After the first large-scale test of the Digital Currency/Electronic Payment platform, also known as DC/EP of China, in Shenzhen, the Ministry of Commerce of China announced reports to expand DC/EP trials to more cities. Furthermore, the testing process also takes the platform through the steps of processing high volume commercial transactions, including hotel payment processing and e-commerce payments.
The Ministry of Commerce of China recently announced the detailed plan of DC/EP testing at three major financial and political centers in China, including what it calls the “Yangtze River Delta economic zone”, covering Shanghai and the three neighboring provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, Beijing, as well as the Hong Kong-Macau-Guangdong Greater Bay Area.
In particular, Suzhou, a city in Jiangsu province, will be the first city to experiment with a digital yuan. At this time, the city’s DC / EP testing process focused on commercial transactions such as retail, e-commerce, education, and online card top-ups. Shenzhen’s tests have also turned in this direction.
China is starting to test the Digital RMB and educate its citizens. ??
This video is circulating WeChat: China’s digital currency in action w/ the Agricultural Bank of China
The woman takes out 50RMB from her bank card & converts it into China’s new digital RMB pic.twitter.com/Tnxf11dyo7
— Maria Shen (@MariaShen) August 19, 2020
Internal disagreements hindered the development of DC/EP
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Ministry of Commerce still have some internal disagreements over the DC/EP. However, it is not clear how that will affect the crypto implementation. This is because all staff in DC/EP project staff signed a nondisclosure agreement and was barred from discussing internal project work.
However, there are also some reports that PBoC is trying to change the habits of users, such as removing them from WeChat and Alipay, to ensure that the DC/EP platform has enough appeal.
For their part, the PBoC and the Ministry of Commerce both believe that work on the platform continues, and they are listening to feedback from stakeholders for better process improvement.
A spokesperson from the PBoC shared:
“We will accelerate and pour more attention and resources to expand DCEP’s use cases into the broader economy as per the guidance from the Ministry of Commerce and the PBoC. The technical conditions are ripe and the risks are under control.”
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