The European Central Bank (ECB) is currently conducting a digital euro prototyping exercise, allowing market participants to develop front-end prototypes that can be integrated with the Eurosystem’s back-end infrastructure. The ECB’s Executive Board Member, Fabio Panetta, stated in a letter to the Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament, that the publication of documents related to this exercise aims to promote transparency and cooperation. These documents have been provided to the five selected companies that were chosen after a public call for expression of interest in April 2022. The published material includes a cover note, a technical onboarding package for digital euro prototyping, a technical onboarding package for front-end prototype providers, and a core settlement application programming interface. Market participants can use this information to develop front-end prototypes compatible with the Eurosystem’s infrastructure while still having the freedom to innovate. It is important to note that the design of the prototype does not assume any specific technology choice, and it does not commit the Eurosystem to providing a digital euro. The purpose of these prototyping experiments is to enhance the Eurosystem’s understanding of digital euro technologies, and there are no plans to reuse the prototypes in future phases of the digital euro project. The prototyping exercise is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2023. For more information on the digital euro project, click here.