Half of Germans said in a recent poll that they could use a digital euro, although many have never heard of it or don’t know exactly what it is.
A Deutsche Bundesbank poll of 2,012 people, published June 4, found that 50% say they could “definitely” or “probably” imagine using a digital euro – the country’s experimental digital currency. European Central Bank (CBDC) – if that were the case. an additional payment option.
A quarter of them said they “definitely wouldn’t use it,” and almost as many said they “probably wouldn’t use it” – and 1% said they didn’t know.
But three in five respondents also said they had not heard, read or watched anything about the digital euro.
Of the rest who heard something, around a quarter said they didn’t know what it was: 16% thought it was a cryptocurrency, while almost 30% thought it was digital euro was intended to replace cash or believed that cash would be abolished if it were. replaced. It was an introduction.
Only 17% correctly answered that it was a form of digital currency issued by the European Central Bank which the ECB said would be available alongside other payment methods, such as cash.
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said in a statement that the investigation shows that a large amount of information remains to be provided.
Privacy is the digital euro’s biggest concern
Ensuring better privacy than the digital euro in existing digital payment options was the most important feature for respondents, with more than three-quarters rating it “very important” or “important”.
More than 70% said it was important for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to build on European infrastructure, while more than 60% said it was important for the government to issue a euro digital cash-like with the ability to pay offline. .
“The central banks in the European system are not interested in user data,” Nagel said. He said a digital euro would protect privacy “much more effectively than current commercial payment solutions”.
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The ECB says the digital euro can be used offline and that transaction details “will only be known to the payer and the payee”.
It is currently in the preparation phase which is expected to end in October 2025 and which focuses on finalizing the rules and searching for potential issuers.
Last June, the European Commission presented a draft regulation proposing a legal framework for a digital euro and a proposal to protect the use of cash.
Burkhard Balz, the Bundesbank member responsible for the digital euro project, said in a statement that current plans would allow people to make their first payments using the digital euro in 2028 at the earliest.
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