Ah man, I was kind of excited until it said European-only.
I thought maybe I'd be able to build a till from scratch without purchasing a software suite from IBM written in the 80s.
Right now the best I can do is accept Crypto on such a machine.
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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I mean, it's gonna ultimately have to work everywhere
People don't like having cards they can't use when they travel
It's not gonna happen right away, but I don't see how it doesn't end up that way
Edit: although reading more it might not be equivalent to the existing kinds of cards as it seems to be a debit only provision (i.e. potentially lacking a lot of the protection you get from using a credit card as your main purchasing card). Will be interesting to see how this evolves
A lot of people don't even own credit cards here, so that isn't really a massive problem.
A credit card that only works domestically is not a deal breaker. Most of the time, people don't travel abroad. So, using a more advantageous card (more perks, less fees, etc.) domestically makes sense.
Domestic providers are a thing in several countries which are smaller than EU. Some of them don't operate internationally so this news isn't that weird
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It’s a public service for people in the EU and businesses operating in the EU paid for by EU taxpayers. So I doubt it will be rolled out outside of the EU. It still cost money to operate the service eventhough it is provided for free. If it ever gets to work outside the EU it will probably only be for people that have EU residency. No way they want to subsidize the transactions for people from outside of the EU with EU tax money.
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Visa/Mastercard & Apple/Google Pay typically charge 3% fees
Not in the EU. Visa and Mastercard have been capped to 0.5% for years.
Apple / Google pay take a small cut from the 0.5%
Diversity in payment methods would be no bad thing though. It’s amazing how Visa/Mastercard have managed to insert themselves into almost ever transaction, particularly since contactless became so prevalent.
Aren't there some other fees? Some smaller shops even outright ask if you don't have cash instead.
I am completely uninformed on card payment fees but l imagine some if this is because it's easier to underreport cash revenue to tax authorities
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We've been hearing about the Digital Euro for years. Is it finally happening?
Trump really is the great unifyer, goddamn
Sorry to be an ass and english is a weird language but it's spelled as unifier, unify doesn't become unifyer. Why? Because it's a piece of shit language that's why.
Unifyer: Portmanteau of Groyper and Unifier. Invented at the end of 2025 CE, it came to represent the abhorrent character of Fascist leaders like Donald Trump uniting opposing political powers that would normally bicker.
- The Devil's Dictionary, the most honest provider of words among the literary arts.
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The US-based financial sector fights it tooth-and-claw at every opportunity. I suspect this kind of legislation is an absolute cash-cow for lobbyists across the continent, in the same way the PPACA made a bunch of influential DC firms incredibly rich.
But can the ECB actually deliver on a useful and efficient method of continent-wide banking in practice? Fingers crossed, I guess. I just wouldn't hold my breath.
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I hope Americans are allowed to use it. I want to support hentai and to enjoy it without prudes getting in the way.
The technology is based on the existing Ideal system, which is already in use by the Netherlands. It works via apps from the banks themselves. Hence, you will need an account at an European bank.
Balls, guess Canada is stuck using the imperial processors. I'd have loved to use a European government system
You're confusing Wero with the Digital Euro. This article is about the latter.
It comes to America
A bunch of Americans start using it
The provider sees a growing market and likes money.
Some pastor from Iowa sees tits on the Internet and gets offended.
Religious network of nutnobs pays for boycott ad campaign.
Provider silently or not so silently bans everything that can possibly offend christian pastors from the US.
We still need a sane payment provider
Boycotting a service that has no fees doesn't do much.
It reminds me of when I worked in a call center. Asshole, screaming callers would demand to speak to someone else and expect me to be somehow upset that I got to get them off my line.
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I just bought something from a German online shop. I paid with a direct bank-to-bank transfer, zero fees (as far as I know).
The only problem of course is that this method of payment doesn't have any kind of insurance against fraud, so it works only with already reputable stores. And of course it's usable only in online shops.
The potential for data breach there is much worse than credit/debit, you can't just get a new account number like you can a card if it's breached. You have to close your account or put it on total lockdown.
Payment by bank transfers doesn't at all work like credit card payments since you don't give them some kind of information which they can then use to get the money from you.
Instead THEY give you their bank details and you order your bank to transfer money to their account (a process made ever more easy over time and pretty straightforward now with smartphone bank apps which can read QR codes with their bank info).
At most they might get the number of the account the money was transferred from and no further information about it, the kind of information that, if leaked, is pretty much useless (can't be used to get info on who owns that account or how much money is there, much less to get money out from that account).
Maybe some countries have really bad security and secrecy laws around bank accounts, but in those countries in Europe I lived in, the only one where that is maybe the case is Britain, whilst in the rest knowing somebody's bank account number is useless.
The really risky stuff is Debit Cards which are directly linked to your bank account (for example VISA Electron) as those have none of the protections of Credit Cards and do have card data which can be used for distance purchases and hence if leaked would allow access to your accounts. Electronic bank transfers are something completely different from this.
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For the love of dog, do not do this with Alibaba sellers if they ask you to. I've never gotten bit but I've heard horror stories.
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It'll be interesting to see how they'll handle steamy steam games. The whole steam and itch deplatforming saga was kicked off by Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
Won’t have any effect as long as they need to have Visa and Mastercard for other territories. In Europe you can already pay with European payment systems on Steam like iDeal (Dutch) and Trustly (Swedish) and those porn games still got removed in the territories that have those payment options.
Yes, but if that european payment provider is less strict, maybe other platforms can fill that gap.
Doesn't help us in AU unfortunately
Brazil has PIX and steam accepts it, no problems. (pix is a government created payment method that has 0 fees and is basically instant, you never wait for confirmation)
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I never understood why countries allowed digital payments like this. It effectively is like giving up monetary soverenty. Of course later I realized its because debt has been used for currency creation now.
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We need this for Canada too.
That was my first thought. I like every part of the article except the "European only" bit
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Wow, very cool! Absolute poggers.
“It’s an end-to-European solution,” says Alessandro Giovannini, an ECB official. “All the engineering will be 100pc European, and it will be distributed by euro banks.”
Hmm, I should open a European bank account. It could help if I'm every visiting family out there, anyway.
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Holy shit, this is exactly what I was talking to my parents about over Christmas. A wallet in your phone, money lost when stolen, no tracking. This is potentially big.
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This is excellent. We should never have left the EU.
This article claims there are very initial signs that you might get your wish: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/process-trying-undo-brexit-begun-4106581
I personally can't get over the fact that a 50% majority was all that was needed for such a drastic change. The US despite all its flaws requires more than 50% for certain major things like amending the constitution. Hopefully you can one day rejoin and then make it so it would require a higher threshold like 2/3 majority before another brexit would be possible.
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let's f'in GOOOO! #YUROP
I've noticed a few retailers in Canada charging more for credit cards - debit, cash and cheque are all no extra fee's. The only reason I have a credit card is for the rewards and the necessity for things like hotels and car rentals.
If society could work in our favor and not try to force easy credit on us then we would all be better off.
If everyone wasn't trying to screw everyone else we'd be better off.
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GNU taler has been working on this, I guess someone just needs to adopt it. https://www.taler.net/en/index.html
If it was viable then I'd sign up asap.
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