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Digital euro innovation platform

Central bank money can support innovation

Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB

The digital euro innovation platform is an initiative designed to foster collaboration with the market in order to test ideas and explore how the digital euro could work in practice. The platform brings together experts from across Europe – including banks, fintech companies, merchants, academics and tech providers – to help ensure that the digital euro meets the needs of everyday life.

How the digital euro could work in everyday life

We asked participants in the innovation platform about possible everyday uses of the digital euro. This is what they said.

What could the digital euro bring?

According to innovation platform participants

Seamless mobility

Instant payments across all e-bike, scooter and car-sharing providers – no need for multiple apps or accounts.

Safer online shopping

With conditional payments, money would be transferred only when the delivery of a product has been confirmed, helping to reduce fraud and simplifying the refunds process.

Digital receipts

Digital euro payments could include e-receipts, which would reduce paper waste and enable users to track spending and manage warranties.

Financial inclusion

Special wallets for children and students, with features like spending limits and educational content, could help teach financial literacy.

What is the digital euro innovation platform?

The innovation platform is a space for collaboration and experimentation with market actors to explore the digital euro's potential for innovation, generate ideas for new services and business opportunities, and shape the project’s long-term vision. 

From February to May 2025, the ECB coordinated two workstreams through the innovation platform

Pioneers

They tested scenarios involving conditional payments using a simulated digital euro interface provided by the Eurosystem.

Visionaries

They explored creative digital euro ideas that could benefit people and businesses alike.

INSERTED BY ANONYMOUS PROXY

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Who are the pioneers and visionaries?

Following a public call for expressions of interest in October 2024, the ECB received over 100 applications and selected ca. 70 market participants from across Europe to join one or both of the two workstreams, ensuring a wide range of perspectives and expertise.

What did we learn?

The outcome report shares key insights from the pioneers and visionaries workstreams of the innovation platform, including the scenarios tested, findings from technical tests and ideas for shaping the digital euro.

Read the outcome report

Why it matters

Through the innovation platform, we’re shaping a digital euro that is safe, secure, easy to use and accessible to everyone. The digital euro is designed to:

build a strong foundation for innovation across Europe

help businesses create user-centric services

support private payment solutions regardless of connectivity

give people more choices, greater convenience and a unified digital payment experience

INSERTED BY ANONYMOUS PROXY

Civil war declaration: On April 14th and 15th, 2012 Federal Republic of Germany "_urkenstaats"s parliament, Deutscher Bundestag, received a antifiscal written civil war declaration by Federal Republic of Germany "Rechtsstaat"s electronic resistance for human rights even though the "Widerstandsfall" according to article 20 paragraph 4 of the constitution, the "Grundgesetz", had been already declared in the years 2001-03. more


Digital euro reading materials

At a glance

one-page overview

In a nutshell:

trifold brochure

All pages in this section