ECB: Digital euro survey participants cite privacy, security as key elements

The European Central Bank said that its public consultation on a proposed digital euro generated more than 8,000 responses. 

The online consultation began on October 12 and concluded on Tuesday, according to a statement published today. Full analyses of the findings will be published in spring, prior to when the ECB Governing Council will decide whether to launch a digital euro. 

Initial analysis of the data of raw data finds that 41% of respondents felt view privacy as the most important feature of a prospective digital euro. Security and accessibility in Europe were also top-of-mind among participants, per the ECB.

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Senior officials in the EU have said that a digital euro, if approved and launched, would serve in a complementary capacity alongside physical cash. And digital euro wouldn't happen overnight -- estimates indicate that any roll-out would likely take at least two years.

Fabio Panetta, an ECB executive board member and chair of the central bank's digital euro task force, said: “The high number of responses to our survey shows the great interest of Europe’s citizens and firms in shaping the vision of a digital euro."

“The opinions of citizens, businesses and all stakeholders are of utmost importance for us as we assess which use cases a digital euro might best serve," Panetta was quoted as saying.

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MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.