Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10 • Hacker News Board

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#11

Post by senkora » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 1:04 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #8

What we need from this digital euro is anonymity just like the cash it's meant to replace. But nobody is talking about that.

Does anyone know whether GNU Taler is involved in any way with these proposals? I feel like they'd be the natural people to work on anonymity. Looking at their website, I see that they've at least commented on them:

https://www.taler.net/en/news/2026-08.html

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#12

Post by niemandhier » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:22 AM UTC

That is much more relevant than one would think:

The biggest problem for adoption of digital payment in everyday lives is, that for token payments the transaction fees are to high.

In case of 0.5€ for using a toilet the fixed transaction costs can be up to 0.25 €, if the entity processing your payment is using stripe or a similar business.

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#13

Post by hulitu » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 5:45 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #8

What we need from this digital euro is anonymity just like the cash it's meant to replace. But nobody is talking about that.

> What we need from this digital euro is anonymity

This is what _you_ need. Ursula and her friends want to know where _you_ spent _your_ money.

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#14

Post by xyzsparetimexyz » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 8:44 AM UTC

€10 is a stupidly low amount. In China its ¥200/€25. I don't want to have to do 3 seperate transfers to pay a friend for lunch.

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#15

Post by xyzsparetimexyz » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 8:46 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #8

What we need from this digital euro is anonymity just like the cash it's meant to replace. But nobody is talking about that.

I think the main benefit is that all a lemonade stand or späti or what-have-you needs to start selling something digitally is a qr code someone can scan.

Re: Italy proposes no fees for digital euro payments under €10

#16

Post by GaryNumanVevo » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 9:49 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #8

What we need from this digital euro is anonymity just like the cash it's meant to replace. But nobody is talking about that.

Cash is still the predominant way to launder money: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cash...