A study also notes that accepting the Digital Yuan as payment can be something risky.
Merchants in South Korea are receptive to accepting the Digital Yuan as a payment method when the pandemic ends and tourists from China enter the country. Different local media gave this information when conducting some surveys.
According to Yonhap, the local news agency, some merchants are considering to take into account the use of the digital currency that they have developed in China. In their opinion, the reception of Chinese tourists would be important when the pandemic ends. Therefore, it would be of great advantage if the country accepts all kinds of payments.
Although only a few tourist agencies and few merchants participated in the opinions on the use of this digital currency, merchants, in general, could be evaluating the adoption of the Chinese digital currency since it could considerably increase the flow of Chinese tourists, once the pandemic ends.
Chinese Tourism Is the Most Important for South Korea
Besides, the press report detailed that most stores in the Myeongdong district of Seoul already accept payments on digital assets through the Alipay platform. This can be an important advance for the general recognition of the Digital Yuan.
According to a report on tourism in South Korea, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused losses that could reach the sum of 2 billion dollars. This large impact on tourism may be one of the main reasons for merchants to be more receptive to other payment methods such as digital currencies.
Although accepting the Digital Yuan as payment could help increase revenues for the tourism sector, the report also warns that digital currencies can bring several drawbacks.
The most important inconvenience could be that the supervision and use of the Digital Yuan would be under the control of the Chinese government since it is a currency issued by the People’s Bank of China. This aspect could represent violations of the privacy of merchants, among other issues.
In this way, the article indicates that, by making use of this digital currency, all actions conducted would be under the control of the foreign government. “If people in other countries make widespread use of the Digital Yuan, administered centrally by the People’s Bank of China, the use is likely to be exposed to the Chinese authorities.”
The author of the press report recalled that the Digital Yuan is very different from Bitcoin (BTC). The Chinese currency is loaded under a different system than BTC and has a sense of being completely contrary to conventional cryptocurrencies.
China has not officially launched the digital currency. However, its implementation is getting closer. On April 15th, local media reported that some social networks had exposed screenshots of an alleged pilot plan on a digital wallet that would operate with this new currency. The test was being implemented in four cities in China and its results were promising.
Although there are few official pronouncements on this matter, Li Lihui, Former President of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), mentioned during an interview published last May 6th, that among the plans of the institution is, mainly, the objective of replacing physical money for this digital currency.
In this way, the adoption of digital currencies continues whilst more countries want to avoid physical contact to prevent the Covid-19 outbreak.
By María Rodríguez
