COTI to Test Privacy Protocol for Digital Euro in ECB’s CBDC Pilot

Blockchain infrastructure provider COTI has been named a Pioneer Partner in the European Central Bank’s ongoing exploration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the euro area. As part of the initiative, COTI will work alongside other selected partners to test conditional payment functionalities within a simulated ECB environment.The ECB’s Digital Euro project is designed to evaluate technologies that could underpin a CBDC intended to complement physical cash. If introduced, the Digital Euro would support private and secure payments across the eurozone, which currently represents an economic area worth more than $15 trillion.Big news! COTI has been selected as a Pioneer Partner in the @ecb’s Digital Euro project to showcase its privacy technology for secure, conditional payments. Its selection signals growing recognition of COTI’s suitability for CBDC infrastructure.https://t.co/bbC62qUggF $COTI 1/4 pic.twitter.com/BaTTvL8jcUAs part of its role, COTI will test a privacy-preserving solution for conditional payments—an essential feature for verifying asset authenticity without compromising personal or transactional data. The protocol aims to ensure that ownership or usage conditions tied to digital assets can be confirmed while shielding the identities of the parties involved.“Being invited to work with the ECB on such a consequential project is humbling and a testament to the expertise and hard work of the COTI team. Privacy is a vital component for the future of Web3, ensuring user security and organizational compliance, and the same benefits apply to CBDCs. It’s critical that confidentiality is built into the core of these new systems, rather than merely being added as an afterthought.”
—Shahaf Bar-Geffen, co-founder and CEO of COTIThe ECB’s decision to include COTI follows the company’s earlier involvement in Israel’s Digital Shekel Challenge, where it developed a proof-of-concept for trustless, cross-border transactions using garbled circuits—a cryptographic technique that allows computations on encrypted data. This lightweight confidential computing approach is designed to work within decentralized systems, enabling secure and private interactions on-chain.For the ECB pilot, COTI will adapt this technology to test its effectiveness in conditional payment scenarios, where funds may be released only upon meeting specific criteria, such as confirming delivery or verifying asset ownership.The ECB innovation platform that hosts the pilot includes a range of stakeholders from across the financial and technology landscape, including commercial banks, fintech companies, and technical experts. These groups are collectively exploring how features like programmable payments could be integrated into a future retail digital currency.By participating in the ECB’s Digital Euro pilot, COTI is taking a key step in demonstrating how privacy-enhancing technologies can be integrated into large-scale digital financial infrastructure. Its work on conditional payments highlights the growing importance of secure, confidential, and verifiable transactions as central banks continue to evaluate the future of money in the digital age.