Why the European Central Bank chose Amazon to develop a digital euro

Amazon, an American multinational technology company, was selected by the European Central Bank (ECB) along with four other companies to help develop a user interface for the digital euro.

Considered one of the world’s most influential economic and cultural forces, Amazon helps set up an interface focused on e-commerce payments.

The ECB has also partnered with Caixabank and Wordline, both of which will handle peer-to-peer online payments. Meanwhile, Nexi and EPI are tasked with focusing on her payer-initiated POS payments.

Image: Reuters

Amazon responsible for e-commerce interface

The ECB emphasized that the prototyping exercises they have adopted are aimed at determining how well the Euro’s digital technology integrates with its homegrown prototypes.

All five companies were selected from a pool of 54 service providers, with the ECB choosing the best fit for a particular function.

The financial institution said the step was integral to the ongoing two-year ‘research phase’ of the digital currency project, which it expects to bear fruit and publish its findings in the first quarter of 2023. .

The ECB explained that the exercise will use front-end prototypes developed by Amazon and four other companies to initiate simulated trading. These transactions are processed by EuroSystem’s interfaces and backend infrastructure.

The central bank has clarified that the prototypes included in this exercise with Amazon will no longer be used in future stages of the digital euro project.

ECB takes digital euro seriously

Last June, the ECB launched the Digital Euro Project. A few months later, a two-year assessment phase focused on retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) began, with the European Commission revealing plans to introduce a digital euro bill in 2023 shortly after. .

With officials hinting at the possibility of rolling out a digital euro in the coming years, the ECB could eventually become one of the first developed central banks to hold and issue a digital version of its fiat currency. there is.

The ECB is notoriously reluctant to share details of its findings related to the digital euro, but has revealed some vague information, such as the project’s target deployment year.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said in February that the digital euro would complement rather than replace cash.

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