The European Central Bank is pushing ahead with the digital euro. Politicians and officials describe it as efficient, modern, and inclusive. But behind the glossy language lies a project that could reshape not just money, but freedom itself. In my book Brick by Brick: Building a Sovereign Life on Bitcoin I explored what CBDCs mean for democracy, autonomy, and human dignity. Here is why the digital euro should concern every European citizen.

Central Bank Digital Currencies are promoted as the inevitable next step in the evolution of money. In the European Union, the digital euro is marketed as citizen-friendly, efficient, and inclusive. Yet behind this polished language lies a project of control rather than progress.

In Brick by Brick I wrote that CBDCs are money with strings, while Bitcoin is money with freedom. This contrast captures the core of the issue. A CBDC is not simply digital cash. It is programmable, meaning that conditions can be attached to how, when, and where money is spent. In the book I described it as a digital cage dressed up as convenience. Cash is freedom. Programmable money is prison with a user interface.

We have already seen glimpses of what financial deplatforming looks like. In 2022, during the Canadian trucker protests, bank accounts were frozen, donations seized, and ordinary citizens suddenly excluded from their financial lives. And this happened without the infrastructure of a CBDC. Imagine what it means when the central bank itself has direct control over every transaction, with the ability to switch off dissent not with riot police, but with a keystroke in your wallet.

The leadership of this project matters. The European Central Bank is run by officials who are not elected by the public. Its president, Christine Lagarde, was convicted in 2016 for negligence over a 400 million euro payout while serving as France’s finance minister. This is the person now shaping a currency that could govern the everyday transactions of hundreds of millions of Europeans. Should unelected technocrats, led by someone with such a record, be entrusted with such sweeping power?

Professor Richard Werner, one of the most insightful critics of central banking, has shown that central banks were never designed as neutral guardians of stability. Watch the video below, it the best invest for your time, it is simple eye-opening.

<<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTKHskg5Tg>>

Many were created to finance wars without asking citizens to pay for them upfront. They are instruments of state power. Handing them the tools of total financial surveillance should concern anyone who values democracy and human dignity.

There is another layer of disruption that is rarely discussed. Under many designs, CBDCs allow citizens to hold accounts directly with the central bank. This bypasses commercial banks and raises the possibility that their traditional role as deposit takers could become redundant. Banking consultancies like McKinsey openly warn that a fully account-based CBDC could displace a significant share of deposits. Academics note that such a model forces the central bank into direct competition with commercial banks. In short, the banking system as we know it could shrink into a thin service layer while the central bank becomes everyone’s bank. Whether the banking industry fully recognises this existential risk is still unclear.

The European Central Bank outlines several features of the digital euro. On the surface, they sound beneficial. But for citizens, each feature carries implications that deserve scrutiny:

• Digital cash backed by the ECB: balances become direct claims on the central bank, not on private banks. This centralises all trust in a single authority.

• Universally accepted: works in all shops and online. Convenient, but also makes opting out difficult.

• Free of charge for basic use: no fees at first glance, but hidden costs may emerge through other mechanisms like negative interest.

• Offline capability: useful for resilience, but requires hardware trust and may introduce limits on usage.

• Privacy within limits: promises of cash-like anonymity can be revoked for compliance, leaving citizens only conditionally private.

• Guaranteed parity with the euro: stability in name, but value can be manipulated through features like expiration or conditional spending.

• Not a crypto-asset: entirely centralised, without the neutrality of decentralized systems like Bitcoin.

• Dual structure with intermediaries: banks may survive as front ends, but lose deposits and become service providers.

• Individual holding limits: caps on wallet balances allow authorities to restrict how much of your wealth can sit in a CBDC.

• Programmable features: the most powerful lever, enabling restrictions on where, when, and how money is used.

Taken together, these features could fundamentally reshape daily life. You may no longer need a commercial bank for everyday transactions, but you also may no longer be free to use money without oversight. Your spending, savings, and even your choices could be managed through central infrastructure. Commercial banks will fight to remain relevant, but in a system that sees them as optional, their survival is not guaranteed.

https://r2a.primal.net/uploads2/c/1d/d3/c1dd31942465fae4fe9367b058ece1f3aa5f346f88390d8a33e6cc6f380ff260.mov>

A possible future one CBDCs are taking over - Not just fiction take a look to China’s social scoring.

The deeper question remains. Should we trade autonomy for convenience? Should we allow unelected technocrats, led by Christine Lagarde, to design programmable money with built-in surveillance? Should institutions created to fund wars without citizen consent now be upgraded into tools of total financial control?

A financial system where the central bank is your bank is not progress. It is control. Bitcoin, by contrast, is voluntary, neutral, and permissionless. It is money without strings. That difference is not technical. It is civilizational.

CBDCs are not just about modernization. They are about control. We stand at a turning point where money can either remain a tool of human freedom or become a mechanism of surveillance. In Brick by Brick I go deeper into these questions, connecting money, health, and sovereignty.

👉 Read more: twentyone.life/brick-by-brick

This debate is not theoretical. It affects how we will live, spend, and save in the years ahead. I would be happy to discuss, what is your take on the digital euro and CBDCs?

Other Ressources:

• European Central Bank - Digital Euro: Features <<https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/features/html/index.en.html>>

• McKinsey - Central bank digital currencies: An active role for commercial banks <<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/central-bank-digital-currencies-an-active-role-for-commercial-banks>>

• Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia - Central Bank Digital Currency: Central Banking for All? <<https://www.philadelphiafed.org/consumer-finance/payment-systems/central-bank-digital-currency-central-banking-for-all>>

• Eurofi - Digital Euro: Features and Challenges (December 2024 report) <<https://www.eurofi.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/iv.3-digital-euro-features-and-challenges.pdf>>

• Wikipedia – Digital Euro (overview and holding limit debates) <<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_euro>>

• Princes of the Yen (Wikipedia page) - <<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_of_the_Yen>>

• Lagarde convicted of negligence (The Guardian) - she was found guilty but avoided sentencehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/christine-lagarde-avoids-sentence-despite-guilty-verdict-in-negligence-trial

• CBDCs Project Tracker - <<https://cbdctracker.org/>>