Nope. I really don’t see it that way. At least as a european.

Without a digital currency, the payment system we are left with is the mastercard/visa american duopoly, plus a plethora of startups that try to lock you in them, as you can only pay to and from other users of the same technology, often semi-locked to a specific country (satispay, vipps, ideal, giropay, etc)

Of course, you can live in the 1900s and pay cash, but let’s be realistic.

Against the “tHey WiLl bE aBlE tO dO aNyThInG wItH uR mOneY” argument: they can already. Currencies are already backed by the fucking ecb or whatever applies in your case. The banks already have a list of all your transactions so I don’t see how that would become a new concern either.

Moreover, speaking euro-wise again, there is no plan to eliminate cash with the introduction of a digital currency. And i refuse to judge a policy based on an alleged “intention”, what matters is the written facts.

It has to be said that parallel to this we (users of sepa banks) now have unlimited, instantaneous, fee-less bank transfers, i belive thanks to eu regulations. It might be okay for person-to-person transfers but as of now very few businesses accept transfers and it is usually only for large purchases, the rest you are mostly expected to pay with card (visa/mc).

This doesn’t make any sense