The European Central Bank has established an innovation platform to collaborate with European stakeholders on the digital euro project, with almost 70 market participants signed up to test digital euro payment functionalities and explore new use cases. The work is organised into two workstreams, “pioneers” and “visionaries”, with findings from both to be published in a report later this year. The platform simulates the envisaged digital euro ecosystem, with the ECB providing technical support and infrastructure for European intermediaries to develop payment features and services. In the pioneers workstream, participants are examining the technical implementation of conditional payments and developing use cases for day-to-day payments, including by integrating simulated digital euro interfaces into their own platforms using ECB specifications such as an application programming interface. In the visionaries workstream, participants are researching potential new use cases and how these could address societal challenges such as digital financial inclusion, including a proposal to enable opening a digital euro wallet in any post office. The visionaries will share and discuss proposals with the ECB in dedicated workshops running until May 2025, while the ECB will review the pioneers’ report to inform its ongoing work on the digital euro project. A consolidated report covering both workstreams is due later this year.
European Central Bank 2025-05-05
European Central Bank establishes digital euro innovation platform with around 70 market participants
The European Central Bank has launched an innovation platform for the digital euro project, engaging nearly 70 market participants to test payment functionalities and explore new use cases. The initiative is divided into "pioneers" focusing on technical implementation and "visionaries" researching societal applications like digital financial inclusion. Findings from both workstreams will be consolidated in a report later this year.