China’s progress in the development of a Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC] has been widely lauded. While countries are still in the research phase of CBDC development, China seems to have wrapped up its testing phase. The country recently announced a public giveaway of about 10 million Digital yuan. The latest report reveals details pertaining to the recent giveaway.
Shenzhen Locks In Huge Numbers In Public Giveaway
With the intention of endorsing the digital yuan, the Shenzhen city of China stepped up and joined hands with the Central Bank of China and launched a pilot program that facilitated the distribution of the digital yuan. A total of 10 million digital yuan worth about $1.5 million was distributed by the Luohu District of Shenzhen city. The latest report by the South China Morning Post revealed that a total of 8.8 million yuan which is worth $1.3 million was spent by the residents of the city.
Residents who received the digital yuan through this giveaway were mandated to spend it from 12 October to 18 October 2020. An online portal was set up for the participants of the giveaway and about 1.9 million residents had applied for the same. A total of 62,788 transactions were made through the 3,389 shops that were assigned for the program.
Elaborating on their latest encounter several residents of the city shared their experience on Weibo. One such Weibo user said,
“There is not much difference compared to WeChat Pay and Alipay when I pay with this [digital currency] app, but I feel the digital currency is more reliable and much safer and I look forward to more features with this app in the future.”
Another user shared that the participants were urged to make use of the “red packet” via text messages before the last date. The user revealed that she spent the 200 yuan that she received at a department store.
Additionally, a total of 901,000 yuan of additional credit was reportedly assigned to the Digital Renminbi application. This application is still not made available to the public.