The ECB notably chose Amazon among the companies responsible for creating interface prototypes for its future digital euro. A choice that does not please everyone.
As it currently seeks to develop a digital euro, the European Central Bank is taking its time so that the transition will not be as painful as with past currency changes. But the choice of certain companies that she has retained to assist her in this task, Amazon in the lead, already raises many questions.
The European Union is considering developing a digital euro
The ECB website defines the digital euro as follows: The equivalent of euro banknotes in dematerialized form […] accessible to all, households and businesses. As it wishes to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, the European Union is currently studying all avenues on how to do this and in particular does not rule out using the blockchain to achieve this.
However, the ECB wants to be reassuring: even if its digital euro were to have similarities with certain cryptocurrencies, it would remain a currency mainly intended for transactions, and not for speculation. The stability of its course would indeed be ensured by the ECB and the various national banks in the euro zone which have experience in managing inflation.
With this in mind, the EU has commissioned several companies, including Amazon, to create prototypes of user interfaces for different uses. A choice that does not fail to react.
Why is Amazon’s choice controversial?
For the ECB, these prototypes developed by different companies make it possible to test the reliability and efficiency of a digital euro for daily use and transactions. These 5 companies, selected after a call for tenders to which 54 entities had responded, were chosen according to their expertise and their technical capacities on these issues.
Still, the choice to call on private sector companies, and in particular Amazon, does not please everyone. Responsible for testing the effectiveness of digital euro payments in the case of e-commerce transactions, Jeff Bezos’ company is the only one selected not to be from one of the countries of the Union. And this is what is criticized, at a time when European justice and the European commissioner for competition are fighting fiercely against the supremacy of American firms in the digital economy. The presence of an American giant in the sector at the base of a project which could affect the strategic interests of the countries of the euro zone therefore calls into question, for certain observers, European sovereignty on these questions.
Sources: ECB, Boursorama, Digital Factory
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