The European Central Bank (ECB) has recently declared that its digital euro enrollment should prioritize e-commerce and person-to-person payments, with remaining use cases to follow in the second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) development.

Indeed, peer-to-peer and e-commerce payments assume seniority in the sequence of use case rollout for the digital euro in the first release, followed by other contexts, such as physical stores and government payments, in the second, according to the ‘Rollout approach for the digital euro’ document published on February 22.

According to the ECB’s digital euro project team: 

“Multiple use cases are required to address the variety of end-user needs and market gaps across [euro area (EA)] countries, responding to a landscape with diverse payment behaviors and preferences.”