Part of the reason why digital renminbi is issued is to resist the erosion of encrypted assets and global stablecoins.
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Original title: “One article to understand the reasons and characteristics of digital RMB issuance | Chain Catcher”
Written by: Hu Tao
After the details of the issuance of the digital renminbi have been disclosed one after another, the influence of the digital renminbi among the public has been greatly increased, and it has also repeatedly ranked first on the Weibo hot search list. The time for the official issuance of the digital renminbi is getting closer, but there are still many doubts and misunderstandings in the public’s perception of the digital renminbi. Chaincatcher has now sorted out the information of the digital renminbi in an all-round way based on online data, including what is a digital renminbi. , Why is it necessary to issue digital renminbi, how to obtain and use digital renminbi, the relationship between digital renminbi and blockchain, etc.
What is digital RMB
The digital renminbi is the digital form of my country’s legal tender and a general-purpose base currency for the development of the digital economy. It is issued and managed by the People’s Bank of China and has the same effect as renminbi cash. It also guarantees a 100% renminbi reserve ratio, which has value characteristics. And legal compensation, any unit or individual shall not refuse to accept the digital renminbi when the acceptance conditions are met.
On October 23, the People’s Bank of China issued the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the People’s Bank of China (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)”, which intends to stipulate that the renminbi includes physical and digital forms, and provides a legal basis for issuing digital renminbi.
The main positioning of digital renminbi is to replace cash and coins in circulation, and it also has the use value of cash and coins. As long as the things that paper money can buy and the foreign currencies that can be exchanged, digital renminbi can be purchased and exchanged.
In order to ensure that the digital renminbi has a digital form, as well as the convenience and ease of use of banknotes, the central bank has designed many special features for the digital renminbi. For example, the digital renminbi supports dual offline payments. Payments can still be made when both parties are offline; users can set up a digital renminbi wallet without a bank account; support multiple terminal options, and those who are unwilling to use or have no ability to use smart phones can choose IC cards, feature phones or other hardware; The user’s funds saved in the digital renminbi will not be accounted for and pay interest, which is non-profit.
At the same time, the anonymity of digital renminbi is higher than that of payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat, which can better protect user privacy. In actual use, digital renminbi can also achieve payment and settlement, and the payment funds can reach the merchant’s account in real time, which speeds up the flow of merchants’ funds. Currently, there is no acquiring fee, which can reduce the business burden of merchants.
Why issue digital RMB
The central bank’s motivation for issuing digital renminbi has long been subject to many outside speculations. Mu Changchun, director of the Central Bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute, clearly explained two reasons for the central bank’s issuance of digital renminbi at the second quarter Bund Financial Summit held on October 25. Historical trends in currency development and changes in cash demand.
First, every technological advancement in history has spawned a game between private casting and official currency. The issuer of the folk currency decides the weight, fineness and standard of the coin, which increases the social cost. In recent years, global stablecoins such as Bitcoin and Libra are also trying to play the role of currency. These encrypted assets process payment transactions in a decentralized manner, which will erode the country’s monetary sovereignty. Therefore, the digital pressure of cash is increasing. Big.
Second, the current absolute use of cash is still growing, which means that the digital supply of legal tender in retail has not kept up with changes in demand, especially in remote mountainous areas and poor areas, where financial services are insufficient, and the public is relatively dependent on cash. . For some digitally disadvantaged groups, such as the elderly who do not use smart phones and those who exclude the use of smart terminals, the development of electronic payment has not only failed to improve financial inclusiveness, but financial exclusion has emerged. Currency is originally a public product that serves all groups in society. The central bank should provide inclusive, easy-to-use, and digital central bank currency for all people, including poor areas and disadvantaged groups.
In further analysis, under fierce competition, third-party payment tools such as Alipay and WeChat are increasingly pursuing the “exclusivity” of payment scenarios, which has brought a lot of inconvenience to consumer payments. The introduction of digital RMB and independent APPs has It is conducive to breaking retail payment barriers and market segmentation, avoiding market distortions, protecting the rights and interests of financial consumers, and promoting inclusive finance.
