China recently launched its first-ever digital Yuan with the collaboration of The Peoples’ Republic Bank of China.
In order to see the public response towards the digital Yuan, it conducted a pilot test. For pilot testing, China launched a scheme under which the digital Yuan worth US$ 1.5 Million were to be distributed. The digital proceeds were to be distributed amongst the residents of Shenzhen in “Red Envelopes”.
Shenzhen residents were asked to send applications for obtaining digital Yuan. It was decided to receive a maximum of 50,000 applications. When the process began, the applications exceeded the limit for which China’s central bank had to initiate a lottery. The lottery was successfully conducted, candidates were shortlisted and the digital Yuan was accordingly distributed.
Chinese central bank had also taken on board 1500 vendors who could then accept the digital Yuan as payment.
On Monday, the Chinese Government and its central bank confirmed that the turnout was amazing. Even a huge amount of digital Yuan was distributed complementary yet people bought further digital Yuan in addition to that.
Shenzhen local authorities on Sunday officially informed that over 47,000 successful applicants had received their share and spent accordingly. At an average of 63,000 total number of transactions was recorded which translates into US$ 1.3 Million approximately.
The giveaway of digital Yuan took place on 8th October and applications started to come in on the same day. Successful applicants were also informed to use cryptocurrency before 18th October otherwise unused assets will revert back to the authority.
At least 2 Million residents of Shenzhen participated in the pilot testing of the digital Yuan, said local authorities of Shenzhen. They received their digital Yuan under the Red Envelope scheme. On Monday, the Chinese central bank also told the press that the test run was successful and very uplifting. It shows that the people of China are ready for mass-scale adoption of their own digital Yuan, said the bank.
Earlier in the month of April, China’s central bank had initially conducted a test piloting of the digital Yuan. It was later on decided by the Bank to initiate similar tests in other metropolitan cities of China.