While some countries are still slowly exploring the advantages and risks associated with central bank digital currencies (CBDC), for example, the United States, tests of the digital yuan in China are in a full swing.
As we reported not too long ago, Chinese authorities are testing the market functionality of the digital yuan by giving some limited quantities away in a lottery. The experimental digital wallet was launched by China Construction bank at the end of August.
Participants have already received their DCEP and are starting to use it in stores. Also, in the automatic ticket machine for the Shenzhen metro, the function for refilling the metro card with digital yuan was added. The label “DCEP is accepted here” welcomes commuters in front of the ticket machine.
“Wow! The fellow who received 200 digital yuan could use them to buy a drink in the store”, reads another Shenzhen label.
According to BlockBeat, almost 2 million people in Shenzhen applied to participate in a lottery with a digital yuan distribution. The coefficient of winning in which was only 2.61%, since only 50,000 people received 200 yuan ($ 30). As a result, the total amount of DC/EP distribution was 10 million yuan ($ 1.47 million).
The idea of the lottery consists of stimulating the demand for the new digital yuan. In this week (from 12 to 18 October 2020) the virtual currency will be accepted in 3389 stores in Luoxu – one of the busiest districts of Shenzhen.
“China is conducting a blockchain airdrop for the digital currency of the central bank. Technology is moving forwards. Don’t fall behind,” Binance General Director Changpeng Zhao stated on Twitter.
In his words, although “nothing can compare with the Bitcoin from a decentralization point of view”, CBDC “will introduce to the masses the technology of the block.” However, these centralized digital versions of fiat currencies enhance the control of various governments over their citizens.
