Digital RMB is here, you can transfer money without internet
Our reporter Pan Fuda
The digital renminbi is getting closer and closer to us. The Ministry of Commerce recently issued the "Notice on Comprehensively Deepening the Pilot Program for the Innovation and Development of Trade in Services", stating that digital RMB pilot projects will be carried out in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the central and western regions where conditions permit.
What is a digital RMB? How will it affect our lives? According to the relevant person in charge of the central bank and financial experts, the central bank's digital currency is a digital alternative to banknotes, with unique advantages such as offline transfer, reducing anti-counterfeiting costs and losses, effectively combating illegal crimes, and promoting the internationalization of the RMB.
Can transfer money without internet
According to Article 93 of the Ministry of Commerce’s “Notice”, “Comprehensively Deepen the Pilot Tasks, Specific Measures, and Division of Responsibilities for the Innovation and Development of Service Trade”, the central bank formulated policy guarantee measures. The digital RMB pilot program will be conducted in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiongan New District and other places In the future, the relevant departments of the Winter Olympics scene will assist in the promotion, and the follow-up will be expanded to other regions as appropriate.
Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the School of Finance and Finance of Renmin University of China, said that digital currency can circulate like banknotes. It is positioned as a substitute for cash. It is legal currency like cash. It has national credit endorsement and has unlimited legal repayment. No one can refuse to accept.
"The functions and properties of digital currency are exactly the same as banknotes, except that its form is digital." Mu Changchun, director of the Central Bank's Digital Currency Research Institute, once described a usage scenario: There is a digital wallet on the mobile phone, and the Internet is not required. , As long as the mobile phone has electricity, the touch of two mobile phones can transfer the digital currency in one person's digital wallet to another person.
Wen Bin, chief researcher of China Minsheng Bank, said that another major advantage of digital currency is "controllable anonymity", which can meet the needs of anonymous payment. However, if the payment involves money laundering, tax evasion, gambling and other illegal and criminal transactions, digital currency transaction information Can be monitored and traced.
Not completely replacing banknotes
Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the central bank, said that the central bank's digital currency focuses on replacing M0 (ie, banknotes and coins), and maintains the attributes and main characteristics of cash, meeting the needs of portability and anonymity, and will be the best tool to replace cash.
But this does not mean that digital currency will completely replace paper money. Mu Changchun introduced that the central bank's digital currency should start from replacing banknotes and coins in circulation. In fact, the balance in the commercial bank account already exists in digital form, and there is no need to replace it.
Zhao Xijun believes that digital currency is facing two constraints in replacing banknotes, one is whether users are willing to use it, and the other is whether the technical conditions can be met. In the opinion of many people in the industry, it is impossible for digital currency to completely replace paper currency, because the needs of the elderly must also be taken into account. In the future, digital currency and paper currency will coexist.
However, when the digital renminbi is implemented, the number of users using mobile payments may decrease in the future. Digital currency will have an impact on the mobile payment field by virtue of its advantages such as offline payment, and the scale of use of the two may be declining.
No timetable for official launch
With the large-scale popularization of mobile payments and the limited demand for paper money today, why does my country have to implement digital currency? According to Yi Gang, Governor of the Central Bank, the development and application of legal digital currency is conducive to efficiently satisfying the public's demand for legal currency under the digital economy, improving the convenience, security and anti-counterfeiting level of retail payments, and boosting the acceleration of China's digital economy development of.
The central bank started research on digital currency earlier. In 2014, the central bank established a special team to conduct special research on issues such as the digital currency issuance framework, key technologies, issuance and circulation environment, and related international experience. In April of this year, news such as "the central bank's digital currency internal test" and "the first application scenario of the central bank's digital currency will land in Suzhou Xiangcheng" continued to ferment, and a photo of the internal test of the agricultural bank account was circulated on the Internet.
From the picture, the main functions of digital currency are basically similar to the daily payment and management functions of bank electronic accounts. For example, there are four commonly used functions of "Scan QR Code", "Remittance", "Receipt and Payment" and "Touch" on the homepage of Agricultural Bank of China's digital currency wallet. . In response, the Central Bank Digital Currency Research Institute stated that online information is a test content in the process of technology research and development, and does not mean that the digital RMB is officially issued. The current closed test of digital renminbi will not affect the commercial operation of listed institutions, nor will it affect the renminbi issuance and circulation system, financial market, and social economy outside the test environment.
Yi Gang also recently disclosed that the digital renminbi research and development work is undergoing internal closed pilot testing, which does not mean that the digital renminbi will be officially launched. There is no timetable for when it will be officially launched.
In recent years, central banks in many countries around the world are accelerating the pace of digital currency advancement. Industry insiders analyze that the rapid progress of the central bank in the digital currency test will enable China to occupy the market initiative in the global financial digital era.