The European Central Bank or ECB has publicized it will be doing partnership with five firms for the growth of potential digital user terminals.
On Friday, the ECB in its announcement has stated that it has picked up “four giant” tech firms namely Amazon, fintech firm Nexi, Spanish digital bank CaixaBank, French payments’ platform Worldline and the European Payments Initiative or EPI to center on enhancing a prototype grounded on particular use cases of the digital euro. The central bank has revealed that the companies will develop front-end prototypes, which will not be allowed to use in later aspects of the virtual currency project.
Firms and their special use cases
In company with the ECB team, the specified firms will center on special use case of a digital euro:
- Peer-to-peer online payments – CaixaBank;
- Per-to-peer offline payments – Worldline;
- Point of sale payments initiated by the payer – EPI;
- Point of sale payments initiated by the payee- Nexi;
- E-commerce payments – Amazon.
The ECB picked up five firms grounded on their satisfying “particular capabilities” as compared to other fifty front-end developers that replied to the call of central bank in April. Officers calculated the project to end in the first quarter of the next year as a segment of a two-year interrogation phase into the virtual euro, anticipated to finish in October 2023.
As concern to the central bank virtual currencies looks to be increasing worldwide, ECB officers have been finding the potential effect of a digital euro on Europe at the time being unclear about it or when the bank could issue a CBDC.
The central bank ordered a set of focus communities on digital payment methods in the last year, which advised that utilizing virtual currency at online and offline shops can be a main feature of a digital euro. A former public consultation also advised that privacy was acknowledged “the most significant characteristic of a digital euro by citizens as well as professionals.”
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/09/18/ecb-chooses-4-companies-to-prototype-digital-euro-app/