China Pilots its Central Bank Digital Currency

News • 2020/04/14 • by

China is not relenting on its effort in creating a digital economy, as the Agricultural Bank of China(ABC) has started a pilot of China's central bank digital currency(CBDC). Earlier in the year, the Peoples Bank of China(PBoC) announced that they would start introducing their CBDC in phases, through a pilot that will be done via some of the most prominent state-owned institutions like Huawei, Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China.

Therefore, it did not come as a surprise when on Tuesday, some users on instant message platform- Wechat, saw a prototype of how potential users will be able to access the CBDC for transactions. The ABC, which among the four state-owned banks, developed this interface, along with partnership from Ant Financial. Ant Financial was commended by the UN earlier in the year for their role in the fight against COVID-19, using blockchain technology. They have also been promoting their Duo-blockchain platform, to mitigate the damage of COVID-19 on Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises.

This latest development in starting off a pilot indicates that the Chinese government is serious about digitising its economy, and they are resilient in ensuring that this vision is realised. Remember that China first made its intention to introduce a central bank digital currency last year, after several years of unstable and unfriendly crypto regulations.

While the country still does not allow domestic trading of cryptocurrency, the introduction of a CBDC is still a positive development. At the moment, users can access the testing app on their android and ios devices through a unique link on ABC's page. They also whitelisted some users, who will be the only group with access to the registration function on the app.