An indirect subsidiary of the People’s Bank of China, Yangtze River Delta Financial Technology, has been heavily recruiting for blockchain professionals, reported Sina Finance.
The People’s Bank of China is gearing up to introduce the digital renminbi. It has formed the Central Bank Digital Money Research Institute to oversee affairs related to the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Chinese news outlet made a deduction that the staff will work on the CBDC.
However, the CBDC itself is not expected to be blockchain-based, though it could be. As shown below, the subsidiary is also involved in other blockchain activities. Hence the staff could work on separate or related applications that will leverage the digital renminbi.
Sina Finance said that Yangtze River Delta Financial Technology was established by the Central Bank Digital Money Research Institute, a unit of People’s Bank of China (PBOC), with a registered capital of 50 million yuan ($7.1 million).
Yangtze River Delta Financial Technology is hiring for a blockchain technology director, a blockchain architect, blockchain research and development engineers, and numerous other positions. The remuneration offered for the blockchain technical director and data centre manager is between 50-80k yuan per month, that’s equivalent to $7,000-$11,000 per month.
The company was formed to create the digital currency infrastructure, undertake the research and development and pilot of the upcoming digital currency, and focus on fintech such as blockchain and cryptography.
The intermediate shareholders of the firm include Shenzhen Financial Technology, Suzhou High-speed Railway New City Innovation and Venture Capital Co Ltd.
Shenzhen Financial Technology, a subsidiary of the Central Bank Digital Money Institute, last year joined Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank and Ping An in the to launch Bay Area Trade Finance Blockchain Platform.
China’s Central Bank Digital Currency
China has been releasing information about its CBDC launch in bits and pieces. Last week, PBOC deputy director Mu Changchun, who also heads the CBDC initiative, said the digital yuan was capable of offering anonymous transactions to its users.
Back in August, Mu claimed China was ready to launch the digital currency, but a few weeks later the PBOC governor contradicted him by saying there was no timetable for the launch. The governor also clarified that the currency could possibly be based on blockchain, refuting previous statements that the digital yuan will definitely be independent of distributed ledger technology (DLT) owing to scalability issues.
Mu has previously confirmed that the CBDC would not require a linked bank account, and would also not bear any interest. Additionally, he said that the CBDC issuance was a ‘horse race’ and ‘the leader will win the entire market’.
