The European Central Bank (ECB) has selected five companies to help develop the user interface for the digital euro. Each company will work with the ECB to focus on a specific use case for the digital euro. Amazon will focus on e-commerce payments.
The ECB will work with five companies on the digital euro
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Friday that it will work with five companies to “develop potential user interfaces” for the digital euro.
The ECB explained that.
The purpose of this prototyping is to test the extent to which the technology behind the digital euro integrates with the prototypes developed by the companies.
Each selected company will work with the ECB to focus on a specific use case for the digital euro.
Caixabank and Worldline will focus on peer-to-peer online payments; EPI and Nexi will focus on in-store payments made by payers. Amazon will focus on e-commerce payments.
The ECB explained that it selected five of the 54 front-end providers, adding that they best match the “specific capabilities” needed for the assigned use cases.
The ECB emphasized.
The prototyping exercise is a key element in the ongoing two-year research phase of the Digital Euro project, which is expected to be completed in Q1 2023, when the ECB will also publish its findings.
The ECB noted that “the simulated transactions will be launched using front-end prototypes developed by the five companies and processed through the Eurosystem interface and back-end infrastructure. There are no plans to reuse the prototypes in subsequent phases of the digital euro project.”
Last October, the ECB formally launched a study of what the digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), would look like, noting that the study phase would last about two years ECB President Lagarde said in February that the digital euro would not replace cash but complement it. It is a complement to it.” He explained that “the digital euro will give people more choices about how they pay, make it easier, and contribute to accessibility and inclusion.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons