ECB’s Lagarde Asks the Public On Decentralized EURO

ECB’s Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, open up the issue of the digital euro to public consultation. One of the questions was Do Europeans want a digital euro that does not rely on intermediaries or not? Let’s read more in today’s altcoin news.

ECB’s Lagarde opened up a survey and the main question was whether the people that live in the region want a digital euro that doesn’t rely on intermediaries. Christine Lagarde opened up the matter of a digital euro for the public consultation and she tweeted:

 “As Europeans are increasingly turning to digital in the ways they spend, save and invest, we should be prepared to issue a digital euro, if needed. I’m also keen to hear your views on it.”

Climate change is everybody’s responsibility and I have spoken this year about how I want to explore every avenue available to combat climate change. Central banks need to devote greater attention to understanding its impact. pic.twitter.com/XPBtuXS3Yg

— Christine Lagarde (@Lagarde) November 1, 2020

Lagarde who used to run the International Monetary Fund said in a video that the survey means that “consumers and Europeans can actually express their preferences and tell us whether they would be happy to use a digital euro just in the way they use a euro coin or a euro banknote, knowing that it is central bank money that is available and they can rely upon.”

She continued:

 “We are still in the review and consideration stage.”

The survey asked the respondents to rank their preferences for the digital currency and answer these questions as to what functionalities and services or use cases will be feasible and should be considered when developing the digital euro project. The ECB survey described “two approaches we can take to make a digital euro work, one that requires intermediaries to process the payments and one that doesn’t.”

In the first, the European Central Bank described the digital currency project as that won’t need the central bank or any other intermediary to be involved in the processing of a payment. This will feel much closer to cash payments but in digital form, as you would be able to use the digital euro even when you are not connected to the internet so your data will be better protected. In the second approach, the intermediaries will record all transactions. It seems that the first approach takes a shot of Bitcoin’s book since it was the first built to end reliance on intermediaries.