Digital Yuan: Chinese Currency of the Future
e-CNY’s destiny
Since 2014, the National Bank of China has indicated an interest in developing a digital currency focused on the domestic market for payments between individuals. Research, testing, and implementation are carried out centrally and overseen by the Financial Committee of the State Council of the Republic of China.
The Digital yuan was released to improve the quality of financial and services and reduce the costs of maintaining the circulation of the money supply, which in 2020 amounted to 8.43 trillion yuan.
The goals of the issue are to meet the demand of the population for digital money and increase the convenience of payments’ efficiency and safety.
e-CNY Operators
Commercial banks that have the right to open digital wallets of different levels to users will be the main operators. Operators can develop mobile applications to use e-CNY and offer them to their customers. On the other hand, authorized operators are required to protect users' personal and financial information and be responsible for e-CNY authentication.
Future of Chinese digital currency
In the legal document of the digital yuan, it is stated that it will be treated in the same way as the classical yuan. It also confirms the legal status of the digital yuan as legal tender. The changes are confirmed by the amendment to the Law on the National Bank of China. The yuan can now officially be in both cash and digital form.
It is mentioned that no interest is accrued on the digital yuan in circulation, as well as on the ordinary one. Authorized operators will not charge fees for its storage, exchange, and transactions for the convenience of calculating the new currency.
There is no information on the further implementation of e-CNY in the official document. China follows the digital currencies discussion by the G20 countries.
Conclusion
The fact of the digital yuan development can be considered as a signal indicating the readiness of the Chinese government to dialogue in the field of cryptocurrency regulation, especially in connection with the recent prohibitive measures in the circulation of Bitcoin and mining.