Amazon, the American technology multinational, has been chosen by the European Central Bank (ECB) along with four other companies to provide assistance in the development of user interfaces for a digital euro.
Considered one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world, Amazon will help create interfaces that focus on e-commerce payments.
The ECB has also partnered with Caixabank and Wordline, which will handle peer-to-peer online payments. Meanwhile, Nexi and EPI have taken it upon themselves to focus on payer-initiated point-of-sale payments.
Image: Reuters
Amazon in charge of the e-commerce interface
The ECB has stressed that the prototyping exercise they have used aims to determine the extent to which digital euro technology will be integrated with the prototypes developed by the company.
The five companies were selected from a pool of 54 service providers, with the ECB choosing the best combination for a specific capacity.
The financial institution said the move is integral to the ongoing two-year “research phase” for the digital currency project that is expected to come to fruition in the first quarter of 2023, when they are also expected to publish their conclusions.
The ECB has explained that as part of the exercise, simulated transactions will be launched using front-end prototypes developed by Amazon and the other four companies. These transactions will be processed in the front end and backend infrastructure of EuroSystem.
The central bank clarified that the prototypes involved in this exercise with Amazon will no longer be used for the next stages of the digital euro project.
The ECB takes the digital euro seriously
In June last year, the ECB launched its digital euro project. A few months after that, a two-year evaluation phase focused on retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) began, and the European Commission revealed plans to introduce a digital euro banknote in 2023 shortly after.
With its officials hinting at the possibility of a digital euro rollout in the coming years, the ECB could end up being one of the first central banks in an advanced economy to own and issue a digital version of its fiat currency.
The ECB is known for its reluctance to share details of its conclusions related to the digital euro, although it has revealed some vague information, such as the project’s target launch year.
Christine Lagarde, president of the ECB, stated in February that a digital euro will not replace cash, but will complement it.
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