DC / EP Is In The Place – The digital currency of the People’s Bank of China is at an incredibly advanced stage of development. After having communicated impressive operational figures for its first tests, the authorities will offer – via a lottery – digital yuan to test their Digital Currency / Electronic Payment (DC / EP).
1.5 million dollars in „e-yuan“ to be won
According to the local newspaper South China Morning Post , the executives of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) would not lack imagination to arouse the interest of citizens in its new digital currency system, the famous DC / EP .
Thus, in agreement with officials from the city of Shenzhen – located on the border with Hong Kong – a total of 50,000 „red packets“ will be distributed to the population by drawing lots .
A total of 10 million digital yuan will be distributed, or nearly 1.5 million dollars . Each of the gift envelopes will therefore contain 200 e-yuan (about 30 dollars).
Any Chinese citizen living in Shenzhen can register for this lottery through iShenzhen , a blockchain- based utility app managed by the city government.
The winners will receive a download link for the official DC / EP system app, called the Digital Renminbi App – the latter is indeed not available for public download.
Yuan to spend in 3,389 stores in Shenzhen
As it is a question of testing the state cryptocurrency system, these e-yuan will, on the other hand, have to be spent quickly . The lucky winners will only have one week to use their winnings, in one of the 3,389 shops selected by the city authorities.
In addition to the DC / EP test, this should give a little boost to local consumption , according to Dan Wang , chief economist of the Hang Seng Bank of China:
“An estimate of the return on these gift envelopes suggests that this 10 million yuan program will ultimately generate at least 50 million yuan in sales [among merchants]. “
Still according to this banker, the “advantage” of this digital currency is that regulators will have full details of where the money is spent in order to better plan targeted economic stimulus programs. Is this hyper-surveillance desirable? It’s a whole different story.
China’s DC / EP is still on a very dynamic course. Meanwhile, the European Union is still in the starting blocks and the United States is still reluctant to participate in this race for central bank digital currencies (MNBC). The Middle Kingdom therefore appears more and more ahead of its competitors.
