China begins next phase of CBDC testing with e-CNY payment for public transport

In keeping with a number of sources, on Tuesday, China formally began rolling out the subsequent spherical of its central financial institution digital foreign money (CBDC) pilot check program. Within the metropolis of Guanzhou, it’s now doable to pay for public bus rides with the digital yuan (e-CNY) CBDC on 10 transit routes, which is a primary for the nation. To take action, passengers merely have to obtain the e-CNY app, deposit funds and scan the QR code situated within the bus fee part to pay for his or her journey. 

Equally, the day earlier than, the town of Ningbo mentioned that passengers can now pay for subway rides at 125 stations with e-CNY. Ningbo is the ninth metropolis in China to roll out the e-CNY pilot check in its subway strains, the place passengers can merely scan and pay for the journey. 

The Chinese language authorities has quickly expanded the utility of the e-CNY this yr. Simply final week, it turned doable to pay for worker housing fund contributions within the metropolis of Guangzhou with the CBDC. To revitalize shopper spending within the face of strict coronavirus lockdowns, the federal government partnered with food-delivery large Meituan and e-commerce platform JD.com to create e-CNY air-drops that may be spent at listed venues.

In its final information replace dated June 20, over 6 million distinctive customers had ordered providers with e-CNY funds on Meituan. In the meantime, as of July, JD.com mentioned that it had processed greater than 4 million e-commerce transactions value an estimated 900 million CNY ($131.6 million) because it started accepting the e-CNY as tender. Roughly 830 billion ($121.4 billion) value of e-CNY transactions had been recorded within the first 5 months of 2022.