The Digital Euro: Characteristics Opportunities and Risks

The first states to start a race towards issuing their own national digital currency were: China and Sweden, with the e-currency, reserving for forecasts of 2021 and 2022 an unofficial issuance of theirs subject to the consent of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), (and for Sweden) with a favourable outcome of the European Central Bank. Also adding to this record is the role of the United States, which plans to issue a digital dollar as early as 2021.The characteristics of digital currencies are basically built using the same mathematical-computer algorithms for Blockchain ‘coins’, nothing new for what has already been done for Cryptocurrencies. Users will be given a wallet (in this case, digital, the user will have a URL address to access it and a private key) that will be personal to each user. The operation of this digital currency has as its aim or objective to replace the use of cash altogether, providing a virtual alternative to one’s own currency and greater control over the proliferation of financial crimes.Therefore, the digital euro will maintain the same financial quotation on the currency market as is established for euro banknotes. Moreover, it will have the same operational possibilities, such as use throughout Europe and in all Eurozone countries. Unlike before, it will be a centralised currency with continuous monitoring, of an economic and security nature, by the ECB and the national central banks. The European Parliament’s rationale for introducing this new instrument is also important: it aims to reduce the phenomenon of an economic monopoly by private individuals in managing currencies and exchanges, who establish their own rules on their own account, outside of any contractual or civil law regulation, establishing how to exchange and at what price. European institutional sources expect to proceed with an initial trial of the digital…