de reproduction permitted only if source is stated. and not only are we living longer, but we also have more freedom to decide how we use our time. one hundred years ago, full - time employees in western europe worked an average of just over 60 hours per week ; today, less than 40. countless household devices have reduced the time spent on housework from 60 to less than 20 hours per week since 1900. this is one of the reasons why even working mothers are today spending more time with their children than housewives did 50 years ago ( pinker 2018 ). now – this does not mean that women should continue doing the housework, but that striking a good balance between work at home and on the job has become easier for both women and men. an example of cultural learning how have we made such progress? through a constant learning process : through scientific findings, societal debates, changes to institutions and norms, and the reassessment of existing knowledge and traditional procedures that this brings about. it ’ s not just individuals who learn ; societies also learn and improve over generations. often, this “ cultural knowledge ” is not immediately apparent or comprehensible to an individual – but, as a whole, it moves us forward. joseph henrich describes one example of this cultural learning phenomenon – the preparation of foodstuffs ( henrich 2016 ). many foods are poisonous or at least damaging to the health in an unprocessed state. this is true of manioc, or yuca, for example. consumption of the manioc root can lead to poisoning in the long term. but over time, indigenous peoples in the amazon region have developed a complex refining system to reduce the toxins manioc contains. manioc roots are scraped, grated, washed, separated into liquid and the mass of fibre and starch, and boiled or left to stand for several days. each of these steps has been proven to reduce the hydrocyanic acid content of the roots. seite 4 von 11 deutsche bundesbank, directorate general communications wilhelm - epstein - strasse 14, 60431 frankfurt am main, germany, tel : + 49 ( 0 ) 69 9566 3511 or 3512, fax : + 49 ( 0 ) 69 9566 3077 presse @ bundesbank. de, www. bundesbank. de reproduction permitted only if source is stated. to an outsider, these processes may seem strange and, to an extent, unnecessary. but

businesses, as well as potentially the government and machines ( the aforementioned car payments are only one example ) ; functionalities and design choices ; technical infrastructures ; here earlier technical experiments already have demonstrated that from a technical perspective there would be no hurdles both for account - based and tokenbased systems ; but also interdependencies with the market and the business options for intermediaries. in addition, the legal basis for a possible introduction is to be determined. moreover, the project elaborates on ways to ensure high standards of cyber security and operational resilience : better safe than sorry. coming back to the “ adoption and acceptance challenge ” mentioned earlier : we seek not too much, but also not too little adoption. market acceptance is key to achieving our objectives and can only be achieved if a digital euro serves the needs of the users. therefore, the eurosystem is interacting with all the relevant stakeholders. these include, of course, banks and other payment service providers as well as consumers, merchants, other enterprises and authorities. we will pay particular attention to ensuring access to a digital euro for all citizens. a smartphone wallet is one option. however, we will also consider other means of access, since the euro should also be usable for less digitally savvy groups of the population – even if it is certain that a digital euro would not replace euro banknotes and coins, but only supplement them. and of course, when discussing future payments, we must also take into account the needs of the industry – keyword “ industry 4. 0 ” – as well as the financial market, for example with regard to the so - called “ token economy ”. cooperation with the private sector will be key to ensuring acceptance and wide use. to achieve this, we are also working to make it available within private payment solutions. in my opinion, relying on the private sector and its strong position and broad experience concerning the customer interface makes sense here. for instance, the eurosystem has set up a market advisory group. this group of professionals from the retail payments market provides advice on the possible design and distribution of a digital euro. the digital euro is also a priority topic for the exchange between central banks and 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches the market within the euro retail payments board. at the national level, too, we have set up a regular exchange, for example within the framework of our payments forum, which consists of representatives from both the supplier side and the demand side of the payments market