Privacy Protection Foremost Issue for Digital Yuan: Governor Central Bank of China  

• e-CNY needs to maintain “anonymity and full disclosure are not as simple as black and white.”- Yi Gang.  

Privacy breaching is becoming a common factor in the crypto industry although earlier crypto and digital assets were known for their privacy factor. 

According to Yi Gang, the governor of the Central Bank of China, privacy protection is one of the many issues remaining when it comes to the use of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan.

In a virtual interactive session at FinTech Week Hong Kong Gang noted that “It is also important to keep in mind that anonymity and full disclosure are not as simple as black and white. There are many subtleties in between,” he further added “Therefore, we must strike a delicate balance between protecting the privacy and combating illicit activities.”  

The governments and central banks of majorly important economies globally extended their beliefs to explore the development of Central Bank Digital Currency(CBDC) tracking leadership of China on CBDC.  

The tension over privacy comes a month after China’s digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, achieved an unprecedented milestone of 100 billion yuan (US$13.9 billion) according to its transaction volume. Moreover, this figure was a modest hike of 14% since H2 of 2021, compared to 154% in the last six months of the previous year. e-CNY is being launched on an experimental basis in 23 cities across China.  

While Gang underlined that the e-CNY is “mainly positioned as cash to meet the needs of domestic retail payment” for the betterment of inclusive finance and retouch payment system competency, he quoted that the e-CNY has been developed to “ensure privacy protection and financial security through by-and-large anonymity and managed anonymity.”

He elaborated stating facts that”transaction-related data is encrypted for storage,” “entities and individuals are prohibited from arbitrary inquiry or information usage without rigorous legal authorization” and that China’s central bank maintains “small-amount soft wallets and hard wallets to meet the need for small-value anonymous transactions, both online and offline.”

The central bank of Namibia Launched its CBDC 

On 6 October 2022 The Bank of Namibia noted that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in the country so, the Bank has launched “virtual assets(VA) and virtual assets service providers(VASP) under its Fintech Innovation hub.” The Central Bank said it is also considering “diligently amending applicable laws and regulations in consultation with other relevant authorities.” 

The latest statement published by the Bank of Namibia(BON) describes that even though privately issued digital currencies are still not legally recognized, vendors and traders may accept payment in this form provided they are “on such exchange or willing to participate in the business.

Turkey Planning to Launch its CBDC in 2023

Recently on 26 October, 2022 TheCoinRepublic reported that Turkey has announced plans to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year. 

The announcement was made on Turkey’s Presidential Annual Program for 2023, which was presented on Monday by the presidential Strategy and Budget Directorate, the program also contains a discussion of a central bank digital currency. 

As per the reports, a bilateral memorandum of understanding with ASELSAN, HAVELSAN, and TUBITAK – BILGEM and the established of a “Digital Turkish Lira Cooperation Platform” was signed in September 2021 by the Central Bank of the Republic of turkey. 

Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.

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