Smart Tech — ECB’s digital euro project and Starname
Last week our co-founder Karim Ganem was invited to take part in a discussion on Smart Tech, a TV show produced by B Smart channel. Part of the show was about the digital euro — a project still to be developed and released towards the middle of 2021 by the European Central Bank.
The debate focused on the interest and the consequences of the adoption of the virtual European coin. Along with Karim Ganem, the other two guests were Yves-Laurent Kayan (CEO and co-founder, Coinplus) and Hadrien Zerah (responsible for the adoption of Tezos technology Tezos in France, Nomadic Labs).
As an alternative to electronic payments, the virtual euro would still protect the sovereignty of the Central Bank, allowing tax control and traceability while aiming to have a better impact on monetary policy. It would be, on one side, centralised by the European Central Bank, but it is not yet defined how it would be developed, or not, regarding the decentralized blockchain principles.
About the use of the digital euro, the stability of the coin is an important aspect, as well as the security and easy use for transactions. Nevertheless, the impact of the digital version over the traditional coin is still to be analysed as well as its adoption within and outside the Eurozone.
Karim Ganem talked about the simplification of the use of blockchain and the digital euro. He said that the number of token holders in the world is still low regarding its possibilities. Crypto-addresses’ formats can still be the reason for confusion and errors and the challenge to bring more people on board is to make the transactions as simple as sending an email.
Blockchain technology is still something new — its adoption will come with making it accessible to use and to understand. Starname, as Karim noted, could be a European format of identification as the market needs a standard. The multi-chain principle makes it accessible to many chains and an institution could validate this format and make it available. In other words, a standard for adoption is necessary and Starname could be the answer to that.
