[IBM provides guidance on successfully implementing a digital euro]
IBM recently shared its successful strategy for the digital euro in a blog, recommending five major measures to help the European Central Bank's (ECB) digital currency gain a place in the diverse and fierce payment market in the euro zone.
Some of these recommendations have been presented in proposals from the European Commission (EC). For example, "building on existing tracks" is already covered in EC's strategy, but the five authors believe there is room for expansion, emphasizing that simplicity and familiarity are key early on.
They mentioned the importance of intermediaries to the digital euro and believed that a more sophisticated intermediary ecosystem needs to be established to better support small intermediaries. The article also emphasizes the importance of API standardization to simplify integration and promote competition.
As for privacy issues, IBM believes that the EC's proposal should strengthen offline privacy, extend to online activities, and ensure transaction privacy. They emphasized that privacy regulations need to be coordinated with existing laws to ensure information protection.
While a digital euro does not necessarily need to be based on decentralized ledger technology, the authors believe that blockchain technology could bring significant advantages without creating an additional carbon footprint.
In conclusion, IBM advocates a step-by-step approach, recommending starting with a minimum viable product to get to market quickly, and recommends using a test sandbox for simulation in the early stages of a digital euro.
