The CBDC will arrive in Europe before October, what do we know about the digital euro?

Europe advances towards the digitalization of the digital euro, a project of a digital currency (CBDC) issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) that began to take shape in 2020.

At a March 6 conference in Frankfurt, Germany, and as Cryptonoticias reported, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, announced the possible launch in October 2025 of the European CBDC, as long as the European Parliament completes the legislative process for approval.

“The deadline for us will be October 2025 and we are preparing for that date, but we will not be able to advance unless the Parliament, the Commission and the Council complete the legislative procedure. The ECB focuses on accelerating the rhythm to actually put this digital euro. ”

Conference from Christine Lagarde, President Central European Bank.

What would the digital euro be?

The European Central Bank explains that the digital euro could function as an alternative of payment or an electronic version of the cash, as the physical tickets or tickets are used today.

“The digital euro would offer another way to pay in stores or shops online, or send money to friends and family.”

European Central Bank statement.

It would be, according to the declarations of the ECB, of a mostly retail means of payment that is would emit and manage centrally by that entity. In addition, the ECB would ensure that each digital euro has a 1: 1 support with the nominal value of a cash in cash.

That is, unlike Bitcoin (BTC), whose operation is completely decentralized, the issuance and distribution of the digital euro It will fall on what the European Central Bank has.

What will be the structure of the digital euro?

The ECB has made it clear that the technological structure of the digital euro is still in definition. In its communiqués, the institution indicates that it is experiencing with different approaches, but has not confirmed which one will be chosen.

Among the options under study, the possibility of Use distributed record technologiesknown as “DLT” for its acronym in English. A DLT is a system where information is stored and updated in multiple nodes or computers, instead of depending on a single central server. Although its use is common in cryptocurrency networks through the so -called “blockchain”, the ECB has not indicated that it will adopt a specific distributed registration system.

A point highlighted by the ECB is interoperability: the digital euro would be designed to Integrate with payment systems existing in the euro zone, facilitating its daily use.

It is likely that this integration of the digital euro includes systems such as Target 2 (T2), a key platform of the ECB that Process interbank payments in real time and that today connects thousands of banks in Europe. Target 2 allows transactions between institutions to flow without problems.

This March 10, 2025 European legislators expressed doubts about the launch of the digital euro after recent failures in T2. During these incidents, banks faced problems processing normally, which generated questions about the reliability of current infrastructure of the ECB and its ability to withstand a large -scale digital currency.

In such a way, while Lagarde is enthusiastic anticipating the launch of the European CBDC for October, the information that the ECB documents have reflect an absence of concrete advances distant to that enthusiasm.

Privacy: broad promises, scarce details

One of the pillars that the ECB underlines in its communications is the privacy in the use of the digital euro. However, the institution does not come into technical details on how this objective will achieve.

According to the ECB, data protection would be guaranteed by a regulation that It must still be approved by European Union legislatorswho will decide how to balance privacy with needs such as the fight against money laundering. The message is clear: the digital euro would be “private”, but not to the point of escape from current regulations.

When it comes to protecting the data and information of the end users, the regulation on the digital euro, as proposed by the European Central Bank (ECB), is based on a legal framework that requires being interpreted and executed by humans, which introduces possible inconsistencies or delays due to the subjective nature of its application.

That approach, although backed by Privacy promises and audits Independent, depends on the will and the ability of legislators and authorities to balance objectives such as the fight against money laundering, which could limit its effectiveness.

On the contrary, programability, being based on automated code, offers a significant advantage: Do not submit to traditional written regulationsbut their rules are executed independently of human intervention. This characteristic ensures a consistent and rapid application of data protection measures, dynamically adapting to needs without depending on interpretation or bureaucracy, which would position programability as a more robust and reliable solution in this area.

The ECB ensures that users’ financial data could not be directly linked to their identities in the Eurosystem (ECB plus national central banks). The data managed by the institution they would be “pseudonymized”a term that implies that personal information is hidden after anonymous identifiers, making it difficult to track the individual behind each transaction.

Banks or other intermediaries, meanwhile, would only access the Minimum information required by European lawsand any commercial use of that data would need the explicit consent of the user.

To reinforce this trust, the ECB promises to undergo audits of independent data protection authorities, although it does not specify who would be or how this process would be implemented.

Offline digital euro: a cash wink

In addition to online payments, through Wallets connected to the Internet, the ECB also contemplates an offline version of the digital euro, designed to replicate the privacy and simplicity of cash. In this scenario, users could transfer money directly to each other using an application on their phones.

It would be enough to “bring the devices closer to complete the transaction, without intervention of banks or the eurosystem at that time.” The process, according to the ECB, would begin depositing digital euros in a digital purse From a bank account. Once loaded, the payment data would be confined to the devices involved.

To make it possible, the ECB is analyzing the use of “safe elements”, hardware chips specialized in mobile phones that would allow these transactions without connection. This functionality not only seeks privacy, but also accessibility in situations without internet either between people or in physical stores.

Limits and financial stability

The digital euro will be rationed in terms of individual holdings. The ECB plans to establish a stop to the amount that each person or company could possess in their digital wallet, a measure destined to prevent the bank deposits move massively Towards this new form of money. Regional media indicate that this “limit” would be around 3,000 euros.

This limit, whose “calibration” is still to be defined, would seek to balance the user’s experience with the stability of the financial system. For payments that exceed that amount, users could link their purse to a traditional bank account, which would promote flexibility without compromising the role of banks.

Programmable money: the great uncertainty

The digital euro could establish automatic payments, “such as rent or nursery”, in accordance with the provisions of the ECB. These will be conditional payments, automatic transactions based on predefined criteria, and the ECB anticipates a report with results for July 2025, which suggests that this aspect is still under evaluation. However, the institution emphasizes that it would not be “programmable money.”

This concept, which implies digital money restricted to specific uses or times (such as a voucher), would be outside the plans, according to the ECB. Thus, although many people and participants of the digital asset ecosystem They doubt this aspectthe digital euro would maintain its freedom of use without conditions or restrictions, a promise that seeks to differentiate it from more controlled experiments.

The digital euro, as the ECB raises, is emerging as a tool that combines the stability of cash with the comfort of the digital. However, its still indefinite infrastructure and recent system failures such as Target 2 raise questions about their viability.