Nils Beier is convinced that not much will be possible in the future without blockchain. “We have to be prepared,” says the manager of the consulting firm Accenture in the podcast “So techt Germany”. Beier is definitely optimistic about the digital euro.
In China, people can already pay with a digital yuan. It will take until at least 2025 before consumers and especially companies can do this in Europe with the euro. “Test, prepare, decide for two years. And then another two years for implementation. That is the program that is now planned,” explains Nils Beier. The banking and fintech expert from the consulting firm Accenture is quite optimistic on the topic of the digital euro and sees Europe in the good middle field in an international comparison.
Beier himself has been dealing with blockchain and digital currencies for several years. One of his first Accenture projects was the “establishment of a blockchain lab at a Frankfurt bank,” Beier recalls. That was six years ago. Even then, the banks had started to think about blockchain. And that was urgently needed, says the fintech expert.
Because not only blockchain technology can turn the business model of banks inside out. A digital euro could – depending on how it is programmed – pose completely different challenges for banks. Because theoretically it would even be possible for citizens not to put their digital euros in a traditional bank account, but instead park them directly at the European Central Bank. “And it cannot go bankrupt. That is technically not possible,” explains Beier. Classic banks, on the other hand, could slide into insolvency. So if the ECB were to issue digital money directly to citizens, that could provide more security. Otherwise, however, the digital euro would above all be a complementary means of payment.
It looks different with companies. Even high transaction volumes could be processed more quickly and easily with a digital euro. And in the “Internet of Things”, the digital euro, but also the blockchain in general, also play a major role. It is all the more important that Germany and Europe do not lose touch here. “The subject of blockchain technology is urgent. That is probably one of the most important technological trends that we have,” Nils Beier is convinced.
In the new episode of “So techt Germany”, the Accenture manager tells whether banks in the classic sense still have a future and what potential Facebook’s crypto currency has.
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