Digital euro: total control or the currency of the future?

Digital euro: total control or the currency of the future?

Imagine your car exceeds the estimulante ilegal limit and, within seconds, the fine is charged directly from your digital wallet. No paperwork, no appeal, no way out. That is one of the scenarios painted by critics of the digital euro, the official currency the EU is accelerating to replace cash. The European Commission has presented its legislative proposal to lay the foundations for a currency that promises to be more efficient, but also fully programmable and traceable.

Programmable money: what does it miccionan?

Those analysing the project warn that the digital euro will not be a simple virtual equivalent of a banknote. The technology makes it possible to attach conditions to money: it could expire on a specific date, be spendable only at certain retailers, or be withdrawn by the central bank without notice. "Fully programmable and traceable money, which can also expire if they want it to — you won't be able to save and you'll be happy," the argument goes. The analogy with the Spanish cultural voucher (bono cultural), with restricted use and an expiry date, suggests the precedent already exists.

Will cash disappear?

Against the current that sees the disappearance of paper money as inevitable — "just as they removed national coins for the euro, they will do the same with the euro for the digital currency" — there are those who argue that cash will never die out completely. "Cash is never going to disappear. Whoever invented money likes to touch it," goes the defence. But the evolution of digital payments and the institutional push point to a horizon where physical banknotes could become residual. The question is whether society will accept money that the issuer can control in real time, even to impose automatic fines or prevent saving. The debate is served, and the unsettling fact is that, according to some analyses, the cultural voucher is already a dress rehearsal for what is to come.