Three notions not to be confused.
MAP’s earmarkable digital euro, the bank deposit and the Eurosystem’s digital euro are regularly confused. They have neither the same issuer, nor the same regime, nor the same effects. This page tells them apart, with the official sources.
Vocabulary
- Earmarkable digital euro
- MAP’s product: electronic money backed by the euro, one for one, whose use is decided before the payment. A private offer, issued by an authorised electronic money institution.
- Bank deposit
- A claim on a bank, recorded in an account. No rule of use is attached to the funds.
- The Eurosystem’s digital euro
- A central bank money project, carried by the European Central Bank and the national central banks. It has not been launched.
- Earmarking
- Attaching rules of use to a budget: who, when, how much, where and what for.
The objects compared
| Criterion | Earmarkable digital euro (MAP) | Bank deposit | The Eurosystem’s digital euro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | An authorised electronic money institution. | A credit institution. | A central bank, within the Eurosystem’s project. |
| Nature | Electronic money issued in exchange for funds, allocated to a programme. | A claim on the bank, recorded in an account. | Central bank money, at project stage. |
| Interest | None: electronic money bears no interest. | Possible depending on the product. | A question belonging to the project, not settled here. |
| Deposit guarantee | Not applicable. The funds received are subject to a separate safeguarding mechanism. | Applicable under the conditions of the guarantee scheme. | Not applicable to central bank money. |
| Rules of use | The programme defines them before the payment, with the agreement of the parties concerned. | No rule of use attached to the funds. | The ECB states that its project would not be programmable money imposing restrictions of use. |
| Status | A private offer, in service on what is documented. | An existing banking product. | A project under way, not launched. |
Who issues what
- MAP
- Issues the earmarkable digital euro in exchange for funds, applies the programme’s rules and records every payment on the blockchain. MAP is not a bank.
- A bank
- Takes deposits, keeps the accounts and grants credit. It attaches no rule of use to the funds deposited.
- A central bank
- Issues central bank money. It issues, guarantees and approves no private offer, including the one described on this site.
What earmarkable means
- What earmarkable means
- That the rules of use are written before the first payment, and checked before every operation: beneficiaries, suppliers, geographic area, period, ceilings, online payments, cash withdrawals.
- Who decides the rules
- The funder of the programme, within the contractual framework agreed with MAP and accepted by the beneficiaries. No public authority imposes these rules.
- What earmarking frames
- The place, the moment, the amount and the supplier of the spend.
- What it does not frame
- The contents of the basket: a supplier category does not prove what was bought. Item-by-item control requires an integration and suitable data.
All three objects are electronic, settle in euros and travel through interfaces that look alike. The difference lies in who issues them, which regime applies and what is attached to the funds. An earmarkable digital euro carries rules of use, because a private programme has defined them. A bank deposit carries none. The Eurosystem’s project is not designed to carry any.
Limits of the promises
What this page does not assert
It does not settle the legal characterisation of an instrument recorded on a blockchain, nor the application of a particular regime to a given product. Such a characterisation is examined on the actual product, on the basis of its features, and does not follow from the use of a technology. A currency name specific to a programme grants its holder no authorisation and is not enough to qualify a local currency in the legal sense.
Sources
A comparison article. Last reviewed: 11 September 2026. Sources: ECB, frequently asked questions on the digital euro; ACPR, framework applicable to electronic money institutions. Consult their current version. For the entity’s framework, see Regulatory framework.