The Gaia

Thoughts about a new universal currency began in a dream, on 2025-04-11, when I wondered if the Euro could replace the US$ as the world’s trading/ reserve currency. Then I wondered, if an enlarged Euro could replace it. That enlargement included not just European countries, but those of Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. This might also encourage other European nations to start using this currency as their national currency. Such countries could include: Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Because many of the countries are outside of Europe, a new name should probably be chosen. I have given it the name Gaia. These countries have a population of about 760 million people, which in round numbers is about twice that of USA.

The Euro is the monetary unit and currency of 20 countries of the European Union. A few additional countries use it without permission. It was introduced as a noncash monetary unit in 1999, and currency notes and coins appeared in 2002. It is represented by the symbol €. Since then, Euro-denominated central bank reserves account for about 20 percent of the total bank reserves, significantly less than the US$. Its use in foreign exchange transactions is about 35 percent, peaking at just below 40 percent in 2010. This puts it slightly smaller than the combined share of the British pound and Japanese yen. About one quarter of the world’s exports originate in the Eurozone.

Several factors have inhibited the euro’s use. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality euro-denominated assets that international investors and central banks can use as a store of value. This contrasts with US government-backed debt, which at about $14 trillion (2018) three times more than the $4 trillion of Euro marketable sovereign debt. In 2025, with the Trump on-again/ off-again tariff wars, it looked as if American debt, along with its approach to foreign trade, were finally having a negative effect. In other words, there is concern that the US no longer has a superior capacity for securitizing assets. Much of the challenge facing the Euro is that companies in the eurozone (80%) rely heavily on bank financing. This contrast with 30 percent In the US. Thus, the stock of outstanding US nonfinancial corporate debt is almost five times as large as outstanding eurozone nonfinancial corporate debt.

Part of the challenge with the Euro is that the Deutsche Bundesbank (DB) has far too much influence on the European Central Bank (ECB). This would have to change if the Euro were to undertake a more international role. The primary ECB policy to 2011 was the same as the DB policy, stabilizing inflation in Germany, but not for the currency area as a whole. However, after the 2008 financial crisis, when the euro’s survival was on the line, the ECB adopted policies that created new uncertainties about the nature and credibility of the Euro. Unfortunately, these discouraged reliance on the currency outside the eurozone. Yet, the EU is now only 14 percent of global GDP. In 2000 it was 34%. In 1990 it was somewhere in the forties. The reason has nothing to do with the United States, but with Asia.

In the course of a few milliseconds, I managed to come up with a name for this expanded currency, the Gaia. In Greek mythology, Gaia means land or earth, the ancestral mother of life, including Uranus (Sky) and Pontus (Sea). In the Roman pantheon the respective gods are Terra, Caelus and Pontus. Note: Pontus is not Poseidon or Neptune. In Norse mythology the respective gods are and

The Gaia hypothesis/ theory/ paradigm/ principle proposes that Earth’s living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings to form a synergistic and self-regulating complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life. This hypothesis was formulated by chemist James Lovelock (1919 – 2022) and co-developed by the microbiologist Lynn Margulis (1938 – 2011) in the 1970s. Following a suggestion by novelist William Golding (1911 – 1993), Lovelock named the hypothesis after Gaia, the primordial deity. Fortunately, all of the people involved in naming the thesis are now dead, which means it is probably more acceptable as a name, than if they were living.

European Payment Service Providers

When one purchases something from a seller, in most cases the payment does not proceed directly from the purchaser’s bank account to the seller’s bank account. Instead there is an intermediary, a Payment Service Provider (PSP) that facilitates the transfer. Facilitation includes: an online gateway, security measures, fraud protection, regulation compliance and currency exchange. These PSPs do not just offer cards, they also allow bank transfers and the use of digital wallets.

