Peoples’ bank of China rolls out the pilot phase for digital Yuan

TL;DR Breakdown

• Earlier today, the PBoC announced the launch of the pilot phase of its e-CNY wallet applications on both IOS and Android phones.
• The wallet is only available for testing by elite institutions and major financial organizations.

Earlier today, the peoples’ bank of China announced the culmination of the development of their digital Yuan wallets. They said that the wallets would be available on Chinese mobile stores for both IOS and Android phones. However, they added that these wallets would only be available for testing by several institutions and financial organizations.

China rolls out a pilot test for its digital Yuan wallet

China’s Central Bank has confirmed a new development towards the official launch of their digital Yuan. Their announcement revealed that select organizations would have the opportunity to test the bank’s new digital wallet for the CBDC. This wallet became available today in an application for both IOS and Android phones.

Additionally, the bank gave notice through the wallet warning that they are only available for testing by several organizations, particularly those that offer e-CNY services. They also warned that their new wallets are still under research and development.

In November last year, the Central Bank’s Governor Yi Gang revealed that China had plans to continue pushing for the development of their digital Yuan. He explained that the digital Yuan would get an efficient design to support interoperability with other payment protocols.

China’s journey towards the launch of the digital Yuan

China has been among the major countries that have fought against cryptocurrencies for a long time now. The country seemingly concluded its fight against these assets in September after banning them. Though the country despises digital assets, they have been developing such an asset for some time now- the digital Yuan.

The Journey towards developing the e-CNY/ digital Yuan began with research in 2014. Its development carried on without much exposure to the public for several years. In 2020, the central bank of china partnered with several organizations to start testing their coin. The bank also revealed that four major cities were part of the pilot test phase, and more vibrant cities would join in later on.

The PBoC then progressed with the tests and announced public testing in 2021. In June, it added that some employees in Xiaong’an would receive their salary in digital Yuan henceforth. It also revealed plans to gift about 350,000 citizens with airdrops worth a total value of $3 million in a lottery-like method. After these announcements, Chinese citizens began applying to be part of the initial tests of the new currency.

In November, the Central Bank’s Governor revealed that citizens had actively participated in then applications and successfully opened over 140 M trading accounts. Gang also announced that firms opened over 10 million trading accounts for the new coin. The total Yuan transacted by the previous accounts was over 62 billion units.

Even though the country has received mixed reactions regarding the coin, they still push forward with its developments. They are testing the coin and launching supporting projects like the wallets to try and hit their official launch timeline before the 2022 Winter Olympics.