Crunchfish (CFISH) Digital Euro Conference 2026 summary

Key themes and industry context

• Offline payments are reframed as an architectural choice, not just a feature, shaping liquidity, risk, and value capture in digital payment systems.

• Failures in digital payment systems can cascade and disrupt society, making robust offline solutions essential for resilience and continuity.

• Legacy offline models (immediate and deferred) require trade-offs in risk and liquidity, constraining system design and scalability.

• Governed Offline is introduced as a superior architecture that preserves system integrity and regulatory oversight.

Governed Offline model and implementation

• Governed Offline keeps funds centrally reserved, enabling local execution with defined limits and deterministic settlement.

• The model is being implemented in India’s Digital Rupee and piloted with the Bank of England for the Digital Pound, with regulatory approval in major markets.

• The approach has received global endorsement and is recognized as a new standard for offline payments.

• Governed Offline supports conditional and programmable payments, enhancing flexibility and control.

Analytical framework and evaluation

• The BIG Analytical Framework assesses offline solutions on bankability, implementability, and governance.

• Governed Offline scores highest, being banking-friendly, scalable, interoperable, vendor-neutral, and regulator-aligned.

• The model ensures liquidity remains on bank balance sheets, improves funding efficiency, and minimizes implementation costs.

• It supports real privacy and avoids systemic risk transfer to user devices.