A digital euro would be required to ensure that users can still make payments during major power cuts, according to the European Central Bank (ECB) Board member Piero Cipollone.
A central bank in the euro zone Central Bank (CBDC) Could provide business continuity in the event of a cybertack on banks or other payment providers, Cipollone said in the Europe Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.
“If a cyberattack caused the power outage of a bank’s own app, but the bank’s backend services still worked, customers would still be able to access their accounts with this bank through ECB’s digital euro app,” he said.
Furthermore, if a Digtal Euro app had offline functionality, it could also cause an error -proof for users during a power outage that takes regular payment methods offline.
“Cash is our only true relapse … But as society is increasingly moving away from cash, and as the cash itself can be difficult to access in emergencies, we need to complement it with a digital version,” Cipollone added.
The ECB, like its colleagues in almost any other economy around the world, has explored the possibilities of a digital version of its currency for a number of years.
Among their motivations is to tackle the competition provided by stableecoins and non-bank payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and so on.
