- China recently held a crypto lottery in which it distributed 10 million yuan.
- Over 2 million people applied for the lottery, and 50,000 people won the right to receive CBDC coins.
- Winners can now download an app and use their coins at over 3,000 merchants in one of Shenzhen’s districts.
China is slowly approaching the time when its CBDC will be publicly available across the country. For now, however, the country is still conducting tests, and one of its biggest trials just took place over the last few days.
The largest CBDC test yet: China completes its digital lottery
A few days ago, the government in Shenzhen announced that it will conduct a type of giveaway, which will include 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in its new CBDC. The government announced that any citizen of the region can apply for the lottery, and that those who win the funds will be able to use them with selected merchants in the same region.
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Since the announcement was made, around 2 million people applied for the lottery. After the event was finished, 50,000 of them managed to win the coins, and they can now download a digital renminbi application in order to receive it.
There are around 3,000 merchants that accept digital yuan in one of Shenzhen’s districts, where the coins can be spent on goods and services.
Among them are businesses like Tencent, Huawei, and even Walmart.
China is preparing for the upcoming digital yuan
As most people in the crypto industry are likely already aware, digital yuan is considered a cryptocurrency, although it differs from traditional coins, such as Bitcoin.
For example, it is not decentralized. Instead, it is issued and controlled by the country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China. Also, it is not planning on replacing the country’s digital wallets and payment services.
Instead, it will likely work alongside them, although the exact details are still unknown. It will even work with the country’s banks, some of which have already tested crypto wallets that will be enabled once the coins are ready for nation-wide use.
China has been working on the coin for years now, and it has held quite a bit of other tests, too. However, the move in Shenzhen is undoubtedly the biggest one so far.
