this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Europe

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[โ€“] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm not opposed to this but I don't understand what this has to do with opposing Trump. Europe could just make their own payment providers. Actually already exists, iDeal/Wero type shit. We could have eliminated dependence on Visa Mastercard and Paypal ages ago given enough political will. In the Netherlands most online purchases have gone through iDeal for ages now. Germany is still licking PayPal boots because we hate nice things.

But digital cash (which is what this should be called IMO, to be less confusing), can be a fine solution depending on how it's implemented. Hoping for something like the GNUTaler, that protects buyer anonymity.

[โ€“] Pip@feddit.org 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Well, Trump can turn off MasterCard and Visa for Europeans. So the digital euro helps with that because it is an alternative payment method. But also generally it is good to have a backup for other commercial payment systems that can fail (just like it is good to have some cash as a backup).

Another benefit is that poor people who cannot get bank accounts can pay digitally with the digital euro.

And then there's the convenience. Compared to paypal, credit cards, Wero, the digital euro will be faster, cheaper (no fees) and simpler to use.

[โ€“] Kissaki@feddit.org 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Having offline capable digital wallet so be a big upside.

The most important thing is central backing or even law requirement. Germany is a huge market, but - or because of it - no single product gained full dominance or availability. If it's official EU, banks and shops will support it.

[โ€“] lebkuchen@feddit.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

It would totally make sense to make a law that every payment service must only obey to the laws in the European Union and be sanction proof. If that means that MasterCard or Visa can't operate on the EU market or need to split off their EU operations, that's ok