He writes for German and European media on digital regulation, infrastructure and surveillance. He regularly reports for netzpolitik.org and Tagesspiegel Background. He has lived in Brussels since 2023 and observes developments in the European Union up close, whether in the Parliament, the Council or the Commission.
Project
At ZEVEDI, Maximilian focuses on the digital euro. In a series of articles, he wants to analyse who wants what from this major project. What is the EU planning, what is the ECB planning? What demands are banks or payment service providers putting forward, what are the positions of the various EU member states on the digital euro? Just as the project itself has largely flown under the radar so far, little is known about the actual interests different players have.
On September 16, 2023, a Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge under the title Follow the Money – Of Analogue Values, Digital Currencies and the Quantification of the World was staged in Frankfurt/Main. This was a project by the Mobile Academy Berlin, produced by Künstler:innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation with ZEVEDI. In 1:1 conversations with visitors – and audible via event radio – around 90 experts followed the traces of money on a large scale, on a small scale and in their own lives. All information about the film is also available here as a booklet (German only).
The video documents excerpts from 8 of these 192 conversations, in which perspectives on digital payment are discussed: The conversations revolve around the social significance of cash and the restrictions on digital payments. Other discuss the digital euro, a central bank currency that is supposed to function digitally but in a similar way to cash. Crypto assets such as Bitcoin and technologies such as blockchain play a roleas well. All of it sheds light onto the “digital money jungle” in which we find ourselves as individuals, but also as a society. For an overview of what else is happening, see the eFin-Blogpost Ein Markt des nützlichen Wissens und Nicht-Wissens (German only).
The experts in order of their appearance and with selected contributions to the topic:
Brett Scott is a former broker and now a publicist and cash activist. He is the author of the newsletter Altered States of Monetary Consciousness and the book Cloudmoney – Cash, Card or Crypto: Why the War on Cash Endangers Our Freedom (2022).
Jana Ringwald is a senior public prosecutor at the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt/Main. The video interviews by artist Rainer Lind (German only) provide an insight into her work.
Alexandra Keiner is a sociologist and researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. In an interview entitledOf Frozen Accounts and Unequal Conditions in International Payment Transactions (German only), she talks about her research on “payment bans on the internet” and about her experience and conversations during the Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge.
Claus George is Head of Digitalization and Innovation at DZ Bank. His lecture Digital payments – yesterday, today, tomorrow (German only), which he gave in April 2022 as part of the series Understanding Crypto! at TU Darmstadt, is available as a video recording.
Dr. Gerald Nestler is an artist and author who deals with the topic of finance, among other things. For his projects, texts and lectures see here.
Jürgen Geuter is known as a critic of crypto assets, among other things. For current blog posts and a selection of publications and presentations, see his online presence here.
Suggested citation:
Igel, Sophia/Scholtysik, Philipp: Follow the [New] Money. Auf den Spuren von Krypto, Karten, Coins und Cash. Darmstadt: Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung, 2024, Video 16:42 Minuten, online: https://zevedi.de/film-follow-the-new-money/.
eFin & Democracy invites an interdisciplinary panel of experts twice a year. The meetings offer an independent place to reflect on issues regarding the sociopolitical aspects of digital change in the financial sector. Its aim is a well-informed and critical exchange that brings together not only academic, but also relevant positions from financial market-related, cultural and journalistic practice. Civic engagement, digital political democratization, orientation towards the common good and a sense of responsibility form the horizon in which the considerations and activities of “Money – Technology – Democracy” are located.
The panel currently consists of the following members:
Dr. Martin Diehl (Analyst for financial market infrastructures at the Deutsche Bundesbank)
Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring (Professor of Philosophy at TU Darmstadt, Scientific Director of ZEVEDI (Centre for Responsible Digitality) and Head of the “eFin & Democracy” discourse project)
Johannes Kuhn (journalist in the Berlin studio of Deutschlandfunk with a focus on digitalization policy)
Prof. Dr. Aaron Sahr (Research Group Monetary Sovereignty at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organization at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg)
Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt Forum Endowed Professorship for the Theory and Practice of Interdisciplinary Curating, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media; Vice Director of the Hermann von Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Technology at HU Berlin)
Following a constituent meeting on March 14/15, 2023 at the Forum Humanwissenschaften, Bad Homburg, the group met for discussions on October 5/6, 2023 at the Darmstadt Wasserturm (photo). On April 12, 2024, it met at the Helmholtz Center for Cultural Technology at the HU Berlin.
