The discussion continues regarding when will the European Union issue a Central Bank Digital Currency ( CBDC ).
On the popular social media platform Reddit, the Stellar Crypto Community are in a buzz, due to statements by the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, however, a decision on the project has not been made. The CBDC project is set to be release mid- year 2021.
As the IMF Director, Lagarde developed a research committee that included some of the top knowledgeable people in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Nevertheless, in an interview with Bloomberg, Lagarde said that the decision on whether to approve the Digital Euro will be made by the ECB’s Governing Council. However, the president of the banking institution has been more in favor of Stablecoins.
Outlining the roadmap for the Digital Euro, ECB president said that they will soon publish an analysis of the public consultation process that was opened for the project. The institution will then deliver these results to the European Parliament and receive the green light to pilot the CBDC.
Lagarde estimates that the subsequent assessments will last between 6 months to 1 year. In total, the deployment of the Digital Euro may take 4 years.
Stellar & The Digital Euro:
Lagarde emphasized that the “intermediaries” that depend on the current system will continue to be able to operate within the current institutions, credit lines and cash which “will coexist” with the CBDC. In the Stellar community many users speculated about the possibility of the CBDC be deploy on top of Stellar Lumens blockchain. One users comment posted in the Stellar community discussion stated that “the institution could opt for this option to take advantage of the benefits of a “public-private partnership”.
They are not collapsing the current system to go secretive again. the secrecy of the whole current financial system is its biggest issue and the reason nobody trusts the bankers.…the money is going to have to be a public utility, trusted by everyone.
Users in favor of this thesis highlighted that Stellar Lumens meets the requirements described by Lagarde: capacity to settle transactions, cross border remittance, and medium of exchange capabilities. The discussion continued but the community failed to reach a consensus.
Include. Inform. Invest.
Those are the actions needed to move towards a sustainable future that combines growth and innovation.#BISInnovationSummit pic.twitter.com/IqcTq2OM6F
— Christine Lagarde (@Lagarde) March 27, 2021
Most users believe that the banking institution will opt to use a private blockchain built specifically to host the CBDC. However, they did not rule out that the Digital Euro could be “interoperable” with other CBDCs and could even be convertible to cryptocurrencies on the Stellar Lumens, Ethereum, or other blockchains.
As stated by Lagarde in the interview:
“Those are the actions needed to move towards a sustainable future that combines growth and innovation”.
