European Central Bank – Homepage – Centre Responsible Digitality

When Facebook (now Meta) initiated a global stablecoin project called Libra in 2019, governments, federal banks and regulators around the world were alarmed. The plan for a global digital money issued by the world’s biggest social network met resistance by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. After all, it could potentially have been used by billions worldwide. The project was ultimately abandoned.

While it is not used as a common argument for or against a digital euro any more, the Libra project sent shock waves around the world and caused the ECB to accelerate research into and planning for the digital Euro. In this episode, eFin & Democracy therefore takes a look at how and why it affected the European and other CBDC endeavours: What is a stablecoin? How would the Libra stablecoin have worked? What hopes and fears were associated with Libra – and with private-sector stablecoins in general? And what tasks have arisen from this with regard to the regulation of crypto assets on the one hand and digital central bank money on the other?

Season Digital Euro – Episode 4 (in German) / 7 Dezember 2023

Guests

Dr. Jonas Gross is an economist». Having earned his PhD at the University of Bayreuth with a thesis on the monetary economy and digital currencies, he is co-founder and chairman of the Digital Euro Association, and Chief Operating Officer at etonec, a business offering blockchain-based payment solutions.

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Omlor is Professor for Private Law, Commercial and Business Law, Banking Law, and Comparative Law» at the Philipps-Universität Marburg und Founding Director of the Marburg Institute on the Law of Digitization (IRDi)». An important research focus of his are legal issues of the digitized financial sector. He leads the ZEVEDI project group Tokenization and Finance».

Moritz Hütten is a financial sociologist», reserach coordinator at the Darmstadt Business School and a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam.

Claus George is Head of Digitalization and Innovation TxB at DZ BANK AG, focussing on new means of payment and forms of money.

Prof.Dr. Barbara Brandl is Professor for Sociology with a focus on Organization and Economy» at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. She is member of the ZEVEDI Project Group Tokenized Finance».

Cornelia Manger-Nestler is Professor for German and International Business Law» at the HTWK Leipzig.

Further information

European Central Bank, Crypto Asset Task Force: Stablecoins: Implications for monetarypolicy, financial stability, market infrastructure and payments, and banking supervision in the euro area, Occasional Paper Series, No. 247, September 2020. Find the pdf here».

John Oliver: Cryptocurrencies II ( Episode of 24 April 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7zazuy_UfI

Hannah Murphy and Kiran Stacey: Facebook Libra: the inside story of how the company’s cryptocurrency dream died, Facebook Libra: the inside story of how the company’s cryptocurrency dream died», Financial Times, 10 March 2022.

Claus George: Digital Payments – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Lecture (in German), 25 Aril 2022, within the Public Lecture Series „Do you understand Crypto?“ at TU Darmstadt in 2022.

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Cover Digitalgelddickicht Staffel 2 Folge 1

Journalism has changed fundamentally with digitalization. In part in its content, in its formats, and also and perhaps especially in its infrastructure and the way in which it is financed. Traditional subscription models of daily or weekly newspapers, for example, have fallen behind, and the secure pillar of income from advertising has also crumbled. Although digital equivalents have emerged, they are far from being able to fully replace the old ones. Completely different business models are needed – and these have developed and continue to develop.

In this episode, we will ask: What role do small digital participation models play in journalism? Do small payments, does the idea of a “mini-payment” help to finance it into a new phase of serious journalistic work? Or are the effects of digitalization leading traditional and even less traditional media into precariousness, and are the payment models based on small payments changing them for the worse, towards pure entertainment? And what does “micropayment” actually mean in journalism – one-off payments, subscriptions or individual purchases?

Season Small Money – Episode 1 | December 17, 2024

Guests

Ann-Kathrin Liedtke is head of online payment strategies and memberships at taz, where she has worked since 2016. Before that, she was responsible for the taz blogs and program editor at taz lab.

Sebastian Esser is Managing Director of the Steady platform. He has also been co-chairman of the cooperative and editor of the magazine Krautreporter since 2014.

André Peschke co-founded “The Pod” with Jochen Gebauer, one of the most successful gaming podcasts in Germany, after being video editor-in-chief at Gamestar.

Further Information:

The Colombia Journalism Review article quoted in the podcast can be read here. A more in-depth interview with media researcher Christian-Mathias Wellbrock can be found here.

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