In a program broadcast on August 16, state-owned television station CCTV said that China's digital currency is equivalent to "electronic RMB cash" and that users can use it without a signal on their mobile phones, as long as they have a digital currency wallet.
On August 14, China's Ministry of Commerce released a document announcing Digital RMB pilot areas, consistent with the previous People's Bank of China - China's central bank, which mentioned that it would first conduct internal closed pilot tests in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan New Area, Chengdu and future Winter Olympics venues.
China's fiat digital currency, CCTV reports, is the result of PBOC's combination of digital currency and electronic payment instruments, with the goal of replacing some of the cash.
Simply put, the PBOC digital currency can be seen as digitized RMB cash, the report said.
In terms of usage scenarios, PBOC's digital currency does not pay interest and can be used in small, retail and high-frequency business scenarios, which is not much different from using paper money. It is not dependent on bank accounts and payment accounts, and can be used as long as the user is equipped with a digital currency wallet.
Not only that, but the central bank's Digital RMB uses the latest offline technology that allows it to be used even when there is no mobile phone signal.
It's important to note that even though Digital RMB is already in the pilot testing phase, that doesn't mean it's ready to go live. The theoretical reliability, system stability, risk controllability and other aspects need to be tested before it can be officially launched.
PBOC has repeatedly stated that there is no timetable for the launch of Digital RMB. If Digital RMB's pilot tests are successful, we may see it at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
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