The People’s Bank of China has launched a pilot version of a wallet application on mobile phones for the digital yuan as Beijing is pushing to develop its own digital currency to reach a wider range of people. The application will be available on China’s Android app stores and Apple’s app store.
The digital yuan or e-CNY will serve in alignment with China’s sovereign currency, allowing people who have the wallet application to spend it in the same value as China’s sovereign currency. The e-CNY is not a cryptocurrency and will be issued and controlled by the Chinese central bank.
Beijing has put the digital yuan into a working process since 2014 and the central bank has been running a number of trials in the form of lotteries, while some major retailers such as JD.com also accept e-CNY as payment in the past year.
Still, there is no solid timeline for the official launch date of the digital yuan.
