The European Central Bank has chosen COTI, a privacy-centric layer-2 solution on Ethereum, to develop the digital euro, the bank announced on Monday. The announcement explained that COTI will contribute to ECB’s project by leveraging its privacy-focused technology to support “conditional payments,” a system that ensures asset provenance is verified before transactions take place.
Shahaf Bar-Geffen, COTI co-founder and CEO, told Blockchain Reporter:
“Being invited to work with the ECB on such a consequential project is humbling, and a testament to the expertise and hard work of the COTI team. Privacy is a vital component for the future of Web3.”
COTI’s technology will be used to test the implementation of the digital euro’s conditional payment system by 2026, according to the ECB. The bank is working closely with selected partners to demonstrate how the new currency can integrate into retail payment systems for all eurozone residents.
The ECB’s push to launch a digital euro follows a warning from a senior French central banker in April, who cautioned that U.S. policy shifts supporting stablecoins could undermine European monetary sovereignty.
