it is already super expensive if you want to get an actual work done using their max model. On a midsize project, it cost ca. €200 for my vibe coding tests to get something reasonable done (each call, each tool costs 0.05c). Their normal claude window is super short, and almost unusable for serious work. Stack was python and Nuxt.
It’s been a surprisingly emotional stretch in Germany these past few weeks. Between drastic shifting U.S. politics, the rising cost of living in our major cities, and recent isolated incidents that have rattled public sentiment, there’s a growing sense of urgency and determination in the air in my (mostly tech and Enterpise) surroundings.
What stands out most is how quickly this mood has shifted from anxiety to a “let’s build it ourselves” mentality. I see it in the new products and projects around me: there’s a growing effort to reduce reliance on the U.S. and carve out distinctly European solutions. In employment, too, we’re noticing an uptick in candidates who seem more interested in staying or coming to Europe —- something that was slowly happening since covid, but feels quite different from six months ago.
There could be a silver lining here. Despite the political and economic challenges, this could open up blocked opportunities for Europe to regain its competitive edge. Everything before was "there is a better, cheaper, available, from US", now enterprises don't trust their data off EU. If we can move beyond committee-driven decision-malkings fast enough, it might just be the catalyst Europe needed to reclaim and reinvent its place in the global marketplace. Maybe, who knows, maybe, the immidiate recommendation to a tech startup (non B2B) won't be "you need to move to SF!" too.
Personally, I decided against having a Tesla and went for a german brand this year, despite german ones being bad in tech UX. Maybe if soon there is a EU OpenAI/Claude level capable too.
thank you for the post. The recommendation engine becoming generic and main page of pushed content were also the reason I moved away from Spotify Family to Apple Music family - added I was keen to see apple 3D sound which is not that great today. Pushing the age limit, even Apple Music seems uninteresting and I keep listening to the same music over and over.
The UX of Apple Music is also terrible:
- awkward Music interface that you keep mixing library and cloud versions, and my kids still don't get it.
- Testing my intelligence and memory on each menu item to find where my Pink Floyd album I keep playing is.
- I don't care about any albums they push on the main page and no way to tell them Beyonce or Rap is not for me AFAIK. Why don't they offer simliar artists I can explore than generic categories?
- no way to remotely access my kids play options when they fall sleep (got Spotify for this feature)
- With the above items, low return value per Euro I invest, listening on the same albums over and over.
One does need a decentralized ledger for CBDC, high performance databases are quite acceptable, as there is no problem of lack of trust in a permissined model (no systematic bad actor). If you listen to Moser (and Chaum) video, he even states somewhere the unnecessity of DLTs for retail CBDCs.
There are still some benefits but not worth to bet against the blockchain trilemma in these early stages.
You have a point here, but sadly most of the current state of art in CBDC research avoids storing accounts at Central Banks due to the obvious risk of disintermediating banking system.
The points of others thread stays: what is the point of CBDC for individuals if the supply is not limited and not stored at Central banks...
I'm not up to date with the state of the art, but the March 2020 paper from the Bank of England seemed clear that balances would be held on a ledger at the Bank of England. Whether the balances on this ledger would be assigned to specific beneficiary owners, or only to intermediaries (like retail banks) wasn't clear. But, in either case, only the central bank could issue/mint new balances.
This is actually one of the main USPs to have payment at public layer. Even USA is pushing for an open API and SDKs, one day maybe an open source protocol.
The idea here is about security of money: the money stored in the CB ledger does not lose i ts contractual value in difficult times, as it is garanteed by the central bank.
Compare that to your money in your bank, which is backed at 10% with fiat reserves. If crisis happens and people want to pull their cash out the bank goes bankrupt. Central banks do not go bankrupt, hence your money is always safe.
Sure, but bank deposits are very secure anyway. They are protected by insurance and by central banks which provide liquidity to commercial banks that are experiencing financial distress.
The CBDCs started with a great idea: to share the stability and security banks enjoy today with all citizen and retail sector in digital format, as public layer similar to internet, between what we have today (cash) and what the future maybe (web3). At the same time, the way you have right to use cash today (almost) in the way you desire, you should have right and possibility to do so also in the digital world of future.
Today, most of the digital money is actually a private sector coin backed by fiat: you send paypal coin to another person, not real euro, and exchange it via another CC provider service. Cross-borders are order of magnitude more messy. They have similar problems like other stablecoins and cryptocurrencies while a few of their main value added are the solution to the challenges of cryptocurrencies: UX, and security among others. The private sector also has an incentivized and risk-averse view towards the basic right, e.g. inclusion and usage. The covid crisis showed that we cannot leave it to the private sector and banks among others to ensure the financial safety of people. Bank-runs happened because people do not have trust toward private sector, and regulatory actions are reactive at best.
So enter CBDCs. Central banks wanted to provide the benefits while retaining control of money flow in country. Same incentives of old age into the digital world. But the challenge is that by providing a real CB backed currency one disintermediates the banking system. One reason not to break the economy without understanding the effects and the other reason being CBs themselves are not high tech and prefer to piggy back available distribution channels. So, CBs started offering two-layer approaches, which is almost identical to the today‘s financial model, mostly a technological improvement at best. DLTs replace Swifts of the world. Accounts will stay accounts, KYC stays in place, maybe some tools would be given to not require accounts for e.g. <$1k etc. External sovereignty threats, e.g. e-renminbi, is also a whole different story, taken the topic to the extreme, while still acting as a strong external motivator.
One could ask then what‘s the fuss then? So, there is a technological demand to build CBDC, CBs have all incentives for themselves to build it to keep control, banks get to have a modern payment system for themselves, but what would change for the end user? Lower fees? obviously the view is biased towards modern world, e.g. in broken economies any order is better than none, some wallet is better than no bank, etc.
Eventually, CBDCs in the first roll out are an evolution of the current banking system. There is no fuss about it, but rather finally there is enough momentum to align multiple heavy stakeholders on one strategy.
Right on point distinction. There are various models:
- almost all CBDC designs are transparent (monitored and stored), since they sit on the ledger and has to be auditable by a third party. So, the only way to allow privacy is to give some „vouchers“ that those transactions are either not stored or stored with a different key. ECB has proposed one such designs, e.g. 300 euro vouchers a day.
- there are other models that do not use DLTs so they can provide means not to store specific txns, hence private.
The mandate is not discsussed yet but could come. CBs are running many pilots since they don‘t know also whether CBDC would work for their incentive, since it has to be accepted by citizens and not create a shock to economy.
side note, „inclusive“ here refers to unbanked population. Today they can use cash, but many people specially in poor countries have no access to banking. A no-smartphone no-bank-needed digital cash could enable big part of countries to be included in financial system (some up to 40% of population)
The transition can be done quickly enough, though probably not overnight in Europe (like with India's overnight demonetisation of the 500 and 1,000 Rupee notes).
In the current climate, where we're all ever so slightly microbiophobic, it'll even be easier to push through as a good thing, handwaving any concerns with respect to privacy and centralised control as conspiratorial.
Indeed I am aware of the intended meaning of "inclusive" in their texts, I just played around with expanding it a bit.
