EU Council and ECB Align on Digital Euro Design

According to Cointelegraph, the Council of the European Union (EU) has released a document detailing its stance on the digital euro, aligning with the European Central Bank (ECB) on launching both online and offline versions simultaneously. ECB President Christine Lagarde emphasized that the responsibility now lies with the European Council and, subsequently, the European Parliament to determine whether the Commission's proposal is satisfactory and how it can be transformed into legislation or amended. The document highlights the limitations of the offline digital euro, which is designed to function like cash, preventing the linking of multiple activities to the same user. The blueprint for this offline version ensures that transaction data remains solely with the direct participants involved. The system is intended to allow authorized devices to transfer digital euro tokens signed by the central bank during in-person transactions. However, the requirement for proximity poses challenges, as relay attacks—where attackers use proxy devices to bridge NFC signals over the internet—could make some online non-proximity use by advanced users difficult to prevent. An expert opinion from the European Data Protection Board acknowledges the limited countermeasures available, concluding that physical proximity cannot be reliably enforced as a property of cash in a digital currency. While the offline digital euro aims to offer privacy, it differs from cash in that the private keys used to manage it would be stored in the secure elements of certified devices, such as mobile devices and smart cards.