Suzhou is to become the next city to trial China’s digital yuan, as the People’s Bank of China prepares to roll out central bank digital currency infrastructure in the coming weeks. Next month all residents across Chinese city Suzhou will receive the central bank digital currency in so-called “red packets,” with 50,000 packets of the digital currency to be given away through a local lottery.
The digital yuan trial will take place on December 12.
According to the local reports, the trial will take place on December 12, China’s ‘Double 12’ shopping holiday, which is considered one of the year’s busiest retail days. The test builds on previous trials in the city, which saw state employees paid travel expenses in digital yuan dubbed DC/EP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment). The trial will follow a similar model to that deployed in Shenzhen last month, which saw $1.5 million in digital currency enter circulation. Residents who won digital yuan in the lottery were permitted to spend it across 3,000 stores in the city that had signed up to participate in the trial.
Suzhou trial will experiment with offline payments for digital yuan.
The Suzhou trial will experiment with offline payments for digital yuan, exploring a mechanism that allows transactions to be completed by touching two devices via near field communication (NFC). This would not require users to have an online connection and could present further digital yuan payments opportunities when the currency rolls out across China more widely. The Suzhou trial coincides with similar progress measures in Chengdu, which is currently engaged in testing digital currency wallets. One of China’s leading banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has been reportedly advertising wallet features for users in Chengdu, thought to be part of another localized pilot scheme.
