The authorities of Chinese Beijing are preparing to launch an experiment in which citizens will be paid to temporarily abandon traditional money in favor of the digital yuan being developed by the People’s Bank of China (the country’s central bank), CNBC writes.
In the third phase of a large-scale experiment (the previous ones were carried out in the cities of Shenzhen and Suzhou, – approx. “Lenta.ru”), about 50 thousand people will take part, they will be allocated 200 yuan (31 dollars). In total, citizens will receive 10 million RMB ($ 1.5 million).
Experiment participants will be able to spend the received digital money in predefined offline stores or on the JD.com marketplace. Shopping will be available from February 10 to February 17, when China celebrates Lunar New Year.
The People’s Bank of China is one of several global regulators developing their own digital currency. Central banks of Sweden, France, Russia and several other countries are doing the same.
Digital currency is expected to be similar in functionality to non-cash money, but formally it will be a third type of payment in addition to existing cash and non-cash funds.
At the same time, the financial authorities of the countries developing their digital currency emphasize that it will not have anything to do with cryptocurrency, since it will be issued by a single emission center in the person of the Central Bank – while the main feature of cryptocurrency is decentralization.