The EU says it will introduce a digital payments infrastructure to replace Visa/Mastercard & Apple/Google Pay. It will have zero fees and be 100% European-only.
https://www.independent.ie/business/digital-euro-what-it-is-and-how-we-will-use-the-new-form-of-cash/a165973061.html
Posted by LoneSwimmer
34 Comments
Ooh, that’s a great move from the ecb. That’s the kind of shit the EU should be doing.
And it will arrive in 2045.
Hopefully Irish government isn’t involved in developing it. Will never be done
It’s a good idea to get away from these American payment processors since they seem to be quite trigger happy of interference. However, who knows how long this will take.
Dear EU,
Please just stop solely relying on google services API, make a payment system outside of this monopolistic ecosystem.
Oh wait, this is another digital monopoly game now with digital ID..
Nevermind.
Some countries already have this, they should just expand one of them to save time/ money. BLIK works pretty flawlessly for online and at card terminals.
Excellent. There is prior art for this (see India) which, if used well, should mean it doesn’t take a slow moving bureaucracy decades to implement. A great move though and really the kind of thing I think the EU should lean into.
Edit: spelling
I think the Digital Euro will be good and glad it’s being perused but this bit is nonsense. Your phone doesn’t cost merchants more.
> An official in the ECB in Frankfurt once told me that whenever he pays in a restaurant or shop, he uses a bank card. Not his phone.
>
>“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he says, “but some hotels really want you to use a physical card. Because, for the merchant, phones are far more expensive. Apple and Google charge quite a bit. So I’m more mindful now, even going into a restaurant, since I know this for professional reasons, that using your phone is just a ‘thank you’ to Apple or Google.”
Francesca Albanese is a perfect reason why this needs to happen. She can’t book a hotel, buy anything on the web or even hire a car as the US have sanctions on her.
It’s times like these you get reminded how good the EU can be when its focus is making lives better instead of pandering to big business.
*”It will have zero fees.”*
Tell that to takeaways.
Can’t wait for the 5g lads to get on this.
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Zero fees until … everyone uses it and then a tax will be added
Good. Having American payment processors at the whims of fundamentalist puritans and headcases like the US government is not a good thing.
What in christ … the EU realises its position as a big trading block and uses this to make an efficient fintech platform that cuts out the american monopolies who rake billions cheap to maintain servicing platforms …
Fuck me , they did something smart
I hope this spawns them onto looking at other things a natural eu public monopoly / or semi monopoly would be a more effective in replacing a renting extracting platform
What’s happening with Zippay?
Unreal, EU should also introduce a public run Amazon competitor. So a neutral marketplace where vendors can sell products online without Amazon harvesting data, cloning successful products, and dominating so much business. Just provide a state-run neutral platform. Where vendors and shippers can compete transparently in one place, so people have more of a choice.
Replacement payment infrastructure built by the EU – this is incredible. Whole-heartedly looking to support development, security, and sustenance of such critical initiative. More than anything the jobs and upskilling this will bring to the EU market is going to be critical.
I am thrilled that such conversations are taking place and very likely current payments giants will create an environment to sabotage this.
By the EU, for the EU (and world if they wish to receive promising and reliable alternatives).
If it results in the likes of Mastercard and Visa offering rewards and greater incentives like in other countries then happy days!
Please God be soon. Payment fees are getting to be a real chunk of small business profits
It has been done on a much smaller scale with success, so I don’t see why not. I lived in Singapore for many years, and they have something called NETS as a payment service provider, as a low-fee alternative to Visa/MC. Your regular bank card would work as both a Visa/MC and a NETS card, with some vendors only accepting cash or NETS.
There’s many other examples too, like China’s UnionPay.
CBDCs are not to be celebrated.
They open the door for all sorts of extra surveillance, restrictions on how you use your money, penalties for buying XYZ, manipulation of financial markets, etc etc.
There is huge potential for the erosion of our personal financial freedom and privacy.
Look at the support in the EU for chat control and similarly invasive “safety measures” and ask yourself if you want to hand these people complete control over how + when you spend your money, and all of your personal data.
The natural next step from this one is a digital ID tied to your digital bank account and your other online accounts such as social media websites. Then one or two steps after that is bureaucrats freezing your bank account because you said something naughty online. Something naughty like “free palestine” for example.
This COULD be amazing , as long as it’s optional and cash and other cards still exist . I do NOT want this linked to digital ID such that we can have our money froze like the Canadian trucker protests or like the Chinese social credit links
Should IBAN transfer’s not already be instant?
Great idea, if this tap to pay stuff takes a percentage per transaction it will covertly syphon off a ton of money after a modest amount of transactions
Between stablecoins and patents that Visa MC Stripe and PayPal have, it’s going to be very difficult to do this. Also ideally a champion within the block would emerge to do this but the scale would take too long.
Riddled with privacy issues
More proof they mean it when they see this opportunity to try strengthen euro vs dollar.
If you want know about deeper issues with currencies right now. Learn about the eurodollar system
It will also be available only from 9 to 5 weekdays , just like AIB money transfer . /s
I support this. Problem is, I can see a lot of anti eu types rail against it “handing power to Brussels”.
I think this is a good idea however this is sort of thing that needs very little political interference. Irish banks tried to setup Laser as a an alternate in the past and that failed. Badly. France keeps trying to make the french tech company but it only ever gets used in France. (I worked for a French tech company that was trying this.)
Also link xkcd [standards](https://xkcd.com/927/) which shows exactly what can happen when try to create a new payments standard.
Should call it Laser
The Americans can’t be trusted. Bigly.
Laser card anyone?
The more Europe can get away from American influence the better. I can only hope the under 16 social media rule is something that can be done on a European basis too.