Will Europe’s Digital Euro Really Protect Privacy?

You see, unlike Olejnik, I think the CBCD, if done right, can bring real economic value. I see smart contract capabilities enabled by true peer-to-peer monetary settlement bringing new, society-wide efficiencies that bank-mediated IOU money simply cannot do. I continue to prioritize private sector-led stablecoin models and believe that bitcoin and other native cryptocurrencies are critical to our financial future. But it is simplistic to dismiss CBDCs as redundant. Whether crypto people like it or not, CBDCs will bring the power of monetary programmability to the economy. (Unsurprisingly, the EC proposal would explicitly outlaw value-added use for the digital euro – which, again, begs the question: what’s the point?)