Yes, it has been at least a decade since I have used any cash. Most Europeans today have Visa and Master Card cards, used to make purchases in stores. However, on my phone I have another service available, Vipps, that allows me to make account-to-account payments. I use this mostly to pay individuals. The last situation was buying an artwork from a friend for NOK 900. Some services, such as buying a car, don’t allow the use of cards but allow use of Vipps for direct transfers.

Currently, the largest PSPs in Europe are Visa and Master Card. These American companies are responsible for about 2/3 of European transactions. There are concerns that USA will weaponize the use of these services. Thus, in the future it could be something more European. The European Payment Initiative (EPI) was initiated in 2023, and currently involves four participants. Bizum in Spain, Bancomt in Italy, AIBS-MB in Portugal, Vipps in Norway (as well as Denmark, Finland and Sweden). In the immediate future this will be increased to include Blek in Poland and Dias in Greece.

In the first half of 2026, these European PSPs have engaged in building a foundation. Soon, in the second half of 2006, they will allow cross-border payments. By 2027 the initiative will also encompass e-commerce and point-of-sale infrastructure, and scale will be increased.

The countries participating will include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. I am uncertain what is happening in other EU countries such as Bulgaria or Romania or those that were once part of Yugoslavia.

In Europe these is increasing demand for European services and technologies to replace those provided by USA. The caviat, is that these services could be disrupted by a digital Euro, that would eliminate the need for European PSPs.

The Digital Euro

Sometimes the best introduction to a topic comes from Wikipedia. Here is what it has to say about the Digital Euro in its first two opening paragraphs.

The digital euro is a project of the European Central Bank (ECB), launched in July 2021, to explore the possible introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The aim is to develop a fast and secure electronic payment instrument that would complement the euro for individuals and businesses in its existing form as cash and in bank accounts, and would be issued by the European System of Central Banks of the Eurozone. The ECB has stated that the digital euro would not be based on blockchain or other distributed ledger technologies.

As of 2025, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to move to the next phase of the digital euro project, following the completion of the preparation phase launched by the Eurosystem in November 2023. The ECB stated that, assuming EU legislation is adopted in 2026, the Eurosystem aims to be ready for a potential first issuance of a digital euro by 2029, with testing beginning from mid-2027.

Many sources make a distinction between public money and private money. Coins and bank notes are examples of public money, issued by nations for the benefit of their residents. Other types of transactional currency involve private money. The best example here is a bank card, which uses the funding of a private bank (or amalgamation of banks) to provide the money when a bank card is being used. With public money, some level of government is paying for the costs of transactions. With private money, the individual user is either paying for this service, or relying on some other party (such as the seller of a good or service) to pay for it.

Earlier in 2026, seventy notable economists argued that a robust public digital euro is the only defence against Europe’s deepening dependence on US-based payment systems and the associated geopolitical risks. They are advocating against the use of a PSP and warned policymakers against shortsighted lobbying by the banking industry intended to scale down the Digital Euro project. The Digital Euro is a public good that is universally accessible, privacy-preserving, and functional offline to ensure monetary sovereignty and resilience.

Thus while the main difference between a Digital Euro and a European PSP is the use of public vs private funds, where the PSPs expect to be paid for their services. Proponents of the Digital Euro have no such expectations.

It is thought here that the Gaia, will be a Euro, expanded beyond the Euro zone. Because of this, participating countries not using the Euro will have to have an exchange rate, and a date for a transition to the new currency set. Initially, it should be possible to pay for goods and services with the original currency in a transition period, receiving money in Gaias, for any amount of the currency that exceeds the price. After a couple of months, the transition period should be over, and all transactions will be in Gaias.

Note: This post was begun the morning after my dream on 2025-04-12 at 12:00. After the first few paragraphs were written it was scheduled for publication on 2025-11-15 at 18:00. That gave it over seven months to be edited before publication. As usual, it has taken me longer to complete it, so it was ultimately scheduled for 2026-03-14. Because of delays writing a blog about a trip to Sardinia, this post was postponed yet another week to 2026-03-21.