account. 3 trustworthy and unifying so far, the advantages and the solvable pitfalls that i have spoken about have mostly been of a technical nature. but money is far more than simply a " cold " means of payment. money is also something emotional. its existence is deeply linked to trust. after all, unlike gold coins or commodity currencies, modern money does not have any intrinsic value. rather, its value is founded on its users trusting that others are willing to accept it as a means of payment as well. and, in the case of europe, it is something unifying. or as the historian yuval noah harari put it so eloquently : money is the only trust system created by humans that can bridge almost any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation. 9 follow me to elaborate on these two points in a bit more detail, starting with trust. one objection that we hear time and time again is that the eurosystem could use the digital euro to monitor or even control the people in the euro area. let me assure you, this is not something anyone needs to be concerned about. quite to the contrary, i would argue that the eurosystem is particularly well placed to provide a trustworthy digital means of payment. the fourth of my five factors that make the case for a digital euro is that the digital euro would provide the highest possible level of privacy, surpassed only by cash. why? well, the eurosystem is simply not interested in collecting and commercialising individual 3 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches customers'payment data. we work for the public good, not for profits. this is a crucial difference between the digital euro and its private competitors. and we are committed to honouring the trust that the public places in us, as this is critical for achieving our primary mandate of maintaining price stability. people can trust that we will also deliver on our promises regarding the digital euro. and people can also trust us that the digital euro will not replace cash – another fear that is routinely voiced. the digital euro would complement cash, not replace it. creating the digital euro is about expanding consumers'choice when it comes to means of payment, not shrinking it. how would the digital euro contribute to bringing the euro area closer together? as things currently stand, cash is the only true european means of payment that can be used throughout the whole currency area.

are now on the road to what will hopefully be a glorious final. in my speech today, i would like to lay out the case for the digital euro. i would also like to take this opportunity to address some common concerns. and, to finish up, i would 1 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches like to share some thoughts on how italy and germany can move the digital euro project forward. 2 a means of payment for the digital age " why do we actually need the digital euro? " that's a question i get asked a lot. after all, consumers can already choose from a variety of payment instruments. the answer to this question is multi - faceted, yet ultimately quite simple. i will focus on five factors that speak in favour of the digital euro. the first factor is that our world is becoming more digital by the day. and the way we pay for goods and services is no exception. cash has traditionally been the means of payment most widely used by euro area households. but over the course of the past few years, digital payments have noticeably gained in importance. let me give you some numbers : 4 in 2022, customers in the euro area used cash for 59 % of transactions at the point of sale. just six years earlier, in 2016, this share still stood at 79 %. at the same time, the share of transactions executed with card payments rose from 19 % in 2016 to 34 % in 2022. in terms of the value of payments, cards already accounted for a higher share of transactions than cash payments in 2022 – 46 % compared to 42 %. so it seems intuitive for the eurosystem to seek to accommodate this change in payment behaviour too, by offering a digital complement to cash. by doing so, we would enable people living in the euro area to hold central bank money in digitalised form. and we are certainly not alone in this endeavour, as many other central banks are exploring central bank digital currencies ( cbdc ) or have already issued one. 5 but the digital euro is more than just an appropriate response to the digitalisation of our economies. the second factor in favour of a digital euro is that it also fits well into an era of geopolitical tensions. as things stand now, our digital payments often rely on noneuropean companies. in contrast, the digital euro would be built exclusively on european infrastructure. accordingly, the digital euro would strengthen the strategic autonomy of europe and increase our resilience.