European Central Bank Partners with COTI for Digital Euro Privacy Development

According to PANews, the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected the Ethereum privacy layer protocol COTI as a partner for the digital euro pilot project. This initiative, in collaboration with firms like KPMG and Accenture, aims to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) technology solution by early 2026. COTI will employ its unique Garbled Circuits encryption protocol to establish core privacy features for the digital euro. COTI CEO Shahaf Bar-Geffen noted that this marks the second CBDC collaboration for the company, following its involvement in the Israeli digital shekel project. The focus is on integrating privacy protection into the system's foundational architecture. The ECB will provide partners with technical specifications, including APIs, to support the development. An evaluation report on the pilot's outcomes is expected by the end of the year. Nearly 70 selected institutions are required to complete the technical validation of the conditional payment system by 2026.