The European central bank (ECB) is developing its digital currency (CBDC) and experimenting and betting on the strengthening of blockchain for its implementation.
CBDC has many factors to consider: distributed ledger technology (DLT), citizen protection, costs associated with failures, anonymity, interest, limits, money laundering, issuance, etc.
The ECB has not found strong appeal to the retail consumer. Cash is still used in 79% of point-of-sale transactions in Europe.
The implementation time depends on the financial authorities in Europe, who point to the cautious development of the CBDC, but aware of the social benefits of innovation.