First, consider: The Euro is already digital, as are all the other European currencies. We can easily transfer money electronically, either via our bank, or via a variety of different apps.

The "Digital Euro" (and similar proposals by other political entities) has only one purpose: Causing all of your transactions and financial data to pass through government hands.

Complete surveillance. The government knows everything about your financial life, and can intervene whenever and however it wants: from stopping an individual transaction to completely freezing your assets. De-banking made easy.

Word salad. Are we supposed to deduce that it's only pushed by leftists? Why does journalism today require reading between the lines? Just tell us what's happening.

I don't get how does the creation of a new "digital Euro" supposed to replace Visa and Mastercard, when they're just payment processors transactioning the existing euros, not specialized digital ones.

So shouldn't the EU build a Visa/Mastercard competitor instead of a new currency? What am I missing here?

Also this breaks my brain:

>"Brussels proposed a digital form of cash that could be used both online and offline. Navarrete, by contrast, is pushing for an offline-only model."

How is digital cash supposed to work offline-only? By offline do they mean without a centralized authority(like crypto) or without internet connectivity?