Pilots in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiongan New District and other places How will the digital renminbi affect you and me?

Residents use smart medical multi-functional self-service machines to pay medical expenses at the People's Hospital of Wuxing District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Yu

Xiongan New Area is one of the pilot areas for digital renminbi. The picture shows the construction site of Xiongan New Area

Photo by Liu Shuaiye (People's Vision)

Beijing Rail Transit has implemented non-cash payment services on the entire road network. Passengers can use automatic ticket vending machines and online ticket collection machines to handle ticket purchase, fare replacement and top-up services

Photo by Du Jianpo (People's Vision)

If you want to transfer the money in your "personal wallet" to others, you only need to touch two mobile phones, you don't need to bind a bank account, and you don't even need the Internet-in the future, with the digital renminbi entering life, these are expected to be realized .

Registered technology companies in Shenzhen can implement "same shares with different rights": Yesterday afternoon, the 44th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress voted to pass 7 important innovative regulations including the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Science and Technology Innovation Regulations". The regulations modify the company law, allowing technology companies registered in Shenzhen to implement "same shares with different rights", and protect their stable development while expanding their financing channels. This also means that the listing resources of the GEM registration system will be more "abundant". (Shenzhen Special Zone News) [2020/8/27]

On August 25, the person in charge of the Monetary Policy Department of the People's Bank of China revealed that the research and development of digital renminbi is following the principles of "steadiness, safety, controllability, innovation, and practicality". Conduct an internal closed pilot test in various scenarios to test theoretical reliability, system stability, function availability, process convenience, scenario applicability, and risk controllability. Immediately afterwards, China Construction Bank launched a short test of digital currency in the mobile banking system on August 28. Previously, on August 14, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Overall Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Innovation and Development of Service Trade Pilots", announcing the launch of digital renminbi pilots in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and qualified pilot areas in the central and western regions.

What is a digital renminbi? Will cash be completely replaced? When can I use it? Our reporter conducted an interview.

News | Vitalik shared the ecological status and development of Ethereum at Shenzhen University: Today, Vitalik introduced and popularized the ecological status and development of Ethereum to Ethereum enthusiasts and college students at Shenzhen University. In the sharing session, V God introduced the origin of Bitcoin, blockchain, PoW and PoS consensus mechanisms, Casper FFG, zero-knowledge proof, the application of blockchain and Ethereum, from simple payments, domain names, digital assets (such as For event ticket sales, commemorative products, etc.) to further Tokens, smart contracts, domain names, etc., tickets, commemorative products, etc.), to further Tokens, smart contracts, domain names, etc.

In addition, Vitalik also introduced Sharding technology and scalability technologies such as Plasma, Rollup and state channel Channels. V God said that Plasma was proposed as a side chain and sub-chain technology very early, and Rollup is more like an internal media interaction tool, which can compress some data on the chain to a minimum of 10 bytes, so in the case of saving block space The next indirect enhancement of scalability. [2019/9/23]

What does a digital renminbi look like?

——The functional attributes are the same as banknotes, and the form is digital; there is no obvious difference between the use and the current mobile payment

Imagine that in 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics will attract tourists from all over the world. Buy some peripheral products of the Winter Olympics, and some Chinese specialties. When you check out, you don’t need to calculate the exchange rate or worry about network problems. Just swipe your phone and pay the bill up. All of this may become a reality with the implementation of the digital renminbi.

Voice | Researcher: The blockchain platform and regulatory sandbox system may be the first to land in Shenzhen in the future: According to the "Securities Times" report, in response to the central government's support for innovative applications such as digital currency research and mobile payment in Shenzhen, Fu Fu, a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute Yifu said in an interview with reporters that compared with other key cities, Shenzhen has the highest degree of marketization, the strongest concentration of innovation resources, a large number of leading technology-based enterprises, and the ability to transform and innovate scientific and technological achievements. The structure is relatively young, which determines that the experimentation and promotion of innovative applications such as digital currency has a unique high-quality soil. Huang Dazhi, a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, also said in an interview with reporters that the blockchain platform and the regulatory sandbox system that has been mentioned many times may be the first to land in Shenzhen in the future. But Huang Dazhi also said that in the process of promoting interconnection, we must also pay attention to preventing various risks. First, pay attention to various risk issues in cross-border finance. Second, when allocating assets, pay attention to the different types and characteristics of risks faced by financial products in different markets, as well as the risk transmission of financial asset allocation across markets. [2019/8/20]

Since the beginning of this year, digital renminbi has been mentioned repeatedly. What is digital renminbi?

