PANews reported on March 13 that according to Cointelegraph, European consumers have little interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which has caused concerns for the European Central Bank (ECB), which is preparing to launch a digital euro. A working paper by the ECB on "Consumer Attitudes towards Central Bank Digital Currency" surveyed approximately 19,000 respondents in 11 eurozone countries, highlighting the major communication challenges that hinder European families from adopting the digital euro.
The document shows that when asked to hypothetically allocate 10,000 euros (about 10,800 U.S. dollars) to various assets, Europeans only allocated a small portion to the digital euro, which had little impact on traditional liquid assets such as cash, current deposits or savings accounts. Europeans have a strong preference for existing payment methods and do not see the real benefits of new payment systems among the many online and offline alternatives. The findings show that it may be a challenge for policymakers to convince some users of the added value of CBDC, and more research is definitely needed in this regard.
The study shows that while the launch of a digital euro would have minimal impact on financial stability, its adoption faces significant barriers due to consumer habits. In addition, it highlights the importance of targeted communication to address continued consumer resistance to the digital euro. The study found that European consumers are interested in video-based education and training and concluded that educating the public with CBDC-related video information could help achieve widespread adoption of the digital euro.
