EU council endorses offline and online versions of digital euro

The Council of the European Union (EU) the European Central Bank’s (ECB) digital euro design,

A Friday document outlined the council’s position on the digital euro, including alignment with the ECB on launching online and offline variants simultaneously

ECB President Christine Lagarde that t rest with EU lawmakers

“It's now for the European Council and certainly later on for the European Parliament to identify whether the Commission proposal is satisfactory, how it can be transformed into a piece of legislation or amended.”

The offline digital euro’s limitations

Documents reveal that a cash-like currency observers from linking multiple activities to the same user. The blueprint for the offline digital euro takes it up a notch by having transaction data never leave the direct participants.

The system is meant to allow authorized devices to transfer digital euro central-bank-signed tokens during in-person transactions.

tproximity requirement b. A relay attack an attacker places proxy devices near the receiving and sending devices to bridge the NFC signal over the internetwould be hard to avoi making some online non-proximity use by advanced users difficult to curtail.

An expert opinion piece by the European Data Protection Board admits that “the available countermeasures are very limited.” The document concludes that “we will not consider physical proximity as a property of cash that can be reliably enforced in a digital currency.”

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Private, but not like cash

The offline digital euroand the private keys used to manage would be stored in the secure elements of certified devicesmobile devices and smart cards

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