We don’t need to speculate how this will work.
India, with a population 3 times the size of the EU already did this more than half a decade ago.
And it works brilliantly.
India, with a population 3 times the size of the EU already did this more than half a decade ago.
And it works brilliantly.
The concept is hardly revolutionary within Europe, though. Back in 1996, the Dutch "ChipKnip" was introduced, where you could store a small amount of money directly on a bank card so payment terminals wouldn't need permanent internet access to process payments. This was abandoned when wireless payment technologies were introduced, but the concept has been around for decades.
Like so many fine-working systems, this system only worked within one country. The EU is now trying to solve this problem for every member country, which means convincing banks and financial institutions that whatever reasoning blocked their participation in earlier non-American systems are now no longer a problem.
They explicitly differentiate themselves from crypto assets, and the only party issuing them seems to be European Central Bank.
Doesn't sound like crypto to me either
Then they introduced a (small) fee.
Apparently Norway's Vipps is free for small amounts, but charges 1% for large.
Too tempting for the EU not to play, but that will replace a duopoly with a monopoly, which will end up doing what monopolies have always done. "For the greater good" here is to incentivize competition.