Germany’s Finance Minister and Vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz has thrown his weight behind a potential digital euro following his criticism of Facebook’s Libra token. A report in German business news magazine Wirtschaftswoche cites a recent report in which Scholz took another jab at Facebook and warned of the risks of falling behind the curve in the blockchain revolution.
Scholz Says Eurozone Mustn’t be Left Behind
Scholz is quoted as saying that the concept of an e-euro would be “good for the financial center [of] Europe and its integration into the world financial system”, adding that he didn’t want to wait and “leave the field to China, Russia, the US or any private providers.” This is clearly another dig at Facebook, while he also brings into play the much-discussed potential Chinese state cryptocurrency, which until last week was nailed on for launch before being called “inaccurate speculation” by the People’s Bank of China. Vladmir Putin ordered the creation of a crypto version of the ruble in 2017, which the Russian Blockchain Association said back in early 2018 would be ready by mid-2019.
Scholz Still Down on Libra
Scholz is already a committed member of the anti-Libra brigade, having strongly criticized the concept last month along with France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire. The pair issued a joint statement following an event in Paris in which they said that the Libra concept threatened the “monetary sovereignty” of European states, arguing that private companies should not be in the game of money creation – a sentiment echoed by Apple CEO Tim Cook last week. Germany recently signed off on a blockchain strategy that all but closed the door on a privatised coin like Libra but opened the door for a national cryptocurrency.
