For a long time, the Germans’ love of cash was considered virtually indestructible. However, payments are now being made more frequently. The Gircocard is being pulled out for more than half of all purchases. Corona has accelerated this trend towards convenient, fast, and contactless digital payment. Technology giants such as the US provider Apple Pay or the Chinese Alipay are beneficiaries. They quickly gain market share and, at the same time, roll up the financial market because they outperform traditional banks when it comes to quick and easy payments on the Internet or via smartphones. If you’re interested in learning more about bitcoin trading, go to the official bitcoin circuit for a complete tutorial to crypto trading.
Customers leave traces in the digital payment process, supermarket, and online shopping. A small fee is paid during processing, particularly American companies such as Google, PayPal, or credit card providers – and no less valuable: customer data is transmitted, with millions of daily and worldwide transactions.
It’s about standards, access, and market power.
The currencies themselves are also being disrupted: The Chinese state bank is developing a digital yuan in China. Several private companies are working on their digital currencies in the US, most notably Facebook with Diem. Digital payment is therefore not just about convenience but standards, access and market power, and digital sovereignty. The European Central Bank (ECB) has now given the go-ahead for a digital euro is, therefore, an excellent opportunity for companies and people in Europe.
Central banks and states must react to the disruption while retaining monetary sovereignty. Because if several digital private and state currencies existed independently of one another in Europe one day, prices would only be comparable to a limited extent. The prominent example of bitcoin shows where the problem lies: in the beginning, you could buy a pizza with one bitcoin – today, you can buy a mid-range car. Bitcoin is therefore unsuitable as a means of payment. It is and remains an energy-guzzling object of speculation. That’s why the ECB’s decision on the digital euro is all the more critical. But can a central bank compete with the players from the USA and China at all?
Scepticism when looking at user-friendliness
About user-friendliness, scepticism is warranted. Neither the state nor the authorities were previously known as providers of convenient solutions. In addition, the danger of digital bank runs would be natural if every citizen were to have an account with the ECB in which their digital euros were stored. The ECB would then possibly no longer be just a central bank but a “normal” provider of retail accounts. But that is neither their job nor their competence.
THEREFORE, the ECB should provide an infrastructure in terms of protocols, procedures, and standards of a digital euro so that private banks and financial service providers can build innovative products and apps such as wallets, i.e., digital wallets, on this digital currency. It also leads to competition for trust and the best technical solutions.
No transparent customers
For citizens, it would be a low-data, data-secure, and trustworthy, convenient form of digital payment if the digital euro were programmed so that it left no transparent customers behind. It is the main advantage of a digital euro – because the ECB would define the digital standards of its currency.
Therefore, a digital euro should also include offline functionality – this is the only way to ensure that it is accessible to all citizens. And it also offers an advantage over classic electronic payment methods.
Digital currency can only complement cash.
Low-threshold access to the digital euro must be guaranteed for everyone in the euro area. It allows citizens to use electronic payment methods without having their bank accounts. The digital euro also has a clear advantage over private providers, for example, because it has to protect privacy in payment behaviour – although it is true anyway that a digital euro will only be a supplement, not a replacement for classic cash.
Crypto airdrop:
The concept of a crypto airdrop cannot be separated from two sides, namely the advantages and disadvantages of its use. As a way to “stand out” amid competition for new cryptocurrencies, the crypto airdrop method is considered entirely instrumental. Besides being a promotional tool, crypto airdrops are also a way for digital currency to be widely used.
