Digital euro successfully tested at the Bank of France

On May 20, Banque de France announced that France has become the first country to successfully test a digital euro, operational on a blockchain.

France sees first successful pilot of a digital euro https://t.co/85GAFwcRBc

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 20, 2020

The bank gave a statement that it tested a sale of securities for central bank digital currency (CBDC) on May 14, indicating the start of more robust testing. 

Although the bank did not provide many details, it did, however, indicate that the current pilot program is directed towards wholesale rather than retail uses for a digital euro. Retail CBDCs would be operational to regular consumers through Bitcoin or Apple Pay. 

A wholesale CBDC would be the province of banks and institutional players — as the French central bank says, “interbank regulations.”

This recent pilot of a securities issuance in exchange for a digital euro was based on software received after the bank’s call for applications on March 27. After the recent announcement, the bank, however, will run similar tests in the upcoming weeks on other files received as part of the same initiative.

Banque de France has been known to be especially active in developing a digital euro. After the departure of the United Kingdom, France will become the second-largest economy in the Eurozone after Germany.