In Shenzhen’s second mass digital yuan (eCNY) pilot, 100,000 people received 200 yuan ($31) and the project ran from January 7 to January 17. Users in the Futian district spent 18.1 million yuan of the giveaway money. Plus, some people topped up their wallets with their own funds to the tune of 1.5 million yuan. There were 140,000 transactions and depending on whether these were just for giveaway money, the average transaction was between 129 and 140 yuan.
Shenzhen conducted another pilot for the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in October for 50,000 people, plus Suzhou City ran a trial for 100,000 people in December.
Compared to the previous Shenzhen test, there were more stores, 10,000 of them, where people could use the digital RMB wallet as well as online. And there was also a broader range including for education, beauticians and fitness. Additionally, instead of just scanning a QR code, NFC person to person payments were possible.
These different functionalities extended to how the retail outlets supported payments, as explained by Beijing News.
“The first category is for large merchants such as supermarkets and shopping malls. Their original payment method is touch-free payment (scan),” said Li Yixin, a project manager at China Construction Bank. “We provide them with the digital RMB interface, which can be completed by system upgrade; The second type is a common POS (point of sale) machine, which now also supports the NFC touch function; the third type is a static code tag used by a small retail store. After becoming our merchant, a code will be generated and scanned by the customer. It has an NFC tag attached.”
Other recent technical advancements in digital yuan trials have included a debit card with a digital status readout, watches and bangles, and rolling out ATM support.
