Glossary
Offline digital euro
The offline digital euro stores value on a secure element on your device and pays device-to-device over NFC, with cash-like privacy and no connection.
Definition
Offline digital euro
The offline digital euro is the part of the project that comes closest to actually being cash.
How it works
Value is stored on a secure element on the user's device. Payment happens device-to-device via NFC — the payer's device and the payee's device talk directly to each other. No connection to a bank, no connection to the DESP, no connection to anything.
That is a genuinely different model from the online digital euro, where settlement happens centrally. Offline, the value itself moves between two pieces of hardware.
Cash-like privacy
This is the headline property: the offline digital euro offers cash-like privacy.
It is worth being precise about the comparison, because online and offline sit at different points on the privacy scale:
| Online digital euro | Offline digital euro | |
|---|---|---|
| Where value sits | Account, settled on the DESP | Secure element on your device |
| How it moves | Through the central platform | Device to device over NFC |
| Connection needed | Yes | No |
| Privacy | Pseudonymised — the Eurosystem cannot directly identify individuals from payment data | Cash-like |
Neither mode gives the Eurosystem a view of who you are from payment data. Offline goes further: the transaction does not traverse a central platform at all.
Why it matters more than it sounds
Two reasons, and neither is about privacy absolutism.
Resilience. A payment method that stops working when the network does is not a replacement for cash. Offline capability is what lets the digital euro function during an outage — which is precisely when a central bank most wants people to be able to pay.
Inclusion. Not everyone has continuous connectivity. A design that assumes always-on excludes people by accident.
Still being specified
Rulebook material notes that implementation specifications for areas including the offline wallet SDK and offline distribution service are expected in future versions. Treat offline as the least settled part of the design.
Sources
Related reading
CPACE
CPACE is the standard that applies to digital euro contactless NFC payments at the point of interaction, rather than a proprietary card-scheme protocol.
Secure element
A secure element is a tamper-proof chip that stores cryptographic data and runs secure applications. It holds offline digital euro value on your device.
Acquiring PSP
An acquiring PSP serves business digital euro users — managing merchant accounts and the acceptance solutions through which businesses take payments.
Alias
An alias is a pseudonymous identifier — such as a phone number — standing in for a digital euro account, so you can be paid without revealing your DEAN.