European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde released a statement on Friday touting the digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a unifying force in the European Union (EU) and said the ECB is aiming to launch it “as early as possible.”
“As much as banknotes will continue to circulate, we want cash to be in the form of a digital euro as well,” Lagarde said, adding that the central bank digital currency could be used for online payments in the EU. She continued:
“This is a big project because the euro is our currency, your currency. It brings us together. It's a symbol of trust in our common destiny, so off we go with the digital euro in the next and final phase of preparation.”
The ECB governing council announced on Thursday that it will move ahead with building the technical infrastructure to test and deploy a retail CBDC, slated to begin rolling out in 2029, if EU lawmakers pass legislation allowing the ECB to issue it.
CBDCs are widely seen as antithetical to cryptocurrency and the core ethos of permissionless, decentralized finance (DeFi). Critics argue that CBDCs create a digital prison that can endanger civil liberties, freedom of speech, and human rights.
ECB Announcement Draws Heavy Backlash From the Crypto Community
The ECB announcement drew heavy criticism from the crypto community and received overwhelmingly negative feedback.
“Begone, witch, we're gonna use private money,” Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of remote procedure call (RPC) node provider Helius, wrote in response to Lagarde and the ECB.
“The common currency is ‘a symbol of trust in our common destiny,’ but creating a central bank digital currency erodes that trust by opening up the door to real-time monitoring of our payments and spending habits,” political writer David Thunder said.
Meanwhile, legal proposals have been submitted from European lawmakers in France and Germany to ban CBDCs and embrace Bitcoin (BTC), a decentralized, neutral, supply-capped digital currency.
Éric Ciotti of the Union of the Right for the Republic, a political party in France, spearheaded a proposal on Wednesday to ban CBDCs in the country.
German political party Alternative for Germany also submitted a motion in October, urging the government to consider BTC as a national strategic asset.