The digital yuan, representing a cryptocurrency issued by the People’s Bank of China, was used for the first time in Beijing, in the Fengtai District. Mancat coffee chain became the first place in the city to accept digital yuan for payment, although the cryptocurrency is still in the testing stage.
Customers of this chain of coffee shops can now scan the QR code offered by the store to make a payment. To do this, one must have a positive balance in the new central bank digital currency.
A journalist known under the pseudonym Wu Blockchain defined Mancat as “a small local cafe with low prevalence and low quality.” It sets it apart from big chains like Starbucks, Costa, and Luckin, which are also represented in Beijing. Due to the smaller customer flow, Mancat has become an ideal platform for small-scale experimentation like the one that is being conducted here.
According to one of the directors of the chain of coffee shops, in contrast to how it was tested at other sites, the coffee shop installed a sales data management system, which is embedded in the digital yuan as a currency.
Beijing wants the digital yuan to be ready for use for the Winter Olympics.
