Is there really demand for a digital euro?

The ECB is emphasising the advantages of the planned digital euro. If citizens had access to the ECB's money not only in physical form as banknotes, but also digitally as balances in ECB accounts or on mobile phones, this would promote innovations in payment systems, reduce dependence on foreign payment service providers and increase Europe's strategic autonomy. However, the ECB implicitly assume that citizens appreciate the digital euro. For this to happen, it would have to offer concrete advantages to individuals. However, this is questionable.

Only a small part of deposits is absolutely safe, ...

According to the ECB's plans, the digital euro will be made available to citizens on an ECB account. Private individuals and companies would not only be allowed to hold balances with commercial banks, as is currently the case, but also with the ECB, whereby it would transfer the associated services, such as opening the accounts or providing electronic account statements, to the commercial banks. Because the balances are legally held by the ECB and the ECB, unlike commercial banks, has no default risk, the balances would be absolutely safe. This would be a concrete advantage from the citizens' point of view. However, the ECB wants to limit the credit balances on its accounts, with an upper limit of 3,000 euros per capita often being mentioned. This would mean that many citizens would only be able to hold a small part of their deposits with the ECB

... to avoid a digital bank run

The ECB is forced to impose this restriction in order to prevent a potentially dangerous digital bank run. After all, in the event of a supposed or actual crisis, citizens could transfer huge amounts from their accounts at commercial banks to their accounts at the ECB at the click of a mouse in order to keep their money safe. The banks would then run out of funds in their ECB accounts without the ECB being able to quickly enough provide sufficient replacements. There would be a threat of a liquidity crisis with the collapse of banks.

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