"The functions and attributes of digital currency are exactly the same as banknotes, except that its form is digital." Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, introduced that the digital renminbi currently developed by the People's Bank of China is not understood by some people. The encrypted assets of the currency, but the digitization of the renminbi. Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, previously stated that a package plan will be launched to combine digital currency and electronic payment tools, with the goal of replacing part of cash.

News | Ma Huateng's speech mentioned Tencent's exploration of blockchain electronic invoices in Shenzhen: According to the 21st Century Business Herald, the 2019 (14th) China E-Government Forum and the first "Digital Government" Summit Forum were held in Guangzhou on July 21. Ma Huateng said in his speech that Tencent is also exploring innovations in other fields. For example, exploring blockchain electronic invoices in Shenzhen. [2019/7/21]

For users, there is no significant difference between using digital renminbi in the future and using mobile payment at this stage. "It can be seen from the published documents that the issuance mechanism and operation mechanism of the digital renminbi are different from the existing renminbi, and it is also different from the existing third-party payment methods, such as WeChat Tenpay and Alipay, but it is not the same for users. You won’t feel a significant difference.” Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the School of Finance and Economics at Renmin University of China, said.

Since it is almost the same in use, why spend a lot of research and development?

In order to meet the needs of economic development. According to Zhao Xijun's analysis, due to the continuous advancement of technologies such as the Internet, computing, and communications, the mode of economic operation is also changing, and many new business forms have emerged. In the future, the scale of digital assets will become larger and larger, and the use of digital renminbi for transactions, valuation, clearing and payment and other activities will match the digitization of the economy.

The research and development of the digital renminbi also involves issues such as the internationalization of the renminbi, competition with other currencies, and the security of the digital economy. Zhao Xijun said that with the increasing scale of the digital economy, there are security risks in transactions with digital currencies of other countries.

News | The country's first rail transit blockchain electronic invoice was issued in Shenzhen: On March 18, the country's first rail transit blockchain electronic invoice was issued at Futian Station of the Shenzhen Metro, officially announcing the Shenzhen Metro boarding code on-line area Block chain electronic invoice function. From now on, users will be able to issue blockchain electronic invoices online with one click after using the ride code of Tencent's smart transportation products to take the Shenzhen Metro. In addition to the Shenzhen Metro, taxis, airport buses and other traffic scenarios also launched the blockchain electronic invoice function. [2019/3/18]

"On the one hand, all countries are stepping up research on digital currency, and we cannot lag behind in this field; on the other hand, the public has higher and higher requirements for payment security and convenience, which requires national top-level design." Yi Gang said. To this end, the People's Bank of China has been researching legal digital currencies since 2014. At the end of 2017, with the approval of the State Council, the People's Bank of China organized some commercial banks and relevant institutions to jointly carry out the research and development of the digital RMB system (DC/EP). Sun Guofeng, director of the Monetary Policy Department of the People's Bank of China, revealed at a regular policy briefing of the State Council held on August 25 that the digital renminbi is still in the closed testing stage and there is no timetable for its official launch.

What will change?

——Will run in parallel with cash; will not have a major impact on the existing financial system and real economy

With the popularization of smart phones and the advancement of mobile payment technology, cash is used in fewer and fewer scenarios, and electronic wallets in mobile phones are becoming more and more popular. Does the introduction of digital renminbi in the future mean that cash will be completely replaced?

