[danialtz]

The benefits are not that obvious and visible in a European country.

In general, there are benefits and drawbacks:

- efficiency: well, despite having a fast transaction time the machinery behind banking system is old and in-efficient, scary even to think how it’s still working. Cross-border is another major friction.

- flexible monetary policies and tools: e.g. directly depositing relief money into the accounts of people in crisis times, or negative interest rates.

- financial inclusion: not everywhere people are banked and part of socioeconomic circle to receive benefits, e.g. African countries or small portion of modern world, where banking is privileged. In theory, one does not need a whole banking backend to store coins, as seen by crypto world.

- innovation backstop: the new currency could act as a settlement layer for the known stability model of money in a country to create new tools (asset chains, etc) or automate them at much lower cost.

Of course, it comes with a risk (from CB’s perspective) of disintermediation of banking system, technological challenges, privacy concerns, etc.