271–280 of 386 posts
This sounds like "government issue Revolut". Which would be... low-key nice? Not a nefarious scheme, not a revolutionary future of money, just something to replace a certain part of your financial life without tying it to a commercial entity. Which might be appealing to the anti-capitalism segment of Europeans.
Reminder to the people reading this thread and overall comments, that in Europe everyone uses Debit Cards instead of Credit Cards. Credit Card in Europe is very much associated with Debt.
Eu: Most of the people I know use debit rather than credit because we can manage our finances.
Isn't the Euro digital already? I don't understand... Is the buzzword just flying over my head?
If your bank fail, you loose the money you held in the bank (except the insured amount). If you have some cash, that's independent from any private company, and it must be accepted everywhere. Digital Euro should have the advantages of cash and the comfort of electronic payments, too.
I don't understand why you need a "digital Euro" since debit card transactions are already "digital", and widespread in Europe (Girocard, Carte Bleu, etc.)? This sounds more like a cross-EU unified payment system/mechanism rather than a "digital currency" (which already exists).
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That's interesting argument. Here it is usual to have a daily limit on debit cards. You can not spend more money than that, so a thief can not drain your account. Also many banks give you multiple accounts (you can transfer between them instantly). The debit card is connected to only one of them, so if you keep part of your money on the other account, that couldn't be touched even if the card payment limit has techni…
Multiple accounts (both debit and credit) are normal in the US as well, but I have never heard of a debit account here that has a daily spending limit. Sounds like the US and Euro systems work fine within their own borders. Solutions designed for one make less sense in the context of the other.
By the way, here banks even have daily bank / wire transfer limit that can be changed only by a personal visit to a branch, so even if your online banking credentials are stolen, the attacker can not empty your account.
I don't understand why you need a "digital Euro" since debit card transactions are already "digital", and widespread in Europe (Girocard, Carte Bleu, etc.)? This sounds more like a cross-EU unified payment system/mechanism rather than a "digital currency" (which already exists).
AFAIK the ECB wants to have both things. Digital Euro being a CBDC could open up a lot of possibilities, but they want an unified payment system, too, and that would be a nice first job for digital Euro.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Multiple accounts (both debit and credit) are normal in the US as well, but I have never heard of a debit account here that has a daily spending limit. Sounds like the US and Euro systems work fine within their own borders. Solutions designed for one make less sense in the context of the other.
It gets interesting when the two system interacts. Friends visiting the US told me that at the POS terminal they had to choose credit card despite paying with a Visa/Mastercard debit card issued by an European bank. By the way, here banks even have daily bank / wire transfer limit that can be changed only by a personal visit to a branch, so even if your online banking credentials are stolen, the attacker can not empt…
And that doesn’t always work. For example, at a Chevron petrol station in California in the middle of nowhere we tried several European credit and debit cards, and nothing worked. At the end, the guy working there helped us with some prepaid option at the counter. He didn’t believe us until he tried himself that really none of our cards worked.
But the situation is way better than 5+ years ago. Back then, almost every second purchase of ours had some problem with our cards in the US. Now, we had like one or two in more than a week.
But of course, some car rental companies still pretend that they are generous that they allow debit cards. Not just in the US.
Reminder to the people reading this thread and overall comments, that in Europe everyone uses Debit Cards instead of Credit Cards. Credit Card in Europe is very much associated with Debt.
Reminder to all commenters that Europe is not a single homogeneous country and somewhat diverse in various things, including payments and finance. Credit cards are definitely a thing in many European countries.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my corner of the world, credit cards were for buying stuff on the internet and travelling outside the EU. Now the net has evelved enough to accept our normal means of payment. I always feel insecure when using a credit card.
As a US-ian I feel exactly that way when using a debit card. A credit card, if misused, can run up your balance and then you dispute, and don't pay anything until it's resolved. A debit card, if misused, can drain your account and leave you penniless until it's resolved.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK the ECB wants to have both things. Digital Euro being a CBDC could open up a lot of possibilities, but they want an unified payment system, too, and that would be a nice first job for digital Euro.
I must be missing something because I still don't understand what differentiates a "Digital Euro" from "Euro stored in digital form". They're essentially the same. The reason why crypto currencies are different is the mechanisms by which they are exchanged (i.e., blockchain) or how they are issued (i.e., mining). The ECB already has control over how the Euro is exchanged and issued. The only thing a digital euro does…
From an users' perspective paying with digital Euro would work more-or-less the same as you pay today with card, bank transfer or something based on QR codes. But it will have very different guarantees and trusts behind the scene.
Today you don't really think about keeping your money in a bank and paying with card as a different thing than having physical cash, because banks and payment services have very strict regulations and insurance schemes. Banks rarely goes bankrupt and even if they do, most of the people are not affected, because they get back their money from deposit insurance.
Banks can create money from thin air (without the approval of the central bank) and lend it to you (and destroy when you pay your loan back), they can not do that with Digital Euro.
Everybody would be able to convert all their Digital Euro to banknotes at the same time, but that would bankrupt any commercial bank.
Banks can deny your request to open an account or provide payment services to you (e.g. what happened with the ICC judge), you can own Digital Euro without having a bank account.
Banks pay interest for using your money (and the risk you take), this could even be negative that means some people even willing to loose money if they can have Euro instead of their original currency. Banks wouldn't be able to use your Digital Euro, you wouldn't get any interest on it.
Digital Euro (the same way as physical cash), is a legal tender, money in bank and card payments are not.
The value of Digital Euro doesn't depend on your bank, the numbers on your bank account could worth nothing if your bank goes bankrupt, central banks can not go bankrupt.
Digital Euro (for a limited amount) could be exchanged directly between two peers like physical cash (offline, without connection to internet or any bank).