It was decided to focus first on the digital euro. With the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the eurozone currently in preparation, technological issues relating to the specific design of the new money converge with the question of how aspects of “democracy” are affected. The panel of experts has therefore decided to first look at the digital euro, also with regard to a (public) infrastructure for digital payment transactions and the associated transparency and comprehensibility of the introduction process for citizens, which is absolutely essential. The panel will develop ideas for relevant features of the digital euro. It will also discuss ways of communicatively supporting the political-administrative process beyond conventional communication formats.
In the Citizen Lectures, scientists and experts are asked to provide insights into their specialist field, impart basic knowledge and make suggestions for a broader discussion. Their audience includes TU Darmstadt students as well as a broader interested public. All lectures are also available online as videos. The following lecture series have been held so far:
When the digital euro is introduced, it will be provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the Eurosystem. However, the exact design of this digital currency is still the subject of intense discussion and is expected to take several years. However, the ECB has been investigating such a central bank digital currency (CBDC), since at least 2020. An initial preparatory phase was launched last fall and certain decisions, even if not final, have been made.
In this context, some critics accuse the ECB of being too accommodating to the interests of commercial banks. At the same time, it is precisely these commercial banks that are warning the loudest and claiming that a digital euro would intervene too much in the payments market and would jeopardize their business model. This episode of Digitalgelddickicht therefore takes a look at the mandate and tasks of the ECB and explains why and how it is already working on the digital euro. In an interview with Jürgen Schaaf, an Advisor to the Senior Management of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank, we want to find out how the ECB is working with EU legislation, the financial industry and civil society on the digital euro project, to what extent it is taking their criticism into account and what it is doing to counter it.
Digitalgelddickicht Season Digital Euro – Folge 8 (German only) | 29. April 2024
Guests
Jürgen Schaaf has been Advisor to the Senior Management of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank since November 2019. Before that, he was Counsellor to the Executive Board of the ECB and Secretary of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Project Team. Before he joined the ECB, he was Personal Adviser to the Governor of Banque Centrale du Luxembourg. In previous occupations he worked at Börsen-Zeitung and as Senior Economist at Deutsche Bank. He studied economics in Marburg and Canterbury and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Philipps-Universität Marburg.
Cornelia Manger-Nestler is Professor of German and International Business Law at HWTK Leipzig, specializing in monetary law. She previously studied and worked at TU Dresden and TU Chemnitz, where she also completed her doctorate on the role of the Deutsche Bundesbank in the European System of Central Banks. Furthermore, she is currently supervising a research project on legal issues with regards to the digital euro.
Markus Ferber is an engineer, has been a member of the CSU Schwaben‘s Executive Board since 1990 and its Chairman from 2005 to 2023. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a member of the EPP Group, the European People’s Party, and has also been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2009. Between 2014 and 2018, he served as its Vice-Chairman and since then as the EPP Group’s spokesperson on the committee. He has also been Chairman of the CSU-affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation since 2020.
Henrike Hahn is a political scientist and has worked as a management consultant and research assistant in the Bavarian state parliament and the Bundestag. She has been an active member of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Bayern since 2012, including as spokesperson for its working group on economics and finance and a member of the board. In 2019, she became a member of the European Parliament. There she is a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She is the lead negotiator and shadow rapporteur on the digital euro for her group, the Greens/EFA.
