People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has just processed 1.1 billion Yuan ($162 million) worth of digital currency in its pilot transactions. Fan Yi Fei, the deputy governor of the bank, has revealed this at the virtual conference organized by SWIFT. According to him, 3.13 million transactions have already been processed by the end of August 2020. 

PBOC Believes Digital Currency as an Important Financial Infrastructure 

Fan Yi Fei regarded it as the first detail about the Digital Yuan that has been revealed by any official of PBOC yet. He mentioned that the pilot program for the central based digital currency (CBDC) is running in several major cities that include Shenzhen and Xiongan. Not only this, all these pilot programs have made some impressive progress and due to this positive response. Also, there will be a pilot program at the Winter Olympics in 2022. 

Until now, around 6,700 use cases have been tested on the Digital Yuan which also includes various bill payments, transport, government services, and others. Digital Yuan “red packets” have also been distributed by the government to reward around 5,000 medical workers who had worked during the coronavirus spread. Fan Yi Fei said, “PBOC regards the digital renminbi as an important financial infrastructure for the future.”

Digital Yuan is Near the Official Launch

According to the government records, around 113,300 personal digital wallets and 8,800 corporate digital wallets have already been created. These were only part of the pilot transactions. All the details that have been revealed by the officials of PBOC indicated that the official launch of the Digital Yuan is almost near. China is the first one among the major countries that will be launching its CBDC. In fact, the country has started researching it back in 2014, and now after its launch, it will be a six years project.