Amazon to collaborate with ECB to develop a digital euro prototype

Amazon is among five companies to develop a digital euro prototype, as the European Central Bank (ECB) revealed its selected partners to collaborate. Amazon will be responsible for designing e-commerce payments during the prototyping exercise from September to December 2022. Meanwhile, Binance CEO praised the EU regulatory framework as a global standard for crypto regulations.

According to The Block, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the selection of five new partners to support the development of a digital euro prototype. Amazon will be responsible for designing e-commerce payments among them.

Each of the companies will take on a different role in putting together the prototype. Spanish bank CaixaBank will develop online peer-to-peer payments for a mobile application, while the French multinational payment service, Worldline, is responsible for the offline version.

Point of sale payments from the payer and payee are in the hands of the ECB-backed European Payment Initiative and the Italian paytech company, Nexi, respectively. Amazon will be responsible for developing e-commerce payments within the project.

The ECB opened a call for partners at the end of April and received 54 respondents from the likes of national banks and multinational tech firms. The five chosen service providers were selected based on their compliance to “specific capabilities” which were an advantage on top of the basic criteria required. 

The prototyping exercise is set to begin within the month of September and finish at the end of December.

The ECB launched its investigation into the digital euro back in July 2021, without promising that it would issue the digital currency. The EU central bank plans to complete this phase by March 2023, evaluating the prototypes produced as well as the success of the collaboration between the partners.

Earlier, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao praised the EU’s regulatory framework as a global standard in his opening talk at Binance Blockchain Week in Paris. He also expressed his concerns about the regulation’s restrictions on stablecoins.

“The EU MiCA regulation will become a global regulatory standard copied around the world,” Binance founder and CEO suggested.

He highlighted that the regulation benefits crypto entrepreneurs and businesses, adding: “Instead of applying for 27 licenses, you just have to apply for one, you will be passportable.”