Since launching its digital yuan for trial in April 2020, China has been rapidly increasing its efforts to test its e-CNY in more areas around the country.
In fact, at the end of July this year, the government has already established 1.32 million Digital Currency Electronic Payments (DCEP) sites in the country. This data was released by China Digital Yuan Research and Development Progress White Paper.
The 1 million+ DCEP test sites in China use the digital yuan as payment for transportation, food and beverage services, government services, and retail consumption.
Rapid rise of the digital yuan
According to data released by the People’s Republic of China (PBOC), the country now has 20.87 million digital yuan wallets and is still rising.
The People’s Bank of China also said that in April 2020, more than 70.75 million e-CNY wallet transactions were registered in its system. These transactions account for 34.5 billion yuan spent by Chinese residents using the digital yuan and reflect the people’s acceptance of the country’s official digital currency.
The bank said: “PBOC will continue to steadily advance Digital Renminbi R&D trials, and has not set a timetable in advance of its release.”
Will coexist with other currencies
Even with the rapid rise in the digital yuan’s development, the PBOC has reiterated that its DCEP is not meant to completely replace other forms of digital payments.
PBOC made it clear that the digital yuan will coexist with other e-payments as all these digital payment systems must serve the different areas of the economy.
The e-CNY would add diversity to the growing field of digital payments and would increase the efficiency and security of the country’s overall payments infrastructure.
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