Old report on XRP and digital euro is causing a stir again

An old report on Ripple and the digital euro is resurfacing within the crypto world. It states that France would have looked at Ripple and XRP as a possible technology for a European digital currency. That sounds promising to XRP investors, but online the story is made bigger than it actually is.

The document dates from 2020 and does not prove that France or the European Central Bank (ECB) opted for XRP. However, it does show that Ripple was already in the picture years ago in the search for technology for digital central bank money.

The old report was again brought to the attention of crypto researcher SMQKE. He points to a passage from a study by CPA Australia from 2020.

It states that France had spoken openly about Ripple and XRP as a possible platform for a European digital currency.

That is striking, but it does not mean that there was an agreement with Ripple at the time. Central banks explored different ways of issuing digital currencies and XRP was one of the technologies that came into the picture, according to the report.

Ripple was interesting for this because its technology can be adapted to the wishes of financial institutions. Unlike a fully public network such as Bitcoin (BTC), a system can be set up where only approved parties get access.

This is important for a central bank. It wants to maintain control over matters such as security, privacy and the issuance of digital money.

Ripple itself saw early opportunities in the emergence of digital central bank coins, better known as CBDCs.

The company was therefore working on a private version of the XRP Ledger. This would allow central banks to use blockchain technology, while at the same time maintaining control over the network and their digital currency.

That strategy didn't come out of nowhere. According to an analysis by the Australian law firm Piper Alderman, about 80 percent of central banks worldwide were investigating the possibilities of digital central bank money at the time.

Ripple wanted to conquer part of that market. The company tried to combine the speed of its technology with the control that central banks demand from their payment systems.

This brings us to the most important nuance. The report does not prove that XRP was actually chosen for the digital euro.

There is no official announcement in which the Banque de France or the ECB says that XRP or the XRP Ledger will become the technology behind the digital euro.

Moreover, the document is now six years old. Since 2020, the plans for a digital euro have developed much further and the ECB itself has been given a central role in the project. XRP is not publicly designated as part of the infrastructure.

The resurfaced report is therefore especially interesting for another reason. It confirms that Ripple and XRP were included early on in the discussion of central banks' digital currencies. That is slightly different from the much larger claim that Europe has actually opted for XRP.