After years of experimenting with the notion, the European Central Bank acknowledges working on a digital euro project that will span 24 months. The organization claimed to preserve users’ anonymity while consuming less energy than Bitcoin.

The ECB Acknowledges That It Is Working On A Digital Euro Greener than Bitcoin

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) Governing Council has voted to acknowledge working on a digital euro initiative. 

Following the vote, Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup, entered the meeting, thanked the Governing Council, and offered his complete support for the initiative.

“We released our study on a digital euro nine months ago. During that time, we did more analyses, gathered feedback from people and experts, and conducted various tests, with positive results. All of this has prompted us to shift gears and launch the digital euro project,” says ECB President Christine Lagarde. 

“Our work strives to guarantee citizens and businesses to continue to have access to the safest form of money, central bank money, in the digital age.”

The announcement claimed that the energy used by the digital euro will be “negligible in comparison to the energy consumption and environmental footprint of crypto-assets such as Bitcoin.” 

Of course, it’s important to note that the Digital Euro will most likely have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin in general.

The Investigating Phase Will Last 24 Months 

The study phase will last 24 months, to acknowledge critical design and distribution concerns.

A digital euro must be capable of meeting Europeans’ demands while also assisting in the prevention of illegal activities and preventing any negative influence on financial stability and monetary policy. 

This will not affect any future decision on the prospective issuing of a digital euro, which will be made later. In any case, a digital euro would supplement, rather than replace, physical currency.

The Eurosystem will concentrate on a potential functional design based on user requirements.

The inquiry phase will look at the use cases that a digital euro should prioritize to achieve its goals of being a risk-free, accessible, and efficient form of digital central bank money.