Joachim Schuster holds a doctorate in political science and worked in research, science management and political consulting until 2006. He was a member of the Bremen Parliament for the SPD since 1999 and was Bremen’s State Councillor for Labor, Youth and Social Affairs and later Health and Science from 2006 to 2012. He became a Member of the European Parliament in 2014. He is a member of the S&D Group and has been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2019. On the Executive Committee of the German Social Democrats, he is responsible for cooperation with the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Interdisciplinary Citizen Lecture Every Monday, 18:00 CET, starting from 22 April 2024
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Old Main Building, Hochschulstr. 1, Lecture Hall 223
An Event of Faculty 01 (Law and Economics) in Cooperation with the Discourse Project Democratic Issues of the Digitalized Financial Sector at the Centre Responsible Digitality (ZEVEDI)
The relationship between the financial sector on the one hand and states, especially democracies, on the other is (re)constructed in different ways. Ideas about the the capital markets’ efficiency free them from demands for a “fair” distribution of financial resources. The “taming of the financial markets”, on the other hand, is a demand that was advocated by the movement critical of globalization in the 1990s. What both views have in common, however, is the implicit assumption that the market and the state are fundamentally separate. However, the dichotomy of market and state fails to recognize the entanglement of states and the financial world.
The genesis of modern statehood has led to a significant increase in the financial requirements of the public sector, which is only partially covered by taxes and fees. The state is therefore increasingly asking for loans or issuing bonds on the capital markets. It has also successively established central banks that act as lenders of last resort. It is therefore not only a demander, but also a major player on the capital markets. And it also shapes their framework conditions.
The expansion of the financial sector is linked both to the industrial revolution and the implementation of capitalist production methods as well as to increasing state activity. However, in order to reduce information asymmetries, protect the weak, strengthen the European single market or avoid further financial crises, the state often sets limits or imposes rules on financial intermediaries. Even more fundamentally, it can be stated that there is not a single financial product without a legal basis. No share, no bond, no loan and no derivative is born without legal norms. The question is therefore not one of market or state, but of the connectionsandambivalences of the market-state relationship.
In a democracy – especially one in which digital technologies shape everyday life – the question of the role of the financial sector becomes even more pressing, as it is considered to be in need of regulation on the one hand and difficult to regulate on the other. In addition, the increased demand for capital can also lead to a certain dependence of the state on capital markets and thus make it more difficult to enforce democratic demands. The recent debate has also (re)raised the relationship between capital markets and distribution issues. In particular, this raises the question of how the conflicting goals of maximizing prosperity on the one hand and equitable distribution of economic goods on the other can be resolved. The third force in this area of conflict is the digital transformation, which is not just a “technical” issue. Under digital conditions, both capital markets and democracies are now fundamentally confronted with new requirements for communication, value creation and also the “traditional” understanding of currencies and payment systems.
The lecture series explores the ambivalent relationship between (digital) capital markets and (digital) democracy as well as the effects that evolving capital markets have on distribution issues. It reconstructs the history of capital markets and states as controversial as they were in earlier times and as they are today, on the one hand from the perspective of science, on the other hand it is also about a representation of facts and debates that is accessible to citizens. The lecture provides ways how to describe the issues at hand, raises the question of the objectives and means by which (digital) capital markets are (or should be) regulated and deals with the issues of prosperity and distributive justice in a digital world.
Programme
22.04.
Christoph Becker (Professor für Finanzmathematik und Stochastik, Darmstädter Institut für Statistik und Operations Research (DISO), h_da)
Das Finanzsystem und die Selbstbestimmung des Menschen
29.4.
Andreas Nastansky (Professor für Quantitative Methoden und Mathematik, HWR Berlin)
Risikoverbund zwischen Banken und Staaten im Euroraum
06.05.
Carola Westermeier (Akademische Rätin am Institut für Soziologie, Universität Gießen / aktuell ZEVEDI Young Investigator)
Digitales Geld als öffentliches Gut? Der digitale Euro als Finanz- und Sicherheitsinfrastruktur
13.05.
Jenny Preunkert (Professorin für Makrosoziologie, Universität Kassel)
Die Europäische Union, ihre Mitgliedsstaaten und die Gläubiger: Machtfigurationen auf den europäischen Kapitalmärkten
27.05.
Joseph Vogl (em. Professor für Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft/Medien, HU Berlin)
Privatisierung des Geldes
03.06.
