Good day everybody,

Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. Today I will be looking at a recent announcement regarding the anticipated roll out of a European Digital currency backed by the EURO and the European Union. Announcements have been made regarding this digital EURO along with policies regarding the regulation and control on the Metaverse in Europe.

Announcement

The financial services commissioner for the European Union, Mairead McGuinness, stated that the Union has began a process where it intends to publish a bill which will underline the premise and application of a digital Euro along with its strategy of dealing with the 'virtual worlds' later this year. It is expected in May 2023, as per this document released on the European Commissions website on Monday the 23rd of January 2023. In was included as part of a wider overall announcement of proposals for the first half of 2023, and no further information on it has been revealed since.

European Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

The European Central Bank is still undecided on whether or not it would be feasible to realise their own digital currency, one for Europe which could dawn a new age of digital transactions based around a digital Euro, they have indicated along with the European Commission that new laws and regulations regarding anti-money laundering and how to determine the legal status of digital tender needs to be ascertained. 

The European Union's financial services commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, informed lawmakers at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee Tuesday:

“Our legislation will be the framework for a digital euro. It will be negligent if Europe did nothing now, but at some point in five or 10 years had to urgently rush through something.”

They have set a date of the 24th of May 2023 for publishing a new bill which will look at the finer points around the use cases of a digital euro and the technology to be used within it. 

Lawmakers Perspective

From the perspective of lawmakers, who would have to sign off on any of these policies which McGuinness may propose in May, the feeling is one of scepticism and doubt regarding the value these initiatives may bring. The economic spokesperson for the European Parliament's largest political grouping, Markus Ferber, questioned McGuinness:

“From a consumer point of view, what can I do as a consumer with a digital euro that I can't do with current payment systems?”

This comes on the back of theories and worries that the digital Euro currency would not be part of a blockchain, and therefore could have restrictions and implications on how users can spend it. These worries included things such as food stamps that can be spent only on essential goods, or paying taxes automatically. An executive board member of the European Central Bank, Fabio Panetta, tried to quash these rumours and worries on Monday the 23rd of January 2023 when he stated to members the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee that:

The digital euro would never be programmable money. Central banks issue money, not vouchers.”

The current plan seems to be that the 20 nations currently using the EURO would have a single digital euro app for consumers to make use of. This could also be integrated into existing banking apps across the European Block. However, the most alarming and potentially (in my opinion) uneducated statement made was when Panetta stated:

"The views of many experts is that blockchain technology may not have sufficient power to be used to run such a huge system. We are still discussing this." 

This statement in particular received backlash from the lawmakers influential in the crypto field. Their feelings were made quite clear, focusing on what is the point of the digital currency? The centre-left lawmakers also noted that making a more complex technology (blockchain) could give the central banks the advantage of making direct payments to citizens across the block, known as helicopter payments. The original idea of helicopter money describes central banks making payments directly to individuals in times such as a recession. Dutch lawmaker Paul Tang told the Committee:

"If you say you don't want programmable money, that also doesn't allow for helicopter money. I'm a macroeconomist, I still dream of that possibility."

Metaverse

Included within the list of proposals for May was a separate initiative on virtual worlds. This is due on the 3rd of May 2023, and will be led by EU competition and digital commissioner Margrethe Vestager. It is unlikely to propose new laws, instead more likely to look at addressing the concerns which have been raised from the potential of large companies such as Meta dominating the metaverse and damaging any potential competition.

Interesting times ahead for European's who should be keeping an eye on the progress of the European Commission and the European Central Bank in terms of its proposed digital currency. This will likely have a large impact on every citizen, those who are involved with crypto and those who are not, and therefore it is important that things are done right. Too often do policy makers impose their laws without the citizens voice being taken into account, and I for one feel as much attention as possible should be brought to whatever policies emerge from this.

Have a great day.

Peace. CryptoGod-1.

** I first published this article on Medium on the 24th of January 2023, which can be found here: https://medium.com/@1r3n9project/eu-set-digital-euro-and-metaverse-policies-for-may-2023-a8bb15fa9ba7 **

*** You can now collect my articles as NFT's thanks to Mirror.xyz. This article will be available as a collectors item for 0.0003 ETH (≈$0.47 at time of publishing prices) with a total supply of 25 available. Any an all support is greatly appreciated and the article is available here: https://mirror.xyz/0xE4e7Fa6b6dcF5551CE96627C819dB3D3266DEbcc/ehlVLodoTAazO_cwsgR-v6jljDYzbeNGK-oZcUZWIiI ***

Referral links:

Publish0x - https://www.publish0x.com/?a=olejZqrzej

Binance - https://accounts.binance.com/en/register?ref=143611368

Medium - https://medium.com/@1r3n9project

NFT Market Sales

OpenSea - https://opensea.io/RNabc

Follow Me :)

Twitter - @RNabc123