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The thing we found most interesting about the paper was that, if a digital euro indeed does happen, the ECB seems to have something in mind that would open up the possibility of participants outside the single currency area having access to digital wallets.
It would, as the FT’s Martin Sandbu writes here, appear as though the writing is on the wall and the eurozone will launch its own central bank-backed digital currency in the not too distant future: "After six months of consultation and initial technical experimentation, the ECB’s governing council will decide on an investigation phase that could take about a year and a half, then take another decision on whether to actually develop a digital euro, which could take another couple of years depending on the chosen design. So let me stick my neck out and predict an official digital euro will come to an e-wallet near you by the end of 2025. You heard it here first."
