The “online + offline” scenario is parallel, with 140 million personal wallets—
Digital RMB promotion accelerates
Our reporter Chen Guojing
During the "Double 11" e-commerce promotional activities just past, CCB and JD.com distributed a batch of digital RMB red envelopes to consumers in more than 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Xi'an, and Chengdu to support new users of digital RMB Early adopters of digital renminbi payment during the "Double 11" period.
Now, when you walk into the Zhenning vegetable market, which is a “net celebrity” in Shanghai, open the digital renminbi APP and "scan", you can use the digital renminbi to buy food.
In Suzhou, Bicester Village, where young people love to "check in", also supports digital renminbi payments.
In Beijing, since the end of June this year, consumers have been able to use digital RMB to travel conveniently on the subway...
The promotion of digital renminbi has been accelerated in an all-round way this year, and the number of cities, application scenarios, and wallet openings has blossomed. Digital renminbi is one step closer to full promotion.
More diverse usage scenarios
Shanghai Zhenning Vegetable Market is a well-known local "smart vegetable market". When you walk into it, you can see the price, transaction volume, transaction amount and other information of the day's dishes scrolling on the smart large screen at the entrance.
Now, the digital renminbi has also become the standard configuration of this "smart vegetable market".
The Economic Daily reporter experienced it: Put the selected fruits and vegetables on the smart electronic scale in front of the booth, and the price and payment code will immediately pop up on the display screen. Then open the digital RMB APP, and "scan" to complete it easily. Paid.
"This is the first vegetable market in Shanghai where digital renminbi can be used for payment." UnionPay Business Account Manager Gu Jia introduced that the vegetable market was jointly constructed by UnionPay Business and Taocaimao, using new technologies such as mobile Internet and big data. Means to intelligently upgrade and transform the traditional farmer’s market.
In April this year, UnionPay Commerce added a digital renminbi payment function to this vegetable market based on the original electronic scale aggregation payment system.
In the process of digital RMB promotion, preferential activities have been refurbished, attracting many consumers to try new things.
An AI canteen in the Hongqiao Community in Shanghai that the elderly often visit is also a fully automatic "unmanned" technology canteen. The robot "chef" in the store is using robotic arms to cook, cook noodles, and prepare meals.
Consumers who come to have a meal choose the dishes and put them in front of the cash register, the system can automatically recognize and display the prices of the dishes on the screen, and then use the digital RMB APP to scan the code and pay.
Fan Yanping, the person in charge of the AI canteen in Hongqiao Community, introduced that many elderly people have taken the initiative to use digital renminbi for payment recently, and banks have launched a digital renminbi "full discount" promotion, which has attracted many elderly people who come to eat to use digital renminbi to pay.
According to reports, as one of the first acceptance agencies to sign a contract with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, UnionPay Commerce has established more than 55,000 digital RMB acceptance merchants in various pilot areas across the country, and has created businesses that include transportation, government affairs, and public payment. Ten characteristic scenes including scenic spots, parks, and elderly care.
While offline scenarios are becoming increasingly diversified, digital RMB transaction scenarios are also being used online, forming a parallel promotion pattern of "online + offline".
Now, digital renminbi can be used in multiple online scenarios such as JD.com, Meituan, and Didi.
As of October 22, 1.55 million merchants have supported digital renminbi wallets, covering public utilities, catering services, transportation, shopping, and government affairs.
Speed up personal wallet opening
The latest data released by the People's Bank of China shows that in the past four months, the opening speed of digital renminbi personal wallets has accelerated significantly.
According to the data published in the "White Paper on China's Digital Renminbi Research and Development Progress", as of June 30 this year, a total of more than 20.87 million personal wallets have been opened.
The latest data shows that as of October 22, 140 million digital renminbi personal wallets have been opened.
In addition, the number of newly opened public wallets has increased significantly, and the accumulated transactions of digital renminbi have been significantly enlarged.
As of June 30, there were more than 3.51 million public wallets; by October 22, there were 10 million public wallets.
The cumulative number of digital renminbi transactions increased rapidly from 70.75 million transactions and 34.5 billion yuan on June 30 to 150 million transactions and 62 billion yuan on October 22.
It can be seen that with the continuous enrichment of digital RMB scenarios, the scale of transactions is rapidly expanding.
"At present, the digital RMB has a relatively mature scenario expansion plan in the small retail category." Analysys Senior Analyst Su Xiaorui said that for follow-up pilots, she suggested that attention should be paid to the information security maintenance capabilities and maintenance capabilities of all parties in the digital RMB ecosystem. User information protection level.
Recently, the privacy protection of digital renminbi has also attracted more attention.
“Current electronic payment tools are mainly provided by the private sector, and there may be risks such as market segmentation and privacy leakage.” People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang recently stated that the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) will enable the central bank to continue to provide public access in the digital economy era. Trustworthy and secure payment methods, while improving payment efficiency, maintain the stability of the payment system.
So, how does the digital RMB balance the relationship between privacy protection and crime prevention?
According to Yi Gang, a basic consensus in the international community is that CBDC cannot be completely anonymous, otherwise it will aggravate the risks of illegal transactions such as money laundering and terrorist financing and harm the public interest.
Therefore, the digital renminbi has the characteristics of controllable anonymity.
"We attach great importance to the personal information protection of digital renminbi, and have adopted corresponding institutional arrangements and technical design." According to Yi Gang, digital renminbi adopts the principle of "small amount anonymity and large amount traceable according to law" in terms of anonymity. When collecting personal information, follow the principle of "minimum and necessary", and the amount of information collected is less than that of existing electronic payment tools.
At the same time, strictly control the storage and use of personal information.
Unless there is a clear legal requirement, the People's Bank of China shall not provide relevant information to any third party or government agency.
In addition, the recently promulgated data security law and personal information protection law in my country have also strengthened data security and privacy protection from the legislative level.
Fully roll out, there are still challenges
When the digital renminbi will go from a pilot program to a full-scale promotion is a focal issue of people's concern, but in the eyes of industry insiders, there are still many challenges in its full roll-out.
Su Xiaorui believes that a series of problems need to be solved from the pilot to large-scale popularization of digital RMB, such as how to maintain the reliability of the system in high-concurrency transactions after it is fully rolled out; and how to attract users to use it.
She suggested that in the future, the coverage of digital renminbi should also be expanded from large chain supermarkets to a larger number and wider range of small and medium-sized merchants.
In addition, we should also think about how to mobilize the enthusiasm of old users to use digital renminbi and cultivate user habits.
Regarding the challenges facing the official launch of the digital renminbi, Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, said that efforts still need to be made in three areas: First, the construction of acceptance terminals.
Although the current pilot project has been running quite smoothly, the construction of the acceptance environment is still in progress.
On the one hand, it is necessary to seek to improve the user experience through diversified smart and customized wallet options and a wide range of use cases; on the other hand, it is necessary to transform and upgrade the acceptance system for all merchants.
The second is a sound safety and risk management mechanism.
Central bank digital currency is easy to become a target of hackers, therefore, security is the primary task of system development.
At present, the People's Bank of China will continue to improve the security management of its operating system during the entire life cycle of the digital renminbi, including encryption algorithms, financial information security, data security, and business continuity to ensure system security and stability.
The third is a clear regulatory framework.
The newly released "People's Bank of China Law (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" has added the content of digital renminbi, clarifying that "the renminbi includes physical and digital forms."
On the basis of updating the original laws and regulations, the digital renminbi also needs to establish separate regulatory measures and management methods to improve and supplement.