Andreas Dombret (Vorstand der Deutschen Bundesbank, a.D., Honararprofessor, EBS, Wiesbaden)
Die 3 I’s – Invasion, Inflation & Interest Rates
10.06.
Lars P. Feld (Professor für Wirtschaftspolitik, Universität Freiburg, Persönlicher Berater des Bundesfinanzministers)
Ist die Schuldenbremse an allem schuld? Für und Wider ihrer Reform
Jiajia Liu (PostDoc Researcher, International History and Politics, Universität Genf)
Financial Institutions in Shanghai (1840s-1910s)
24.06.
Marc Buggeln (Professor für regionale Zeitgeschichte und PublicHistory & Direktor der Forschungsstelle für regionale Zeitgeschichte und Public History, Universität Flensburg)
Keine Demokratie ohne Steuern? Wandel der Gouvernementalität und soziale Gleichheit vom 18. Jahrhundert bis heute
01.07.
Andreas Fisahn (Professor für öffentliches Recht, Umwelt-und Technikrecht, Rechtstherie, Universität Bielefeld)
Demokratische Selbstbestimmung und Finanzmärkte
08.07.
Thorsten Pötzsch (Exekutivdirekor Geschäftsbereich Wertpapieraufsicht, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin))
Kapitalmarkt heute und morgen
15.07.
Jan Pieter Krahnen (em. Professor für Kreditwirtschaft und Finanzierung & Gründungsdirektor des Leibniz-Instituts für Finanzmarktforschung SAFE, Frankfurt)
Die unvollendete Bankenunion: Europa im Spannungsfeld von Marktintegration und nationaler Souveränität
This episode of Digitalgelddickicht asks – also with the upcoming European elections in mind: How and when exactly will final decisions on the digital Euro be made in Brussels? What steps are still to be taken? Who has which opportunities to influence the outcome or act strategically? And what are the pitfalls of the EU process? What are the current positions in European Parliament and what is the significance of the European elections? What role do committees and the so-called rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs play? We will address these questions in our conversations with EU parliamentarians.
It is, after all, the EU institutions which will decide whether such a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be introduced at all. And if so, Brussels will define the framework within which a digital euro must be developed. That will take time still. We are in the early stages of the legislative process and the home stretch is not in sight for a long time. But that also means that a lot can still happen. Any meaningful discussion on the digital euro is currently still based on the European Commission’s Draft Proposal from June 2023. But the next step is for the European Parliament and the European Council to find a position each which is able to secure a majority’s support. This episode therefore takes a closer look at the most accessible of the EU’s engine rooms: the European Parliament and its committees
Season 1 Digital Euro -Episode 7 | 5 April 2024 (German only)
Guests
Damian Boeselager studied economics and philosophy, worked as a management consultant and co-founded Volt as a pan-European party together with two like-minded co-founders from Italy and France in 2017. As the lead candidate of Volt‘s German chapter, he was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 as the only Volt MEP at the time. He is a member of the Greens/EFA group and a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
Patrick Breyer is a lawyer, founding member and active politician of the Piratenpartei Germany since 2012. From 2012 to 2017, he was a member of the state parliament in Schleswig-Holstein and from 2012 to 2013 and from 2016 to 2017 he was also the leader of its Pirate Party parliamentary group. As the German Pirates’ lead candidate for the 2019 European elections, he has since been the only German member of his party in the European Parliament. He is a member of the Group of the Greens/EFA and a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Markus Ferber is an engineer, has been a member of the CSU Schwaben‘s Executive Board since 1990 and its Chairman from 2005 to 2023. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a member of the EPP Group, the European People’s Party, and has also been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2009. Between 2014 and 2018, he served as its Vice-Chairman and since then as the EPP Group’s spokesperson on the committee. He has also been Chairman of the CSU-affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation since 2020.
Henrike Hahn is a political scientist and has worked as a management consultant and research assistant in the Bavarian state parliament and the Bundestag. She has been an active member of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Bayern since 2012, including as spokesperson for its working group on economics and finance and a member of the board. In 2019, she became a member of the European Parliament. There she is a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She is the lead negotiator and shadow rapporteur on the digital euro for her group, the Greens/EFA.
