Chinese residents in the city of Suzhou made close to 20,000 transactions in a digital yuan trial on e-commerce giant JD.com. According to local reports, the first transaction occurred just 2 seconds after the trial commenced, taking 0.5 seconds to complete.
The Suzhou trial was the latest by the People’s Bank of China, and perhaps its most significant yet. This was the first trial in which the bank launched offline payments using near-field communication.
The PBoC distributed 20 million yuan ($3 million) in a lottery, with the winners getting to finally use the state-backed digital currency on Friday. The residents can still make payments on over 10,000 local stores and online platforms including JD.com, DiDi, Meituan and Bilibili.
According to China’s English language newspaper Global Times, the Suzhou residents took to the digital yuan payments as soon as the trial started. Citing data from JD.com, the paper revealed that most of the payments were by the younger generation. The largest online payment with the digital yuan exceeded 10,000 yuan ($1,530).
The PBoC is integrating financial systems and features that have worked in China in its digital yuan trials. According to Cao Yin, the managing director of the Shanghai-based Digital Renaissance Foundation, the bank is also relying on social networking to promote the digital yuan. Yin revealed that the PBoC has also been poaching talent from local digital currency firms in its quest to fast-track the project.
Read more: https://coingeek.com/suzhou-residents-make-20000-digital-yuan-transactions-on-double-12/
