- Head of China’s central bank claims that over $300,000 of China’s new
digital yuan is being spent at the Olympics on a daily basis. - Since the launch of the CBDC experiment, the country has reportedly clocked in over $14 billion in transactions.
- Concerns remain around whether China’s digital currency is another way for the country to expand its economic surveillance.
Speaking at an $4 conference webinar on Tuesday, Mu Changchun, director general of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), also disclosed another significant trend — Chinese nationals were using software $4 while foreign attendees preferred hardware wallets.
‘Hardware wallets’ are payment cards that look like credit cards, but have no EMV chip or magnetic strip. Specialised ATMs have been set up at game venues, to accept foreign currency banknotes, and convert them to digital yuan (CBDC) or ordinary yuan currency notes.
Earlier in January, China had released smartphone apps to receive and spend the new digital currency from mobile phones, which serves as a software wallet. By the end of 2021, the country reported$4 of the CBDC, eight million merchants who accept it, and transactions worth almost $14 billion.
The CBDC trials began small, but now the CBDC pilot stage has been expanded to be$4 designated cities, including Beijing itself.
According to the Atlantic Council’s$4, 91 countries are at various stages of adopting a CBDC. However, its large economy and the reported usage numbers seen in China’s CBDC pilot,$4 of even the nine countries that have officially begun using a CBDC in full-fledged form.
China’s CBDC is said to be based on blockchain, and the country has even stated an official interest in$4. Yet, the country $4 mining and transactions in September 2021, despite being home to the most Bitcoin miners at the time, $4.
Yi Gang, the governor of China’s central bank has$4 the need for privacy with crime prevention. He has also said the CBDC will focus on domestic retail payments for now, as “cross-border digital payments involve more complicated issues, such as anti-money laundering.”
Privacy, data protection and cybersecurity have been concerns voiced overseas, though.
The digital yuan, because it is a centralised currency at the end of the day, poses a “tremendous security threat to individual users,” $4, a US lawmaker, told Reuters. He added that athletes don’t want to be tracked, they should be protected from “surveillance and manipulation.”
“The Chinese authorities are intent on using the digital yuan to expand their economic surveillance activities,” claimed DavidMcCarville, director of US law firm Fennemore.
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