The wallet remained active for only a few hours in the Construction Bank mobile application. The service allows the recharging of bank cards, transfers, and payments with QR codes.
Last August 29th, China Construction Bank (CCB) activated a wallet for the digital yuan but had to disable it from its mobile application due to the large number of users who reportedly requested it. Chinese local media reported that the application showed the option “digital currency” to registered users.
The experimental wallet would allow the recharging of bank cards, transfers, and payments with QR codes. The deactivation would have occurred because users received the news too quickly.
Some hours later, the enthusiasts who tried to participate in the registration received a message in which the financial institution asked them to be patient since the launch of the wallet was not yet official.
“This feature is not yet officially available to the public. Please wait patiently,” received the users of the mobile application trying to enter for the option “digital currency”. The bank did not make clear when they would reactivate the registration or if customers must meet certain requirements to request the wallet.
The digital yuan is the Chinese bet for its Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) project, which is currently in a trial period. The official name of the digitization currency plan is Digital RMB (Renminbi or “the people’s currency”), that is, the digital version of China’s legal tender, of which the yuan is the basic unit.
China is the country that has advanced the most in the field of CBDC, with multiple tests under development in different regions. Recently, tests with the digital yuan have extended to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The Central Bank of China itself clarified that the tests occur in the retail branch of the economy; this includes small businesses and establishments that process low-value transactions. The Central Bank of China explained the abovementioned because of the rumor that some people had paid the situation n the town of Shenzhen with the digital version of the national currency.
Other countries like the United States are also making decisions regarding CBDCs. The North American nation announced through the Federal Reserve that it was researching on the potential development of a central bank digital currency. There is even talk of an instant payment system called FedNow.
The transformations of the financial and monetary world continue to occur every day. One of the main elements that have led to digitization was the emergence of Bitcoin as a network for transferring value without the participation of intermediaries.
Finally, the most important cryptocurrency on the market has characteristics that have led the banking system to want to emulate it through the creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies. It is only a matter of time for the leading banks of the world to fully adapt to the digital currency system, both centralized and decentralized.
By Alexander Salazar
