According to Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank (ECB), the digital euro is required to allow users to make payments during major suspensions.
The eurozone central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) could provide business continuity in the event of cyberattacks on banks and other payment providers, Cipollone told the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.
“If a cyber attack caused the bank’s own app to halt, but the bank’s backend services are still working, customers will be able to access their accounts at that bank via the ECB’s digital euro app,” he said.
Additionally, if your Digtal Euro app has offline features, it may offer FailSafe to users during outages that will stop regular payment methods offline.
“Cash is our only true fallback…but society is increasingly moving away from cash, and cash itself may be difficult to access in emergencies, so we need to supplement it with a digital version,” Cipollone added.
The ECB, like its counterparts in almost every economy around the world, has been investigating the potential of digital versions of currency over the years.
Some of their motivations are the competition offered by Stablecoins and the competition offered by non-bank payment services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal.
