– by comparison with instant payments – 30 times more slowly, and is about 10, 000 times more expensive. the inefficient processing makes transactions costly not just from a financial perspective, but also in terms of the environmental impact. bitcoin in particular has a large carbon footprint due to the electricity consumption required for its creation and transfer. in addition, because virtual currencies do not have a trusted issuer behind them, they may become worthless at any time. it is not surprising, then, that virtual currencies are not widely accepted as a means of payment. conclusion the future of payments is instant and most countries in the euro area are moving with the times. this is a natural development, following the rise of real - time services in other industries. the industry ( with the support of the eurosystem ) has stepped up to the challenge and developed a scheme and an infrastructure that enable such services to become the new normal for euro payments. now it is time to go one step further and provide efficient and innovative end - user solutions that allow consumers and businesses across europe to make instant payments in any payment situation, especially at the point of sale, where the majority of retail payments are made. i encourage new and existing service providers to take the opportunity to develop pan - european point - of - sale solutions based on instant payments. these solutions should be efficient, userfriendly and secure. as you are all aware, high security standards are essential to retain public trust. i therefore reiterate my call to payment service providers to adhere to the psd2 regulatory technical standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication as soon as possible, even before they are legally required to do so. by providing services that are safe, as well as fast and convenient, the payments industry will succeed in meeting the needs of a digitalised society. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

what i mentioned earlier, customers must be able to easily initiate an instant payment from an online shopping environment and the merchant must instantly receive confirmation that the payment has been executed. the revised payment services directive ( psd2 ) provides a stable legislative framework for such services and aims to foster innovation and competition in this field. the erpb, taking the revised psd2 and the close - to - final regulatory technical standards as a basis, has supported the industry in its endeavours to reach agreement on the necessary technical, operational and business elements to ensure the pan - european provision of innovative and competitive payment initiation services. this work is well under way and will be concluded by june this year. in parallel, the european commission has encouraged a group of market actors to evaluate application programming interface ( api ) technical specifications to ensure that they will meet market needs and will be fit for purpose when accessing customer accounts to initiate payments. security the psd2 provides many opportunities for innovative services, including, but not limited to, ecommerce payment solutions. such solutions require standardised access to accounts, but also security throughout the payment chain. the psd2 regulatory technical standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication strike a good balance between the needs of consumers, third - party providers and banks. they will probably not be applicable until september 2019 at the earliest. since the main provisions of the psd2 have been in effect since last month, i call on payment service providers to fulfil the requirements of the regulatory technical standards, even if they are not yet legally required to do so, during the transition period until these standards enter into force. it is in their own interests to do so, as this will guarantee the high security levels that are necessary to retain public trust in the payment system and payment services. instant payments versus virtual currencies smart, pan - european instant payment solutions meet the needs of end - users in the digital age, being fast and easy to use as well as safe and reliable. the sct inst scheme and the underlying market infrastructure are subject to eurosystem oversight, and settlement takes place in central bank money. by contrast, so - called virtual currency schemes such as bitcoin, which have been 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches touted by some as the payment method of the future, cannot achieve that. first, bitcoin is not a currency but simply a speculative digital asset. it tends to be processed inefficiently and