According to Dong Ximiao, a special researcher at the National Finance and Development Laboratory, for China, a large country with a vast territory and different levels of economic development, user habits are different, and cash payment and non-cash payment will coexist for a long time.

Judging from the positioning of the digital currency by the People's Bank of China, the research and development of digital renminbi is not to completely replace the existing renminbi, but to supplement the role of renminbi cash. Mu Changchun said: "The People's Bank of China's issuance of digital renminbi is to start with the replacement of banknotes and coins in circulation with digital currency, not to replace all renminbi. The balance in commercial bank accounts actually exists in digital form. , there is no need to replace it."

"Digital renminbi and cash may continue in parallel for a period of time, which depends not only on the progress of digital renminbi research and development, but also on consumer acceptance." Zhao Xijun said.

Will the issuance of digital renminbi increase the total amount of renminbi in circulation?

The two-tier operating system adopted by the digital renminbi determines that its issuance will neither have a major impact on the existing financial system nor the overall economy. According to reports, the People's Bank of China does not directly issue and exchange digital renminbi to the public, but first exchanges digital renminbi to designated operating institutions, and then these institutions exchange it to the public. Operating institutions need to pay 100% reserve to the People's Bank of China, 1: 1 to exchange. This two-tier operating system is basically the same as the issuance of banknotes, so it will not have a major impact on the existing financial system, nor will it have a major impact on the real economy or financial stability.

The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China also previously stated that 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.

When will it be available?

——Promote the development of the digital economy and give birth to new business formats; first pilot in the "4+1" area

The digital economy is an increasingly important driving force for global economic growth and an important engine for the high-quality development of China's economy. Yi Gang said that the development and application of legal digital currency is conducive to efficiently meeting the public's demand for legal currency under the digital economy conditions, improving the convenience, security and anti-counterfeiting level of retail payments, and boosting the accelerated development of China's digital economy.

After the digital renminbi is launched in the future, it is expected to give birth to a number of new formats. Zhao Xijun said: "The use of digital renminbi will definitely have a certain impact on economic activities. For example, the virtual products in video games may become digital assets in the future, and then generate related trading platforms; the recording, storage and purchase of songs may further Digitizing."

At the same time, the digital renminbi will also bring new content-ethexc and new opportunities for the internationalization of the renminbi, which will help promote the further popularization of renminbi settlements around the world and accelerate the process of renminbi internationalization.

When will the digital renminbi with many benefits be used?

It is understood that at present, the central banks of many countries around the world are planning to issue digital currencies, and China is at the forefront of the world in the development of central bank digital currencies.

Since the beginning of this year, good news has continued. In July, Didi Chuxing and the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly research and explore the scenario innovation and application of digital renminbi in the field of smart travel. On August 3, the People's Bank of China held a work video conference for the second half of 2020 and pointed out that the closed pilot of legal digital currency has been successfully launched, and will actively and steadily promote the research and development of legal digital currency in the second half of the year.

At present, the specific pilot areas of the digital renminbi are Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiongan New District and other places and the future Winter Olympics scene. Why choose this "4+1" as the pilot area?

Pan Helin, Executive Dean of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, analyzed that the selection of these four places for pilot projects has economic and technical considerations. In terms of economy, the GDP of Shenzhen, Chengdu and Suzhou ranks among the top in the country, and the digital economy is developing rapidly, with good leading conditions; in terms of technology, these four pilot areas all have advanced technological conditions; in addition, Xiongan New Area is under construction A national-level new district, which facilitates the simultaneous promotion of digital renminbi.

"In the field of new currency, China seems to have once again gained an advantage over other countries headed by the United States." European Times reported recently.

Although the central bank has repeatedly emphasized that there is no timetable for the implementation of the digital renminbi, as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics approaches, many people are already looking forward to experiencing a digital renminbi by then. (Our reporter Xu Peiyu)

"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (September 3, 2020   Edition 04)

Original title: How will digital renminbi affect you and me when piloted in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiongan New District and other places and in the future Winter Olympics scene?

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