In the city of Shenzhen, the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China launched the first digital yuan vending machines. The nationwide rollout of China’s digital currency is fast approaching.
Digital yuan trials intensify
The state- owned Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) last weekend launched the first digital yuan vending machines in Shenzhen city .
According to local media outlet Shenzhen Daily , customers of some branches of the bank have started spending and converting their digital yuan . The same digital yuan was distributed to 100,000 city residents in the form of an airdrop , each containing 200 digital yuan, or about $ 31.
In parallel with this initiative, the Agricultural Bank of China is setting up a new department dedicated to innovation around the digital yuan in Shenzhen, the “Digital Yuan Innovation Lab”.
Regarding this big breakthrough for the digital yuan, innovation center director Zou Hua added:
“The Agricultural Bank [of China] has taken the lead in launching the cash deposit and withdrawal function of ATMs in the area to guide the people of Shenzhen to adapt to the digitization of cash and explore service transformation. “
The national launch is getting closer
For several months now, China has been working hard to develop its central bank digital currency. In the testing phase in 4 major cities, the government is increasing the number of airdrops for their inhabitants.
The digital portfolios dedicated to the digital yuan are already operational, each partner bank having its own application. At present, everything suggests that China could roll out the digital yuan nationally in 2021 .
Progress on all of these pilot programs shows that the digital yuan is working. However, a recent South China Morning Post report rebalanced the scales somewhat. In December 2020, the former Governor of the People’s Bank of China toned down the idea that the digital yuan would substitute for international currencies .
Today, China is taking a much more cautious approach, especially since it realized the difficulties encountered by the Diem project , ex-Libra.
Either way, the rollout of the digital yuan across China is inexorably bringing people closer together. On the side of France and the European Union, work on the digital euro has indeed started , but its deployment should not take place for many years.
Not long ago, Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), spoke of the launch of a digital euro within 5 years .