Keyvisual DE Digital Euro Summit 2021
Recap

Digital Euro Summit 2021

– The Future of Money

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Meet the Speakers of #DES21
         
Dr Jörg Kukies Joseph Lubin Sheila Warren Christian Catalini Katharina Gehra
German Federal Ministry of Finance ConsenSys & Ethereum World Economic Forum Diem Association Immutable Insight

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#DES21 adressed the following topics

With the onset of Diem (former Libra) and the rapid growth and adoption of crypto-assets such as Bitcoin, the topic of digital currencies has reached an inflection point. It is now a strategic priority for both private and public institutions around the world.

The private sector has doubled down on its efforts to make payments as frictionless as an email is today: instant, easy to use and practically free of charge. Sparked by blockchain technology, the industry also enters into uncharted territories of the internet of things, M2M-transactions, and programmable payments using smart contracts and digital forms of money.

At the same time, 86% of central banks around the world engage actively in assessing central bank digital currencies – CBDC. 14% of them are already moving forward towards development according to the Bank for International Settlement. The European Central Bank ended a consultation on the digital euro with a record level of public feedback – over 8000 responses. On July 14 it has been officially decided to launch a digital euro project starting with a two-year investigation phase. So the time is ripe for Bitkom’s Digital Euro Summit.

 

Central Bank Digital Currencies – CBDC  

Central banks around the world, more precisely 86% of all central banks worldwide, are currently assessing the benefits and challenges of issuing central bank digital currencies. While the reasons for doing so vary significantly from financial inclusion to monetary policy or consumer protection, the trend is clear. More and more central banks projects are moving to a pilot or development phase, as is the case for example in Canada, Sweden, Brazil or China. CBDCs will be a strong focus of the #DES21, particularly the ECB project on a digital euro.

Crypto-Assets

Institutional interest in crypto-assets, primarily Bitcoin, picked up significant steam. Publicly traded companies like Microstrategy and Tesla are shifting parts of their capital reserves into Bitcoin. In the meantime, some of the biggest financial companies in the world, amongst other Paypal, VISA or Mastercard, are starting to build on- and off-ramps for crypto-assets and related services. The result are not only changes in prices and market capitalisation, but potentially also the often talked about mainstream adoption.

Stablecoins

Spurred by the Diem Project (formerly Libra) initiated by Facebook, the topic of (global) stablecoins and private forms of money came to the highest political and regulatory attention, with international working groups in the EU-Commission, the ECB, the FED, the FSB, the G7, the FATF and other institutions being set up. In the background of this regulatory attention and political headwind, already existing stablecoins like Tether or USDC are rising dramatically, with a total stablecoin market cap jumping from under 5 billion in early 2020 to over 100 billion in mid 2021.

The Future of Money and Payments

What kind of money are we going to use and how are we going to pay in the future? Are private forms of money such as global stablecoins or company coins going to gain traction? Will we pay with decentralized crypto-assets such as Bitcoin or Ether? How will central bank digital currencies co-exist or compete with private forms of money and payment. Are we entering an era of currency competition? And how will Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain disrupt current payment systems? Join the #DES21 to discuss the future of money and payments with us.

Thank you for joining us!

#DES21 | 15 September 2021 | 3:00 – 7:00pm

Re-watch the Live Stream here

 

Get in Touch

Benedikt Faupel
Benedikt Faupel
Bereichsleiter Blockchain
Bitkom e.V.
Mitarbeiterbild Lukas Marschallek
Lukas Marschallek
Policy Officer Digital Banking & Financial Services
Bitkom e.V.