At the time when the new crown epidemic basically ended this year and work and production resumed in full, many governments launched consumer vouchers to stimulate citizens’ desire to consume. However, most of these consumer vouchers were issued through Alipay and WeChat. Shenzhen launched a digital RMB red envelope campaign in early October. It reflects that, in the future, local governments will have the ability to directly contact citizens’ payment accounts through the digital RMB APP, which can reduce their dependence on third-party payment tools and enhance their autonomy in economic regulation.
How to obtain and use digital RMB
At present, the digital renminbi issued by the central bank has not yet been officially launched. The official said that it only plans to conduct internal closed pilot tests in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan New District, Chengdu and future Winter Olympics scenes. Considering that the Winter Olympics will be held in early 2022, this This means that the official launch of the digital renminbi will not be earlier than February 22, when the public can use digital renminbi for payment on a large scale.
However, according to official information and this year’s red envelope activities in Shenzhen, the ways to obtain and use the digital renminbi have initially emerged. In the digital RMB red envelope event in Shenzhen in early October, the independent wallet “Digital RMB App” launched by the central bank appeared to the public for the first time. Users can use the app to bind to four major bank accounts including China Construction Bank, recharge RMB and exchange for digital RMB.
In terms of specific usage, according to media reports, the current version of the digital RMB APP page is relatively simple, and the main functions presented are only payment and collection. The homepage can be swiped to make payment, and if it is down, it can be collected. When making a payment, users can use digital renminbi in two ways: “User Scanning Merchant Receipt Code to Spend” and “Merchant Scanning User Payment Code to Spend”.
At the same time, the payment page shows that “touch and collect” has been turned on, and its functional expression is similar to the mobile NFC payment function, which may be the “dual offline technology” previously disclosed by the central bank.
In this digital renminbi red envelope event, although only the official APP of the central bank can participate in the use, in May of this year, the China Construction Bank App was also exposed and is testing the built-in digital renminbi wallet, which has functions such as scanning and payment. This means that in the future, the apps of mainstream banks such as China Construction Bank may also officially launch digital RMB wallets, providing users with diversified app usage options.
Alipay and WeChat apps may also have built-in digital RMB wallets in the future. Ant Group has disclosed its participation in the research and development of digital renminbi. Mu Changchun also stated at the Bund conference on the 24th that WeChat and Alipay are financial infrastructures, and digital renminbi is a payment tool and the content of a wallet. After the digital renminbi is issued, everyone can still use WeChat Alipay to pay, but the content in the wallet adds the central bank’s digital currency. WeChat, Alipay and digital renminbi do not have a competitive relationship.
In addition, according to the digital RMB APP exposed by netizens, in the interface of selecting the institutions to recharge RMB, Internet Commercial Bank and WeBank are also among them, but they are in a gray state of unavailability, which means that these two are supported by Tencent and Ant Of banks are expected to have the authority to open digital RMB accounts in the future.
What is the relationship between digital renminbi and cryptocurrency and blockchain
According to the current information, the digital renminbi adopts a centralized ledger based on the UTXO model, and the People’s Bank of China is responsible for the maintenance and management. This is inconsistent with and inconsistent with the blockchain technology that uses distributed ledger as one of the core mechanisms. Definition of cryptocurrency.
In the draft revision of the People’s Bank of China mentioned above, it also stipulates that any unit or individual produces and sells digital tokens to replace the renminbi in circulation in the market. It is also an attempt to make the digital renminbi may be tokenized by the outside world in the future. The behavior of transformation is prohibited from the legal level.
This further reflects the central bank’s intention that a large part of the launch of the digital renminbi is to resist the erosion of encrypted assets and global stable currencies. Officials do not want the digital renminbi to be directly related to encrypted currencies and blockchain.
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