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ECB official says digital euro will be as private as cash
The ECB plans to introduce the digital euro in 2029 alongside physical cash, and it argues the Eurosystem cannot link users to transactions.
The European Central Bank is pushing back on surveillance fears about its planned digital euro, with an ECB executive board member saying the payment system will offer privacy comparable to cash. CoinDesk reports that ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said the Eurosystem would be structurally unable to connect specific individuals to their digital euro transactions, whether users pay online or offline.
Cipollone said offline payments would be visible only to the payer and payee, similar to a cash transaction. He added that for online payments, banks could identify users only for anti-money-laundering purposes rather than for tracing consumer activity, according to CoinDesk.
The digital euro is scheduled to be introduced in 2029 alongside physical cash, the report said. Civil society groups, however, have criticized the ECB's privacy assurances, arguing they depend too much on institutional promises rather than technical enforcement, CoinDesk noted.
Epicenter.works and other digital rights organizations warned that legislative privacy protections can be weakened or undermined in implementation. Cipollone's remarks aim to address growing public opposition to central bank digital currencies over concerns that governments could monitor and control how citizens spend money, CoinDesk said.