Joachim Schuster holds a doctorate in political science and worked in research, science management and political consulting until 2006. He was a member of the Bremen Parliament for the SPD since 1999 and was Bremen’s State Councillor for Labor, Youth and Social Affairs and later Health and Science from 2006 to 2012. He became a Member of the European Parliament in 2014. He is a member of the S&D Group and has been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2019. On the Executive Committee of the German Social Democrats, he is responsible for cooperation with the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
For the European election programs of the different parties and their positions on the digital euro, please consult the pages of the parties in question.
She regularly reports on security policy, technology and China for German and international media. She also works as a producer for NBC News. Just recently, she lived in Hong Kong for two years, where she researched pro-China influencers. She was recently recognized by Medium Magazin as one of the “Top 30 under 30” journalists in Germany.
Project
At ZEVEDI, Marie Bröckling is researching the question of how the judiciary deals with the growing amount of confiscated cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are subject to strong price fluctuations, so the timing of their sale is crucial. In addition, information about the illegal past of the seized cryptocurrencies is stored in the blockchain. It is therefore not easy to reintroduce them into the legal financial cycle. So far, there are no uniform rules on how seized cryptocurrencies should be resold.
Further information on the programme and application procedure can be found on the German language website».
With the AI Act, the EU has launched the first comprehensive regulatory framework for “Artificial Intelligence” systems. An ambitious, challenging and urgent endeavour: Rapid technological development is taking place globally, and mostly outside of Europe. AI is already being used in all areas of life, with undeniable economic benefits, but also obvious risks for liberal democracy and its values. Which technologies are considered “Artificial Intelligence”, though, is not clearly defined. Rather, this fuzzy buzzword covers all kinds of IT and robotic systems with capabilities that go beyond those of conventional automation. A legal framework, such as the one that is about to be introduced in Europe, must be wisely drafted and flexible in order to do justice to this complex situation. Has the European AI regulation achieved this?
Domenik Wendt is Professor of Civil Law, European Business Law and European Law at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and an expert on AI law. He has closely followed the development of the AI Act from the very outset, adopting both an academic and a practice-orientated perspective. In this episode of Digitalgespräch, he describes the process the regulation has gone through: From the context of the EU commission’s first initiative and its underlying idea and objective, to the heated discussions between the stakeholders involved with their various interests and basic political stances, to the content of the final draft that is now set to be adopted. Together with hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Wendt discusses how the AI Act is perceived and evaluated internationally, whether critics are right to point out weaknesses, and how companies, lawyers and scientists have to take action in order to bring this abstract legal framework into reality.
Episode 48 of Digitalgespräch, feat. Domenik Wendt of Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, 5 March 2024
When making digital payments, have you ever given a thought to the underlying infrastructure – the back end of these payments? The details of these complex private “traffic routes” are rarely known to those who do not deal with them in their professional lives. Now, however, it looks like the digital euro is breaking completely new ground. Now, at the latest, it is worth taking a closer look.
As long as the payment systems operate reliably and are not a significant cost factor, they are of secondary importance to citizens and their everyday use of money. It is often only when people have to make transfers to non-European countries that they realize that payments are a business – and that the low-cost accessibility of the infrastructures on which they are processed is not simply a given. In this episode, the Digitalgelddickicht therefore takes a closer look at what lies underneath digital payments.
The infrastructure required for the digital euro is to be built from scratch: What kind of work does this mean for the ECB? How should commercial banks, which will have to process these payments, prepare for this? If the digital euro enters an already competitive business area, what challenges and opportunities does this present for banks and citizens? And will the progress made by the European Payments Initiative in offering a private European payment solution be a game changer?
Season 1 Digital Euro -Episode 6 | 12 February 2024
Guests
Manuel Klein is Product Manager Blockchain Solutions & Digital Currencies at Corporate Bank of Deutsche Bank. In this position, he also analyses the potential impact of central bank digital currencies on the banking sector.
