding the layout and distribution of the CBDC.
In 2022, Nexi was chosen as one of the five businesses to supply front-end prototypes for testing various payment use cases. Nexi was selected in particular for the use case involving point-of-sale transactions that the payee initiated.
Roberto Catanzaro, chief business officer merchant solutions of Nexi Group and member of the Digital Euro Market Advisory Group, said, “We are honored to have been chosen to support the European Central Bank during the investigation phase of the digital euro.” “To promote widespread acceptance of the CBDC, an engaging user and merchant experience is essential. To establish a clear path forward, we have incorporated our best knowledge of acceptance and mobile payment technology.
