Digital currency applications under test

China is testing digital currency applications in the “4+1” regions, which will probably debut in 2022 when the Winter Olympics is held.

The test regions are in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an in Hebei Province, Chengdu and the Winter Olympics 2022 sites. 

The government, meanwhile, denied a market rumor saying that the central bank has expanded digital currency testing in 28 cities including Shanghai. 

Digital Currency/Electronic Payment or DCEP, China’s official digital currency, is one of the world’s first batch of sovereign digital currency. When it’s rolled out, people with digital currency wallets can finish payment or money transfer processes by “touching” their smartphones like real money usage in daily life. 

Different from current digital payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, the digital currency doesn’t need a network or bundling bank accounts, according to Xinhua news agency reports.

Currency and payment are core links in the modern financial field. The central bank's promotion of digital currency construction shows that regulators are open to the development of financial technology and the era of digital finance is accelerating, CITIC Securities said in a report.

Industry experts expect China’s digital currency to be based on blockchain technology, a major technology used in BitCoin. But the technology standards of the digital currency haven’t yet been finalized.

China will deepen service and trade innovations, including digital currency testing, in 28 cities covering Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area regions, a statement of the Ministry of Commerce said during the weekend. 

But digital currency testing is still in the “4+1” regions, according to media reports on Monday.