“Save the digital euro.”
That’s an email we honestly didn’t expect to receive.
The argument is simple: Europe depends heavily on American payment giants to process digital payments.
If geopolitical pressure rises, access to our own money could theoretically be restricted.
The problem is real.
And it deserves to be taken seriously.
Visa, Mastercard, PayPal; Europe’s daily payments rely on infrastructures we don’t control.
From that point of view, the concern raised by platforms like WeMove Europe is legitimate.
But here’s where things get uncomfortable.
The proposed solution, a digital euro issued and controlled by the central bank, sounds reassuring on paper.
Stable. Official. European.
In reality, it’s also naïve and potentially dangerous.
A CBDC on top of replacing private payment rails, concentrates power.
Money becomes programmable, traceable by default and controllable at the source.
Supporting a digital euro as designed today means accepting that every transaction could, in theory, be monitored, restricted, or conditioned.
More than being financial sovereignty, this is total control.
And for a continent that knows its history, this should ring alarm bells.
For anyone with parents or grandparents who lived under centrally planned systems, especially in Germany, the idea should feel disturbingly familiar.
The lesson of the 20th century was not “replace private power with total public power”.
It was: never let money become a tool of coercion.
So yes, Europe must reduce its dependence on American payment giants.
But not by building an all-seeing monetary infrastructure.
There is another path.
At OffChain Luxembourg, we’ve been working on something far more grounded: Innopay.
A European payment solution which is already live, built on decentralized rails and with no central point of control, empowering merchants and users without handing the keys of our economic lives to a single authority.
Innopay doesn’t promise utopia. It offers plurality.
And that’s the real answer to dependency: building alternatives to giants.
Innopay is already live in four places in Luxembourg, and we’re just getting started.
If you want to follow how a European, community-driven payment system grows, follow the Innopay page here on LinkedIn. 🧡
And tell us in the comments: which venue should join the Innopay family next?
Europe needs freedom, competition, and choice.
Let’s build that, together. 🧡
