The ECB president admitted that ‘there will be control’ as far as the digital euro is concerned, much to the chagrin of the cryptocurrency community.
A ‘joke’ video published about three weeks ago and widely shared on social media portrays European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde admitting how the digital euro will be used in a ‘limited’ way to control the payments people can make.
The video was highlighted in the latest‘Watcher Guru‘ news on 7 April and generated a lot of rumours on social media: Lagarde cited a desire not to rely on a‘currency from hostile countries‘ or a currency provided by‘a private company like Facebook or like Google‘. She said she was‘personally convinced that we have to move forward‘ with the digital euro.
JUST IN: 🇪🇺 European Central Bank President reveals plans to launch a digital euro (CBDC), says there will be control over payments. pic.twitter.com/szCFxBkZDR
– Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) April 6, 2023
Confident sources trace the video back to a 17 March prank in which Lagarde appears to speak more bluntly than normal, as she believed she was talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pranksters have had similar conversations with other public figures, including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and former US President George W. Bush.
When ‘Zelensky’ remarked that‘the problem is that [the European protesters] do not want to be controlled‘ by a central bank digital currency, Lagarde admitted that‘there will be some form of control‘, but suggested that it would be a‘limited control‘, with amounts above 300-400 euros.
But Lagarde noted that terrorist attacks can, and have been, entirely financed by small anonymous transactions in the past.
Lagarde’s comments were heavily criticised by the cryptocurrency community, particularly the mention made about how the digital euro could potentially allow control over people and payments.
