Europe has started building the plumbing for a central bank digital euro, and critics see it as a step toward money that can be watched and controlled.

• The European Central Bank launched Pontes, a bank-to-bank system that moves digital euros between financial institutions — not a consumer wallet.
• A retail digital euro for ordinary people is in the works, with a pilot targeted next year and possible launch around 2029.
• The fear: a spendable-money account with caps (proposals run from a few hundred to a few thousand euros), expiry dates, and rules about what you can buy.
• Cash and regular bank accounts are meant to run alongside it at first, which critics read as a way to avoid spooking people before the switch.
• The US is heading the same direction through stablecoin laws rather than a government coin, putting private companies in the control seat — and regulators are now telling markets to prepare for round-the-clock tokenized finance.

Outlook: Expect more pilots and tokenization rules over the next few years, with the real fight over spending limits and whether cash stays usable.