There are more than 1.32 million pilot scenarios, and more than 20.87 million personal wallets-

How far is the digital renminbi from popularization

　　Our reporter Chen Guojing

　　There are more than 1.32 million pilot scenarios, more than 20.87 million personal wallets, and more than 70.75 million cumulative transactions... Recently, the People’s Bank of China released the "White Paper on China's Digital RMB R&D Progress", which shows that the digital RMB R&D experiment has been basically completed. The top-level design, function research and development, system debugging and other work have been completed, and some representative areas are being selected for pilot testing.

　　Behind these data, people are more concerned about the situation of the pilot?

What actions will the digital renminbi take next?

Orderly expansion of pilot areas

　　It is understood that as of now, the digital renminbi pilot program has been expanded to "10+1", that is, "10 cities + 1 Winter Olympic scene."

　　Since the end of 2019, the central bank has carried out digital RMB pilot tests in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan, Chengdu and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Starting from November 2020, six new pilot areas have been added in Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao, and Dalian, forming the current "10+1" pilot areas.

　　"Digital RMB red envelope activities were carried out in some regions, real user pilot tests in different scenarios and large-scale centralized tests in batches were implemented, which verified the digital RMB business technology design and system stability, product ease of use, and scenario applicability. It has enhanced the public’s understanding of the concept of digital renminbi design.” As for the pilot test, the white paper summarizes it.

Consider the needs of specific groups

　　"In the design of future digital RMB products, we will also fully consider the actual needs of specific groups, and use a variety of technical means to reduce the difficulty of use and avoid barriers to use due to the'digital divide'." Luo, Director of the Central Bank's Currency, Gold and Silver Bureau Rui said.

　　"In order to bridge the'digital divide', the digital renminbi will also explore the introduction of'hard wallets' such as smart video cards to solve the problem of inconvenience in operating smart phones for specific groups such as the elderly and the disabled." Luo Rui said that the design of the digital renminbi wallet is convenient Online and offline full-scenario applications to meet the differentiated needs of users with multiple subjects, multiple levels, multiple categories, and multiple forms.

　　The threshold for the public to obtain financial services is also expected to be further lowered.

In the future, the public without bank accounts can enjoy basic financial services through digital renminbi wallets, and short-term overseas residents who come to China can open digital renminbi wallets without opening a bank account in Mainland China to meet their daily payment needs in China.

At the same time, the "payment as settlement" feature of the digital renminbi is also conducive to enterprises and related parties while enjoying the convenience of payment, while improving the efficiency of capital turnover.

　　Long-term coexistence with the physical RMB

　　"The physical renminbi will coexist with the digital renminbi for a long time." Luo Rui said that China's vast territory, large population, multi-ethnic integration, and regional development differences, social environment, residents' payment habits, age structure, security needs and other factors determine the physical The renminbi has the irreplaceable characteristics of other payment methods.

　　Regarding the relationship between digital renminbi and electronic payment tools, Mu Changchun, director of the Central Bank's Digital Currency Research Institute, said that digital renminbi and general electronic payment tools are in different dimensions and are both complementary and different.

The digital renminbi will provide the public with a new universal payment method that can increase the diversity of payment tools and help improve the efficiency and security of the payment system.

Its unique advantages include: as the country's legal currency, it is the asset with the highest security level; it has value characteristics, can transfer value without relying on bank accounts, supports offline transactions, and has features such as "payment as settlement".

　　When using digital renminbi, security and privacy issues are also the focus of people's concern.

　　In response, Fan Yifei, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said that the central bank attaches great importance to the security and privacy issues of the digital renminbi system and regards compliance with laws and regulations and safety and convenience as the two most important design principles, which run through all levels of the digital renminbi design framework.

　　In terms of security, Fan Yifei introduced that the first is to standardize the design, development, and operation and maintenance of digital renminbi and related systems for the entire life cycle of information security management, to achieve non-repetitive spending, non-illegal copy and forgery, non-tampering and non-repudiation of transactions Features, and a multi-level security protection system has been initially established.

The second is to initially complete the construction of a multi-level joint prevention and control security operation system, establish an information security management system, focus on strengthening actual combat training, and provide normalized security support for the digital renminbi.

The third is to study new security technologies to improve the security level of digital renminbi, introduce the research and application of emerging technologies such as distributed digital identity and zero trust, and strengthen technical measures to protect personal privacy data.

　　In terms of privacy, the digital renminbi system follows the principle of "small amounts are anonymous and large amounts are traceable according to law". At the same time, the central bank will also prevent digital renminbi from being used in telecommunications fraud, online gambling, money laundering and other illegal and criminal activities, and ensure that relevant transactions comply with anti-money laundering requirements. Fan Yifei introduced that the digital RMB system to collect transaction information follows the principle of "minimum and necessary", does not collect excessively, and does not provide it to third parties or other government departments unless clearly stipulated by laws and regulations. The central bank has set up a "firewall" for digital RMB-related information, and strictly implements information security and privacy protection management through special personnel management, business isolation and other institutional arrangements, and arbitrary inquiries and uses are prohibited.