Beijing has just issued another 200,000 digital renminbi red envelopes. The lucky ones who receive the red envelopes can experience digital renminbi payments in apps such as JD.com and Didi. In the past six months, as more and more regions are conducting digital RMB pilot projects, the usage scenarios are becoming more and more abundant. From the pilot program of only one or two banks to the current four major banks in the construction of industry and agriculture, and Alipay and WeChat all have to access the digital RMB. , The full implementation of the digital renminbi is getting closer.
Many people still have questions about this new thing that is about to replace cash and will be used throughout China, such as “Is the relationship between digital renminbi and WeChat Alipay?”, “Can you mine?”, “If the mobile phone is broken, the money will be Lost it?” Wait.
Rhythm BlockBeats also experienced a digital renminbi wallet internally. This article will focus on the digital renminbi and answer the 10 questions that everyone is most concerned about. I believe that after reading the article, you will have a relatively comprehensive understanding of the digital renminbi.
(Rhythm Note: Because the digital renminbi has not been fully opened and is still in the pilot phase, each tester needs to abide by the non-disclosure agreement, so the following user interface does not have a detailed picture description.)
1. What is a digital renminbi?
The digital renminbi is a digital form of legal tender issued by the People’s Bank of China.
Pay attention to these three keywords, “People’s Bank”, “digital form” and “legal currency”. Why should we emphasize these three key words, because the banknotes we spend in our lives and the renminbi stored in bank cards are legal tender issued by the People’s Bank of China. The renminbi and digital renminbi have only one “digital form” in definition.
So, just remember that “digital renminbi” is “renminbi” and “money”, and you can basically understand it.
It’s just that the form of this money has changed from the “banknote renminbi” that people used to buy things to pay for, the “bank deposit” of swiping cards, and the “Alipay balance” of scanning QR codes, to the “digital renminbi” of “digital form.” The place where you put paper money is called a wallet, and the place where you put digital renminbi is called a digital renminbi wallet, which is installed in your mobile phone in the form of a “digital renminbi APP”.
Since it is legal tender, it can be circulated like paper money, and after the digital renminbi is fully promoted, no one can refuse to accept the digital renminbi. Compared with paper currency, digital renminbi issuance greatly reduces costs in the fields of printing, circulation, and transactions, and improves the efficiency of the entire society. It will be a solid foundation for the development of my country’s digital economy.
In other words, the number one feature of the digital renminbi is legal tender.
2. Will the exchange of digital renminbi cause inflation?
No, because no new money has been printed.
The second major feature of the digital renminbi is that it is equivalent to the renminbi. As much as 100 yuan RMB paper currency is worth, then 100 yuan is worth as much as the digital renminbi.
At this stage, the digital renminbi adopts the process of exchange with deposits in the bank card. For every dollar of digital renminbi exchanged by the bank, it has to pay a renminbi reserve to the central bank, which is 100% of the reserve.
In the process of exchanging digital renminbi, no money is printed. We can also exchange digital renminbi back to renminbi at any time, so there will be no inflation due to the exchange of digital renminbi.
3. Can the digital renminbi protect privacy?
This brings us to the third major feature of digital renminbi: anonymous offline transactions.
When we use paper money, we are actually doing anonymous offline transactions. For example, you and the owner of the commissary, you do not know each other, but in order to buy ice cream, you took out two notes of 1 yuan. This is called an anonymous transaction. The action of buying ice cream does not need to be confirmed by other people or the system. You and your boss confirm 2 yuan for an ice cream, and you only need to pay for the ice cream and deliver it. This is called offline transaction.
Now, when you use payment software or bank card to pay by swiping, all the information of the transaction object, location, amount and other information will be transmitted to their headquarters online, and it will become a real-name online transaction. The payment software will record your data. They use your financial information to analyze and recommend products.
Digital renminbi solves this problem. When using digital renminbi, whether it is buying things online or scanning codes offline, the information of the person who pays will be encrypted and then sent to the merchant. The two parties of the transaction are carried out through technology and systems. The anonymization process protects privacy well. What’s more awesome is that in media reports, digital renminbi can be used for offline transactions in places where neither party has an internet connection or signal. The digital renminbi’s “NFC touch” function is used for payment, that is, dual offline transactions.
This has led to new questions: A mobile phone logs in and turns on the airplane mode, and the B mobile phone logs in and then turns on the popular mode. Is it possible to spend money offline twice without connecting to the Internet?
In the test, if the payee and the payer are offline at the same time, the transaction is unsuccessful. The payee is offline and the payer is online. The transaction is feasible. The payer is offline and the payee cannot be online. That is to say, the person who spends the money must broadcast the transaction online. That’s all right. Visual inspection of both parties offline may only be open to certified merchants and special equipment.
At the same time, for security reasons, digital RMB is not completely anonymous, but controllable anonymity. When encountering illegal and criminal acts such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion, transaction information is disclosed to relevant departments; and if large amounts are required To pay, you need to provide relevant information for traceability.
4. How to use digital RMB?
Digital renminbi wallet use mobile phone number to register and log in, add a digital renminbi wallet, you can see that it supports the four major banks, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank, etc. These banks only provide services. You can also register a digital renminbi wallet without having their bank card. On the one hand, it protects privacy and on the other hand reduces the threshold for use. The elderly and children can use it. After the registration is completed, you will see this interface, slide up and down for payment and collection. If both mobile phones have nfc, you can also touch the payment. The normal payment and settlement speed is very fast.
So how can we have a digital renminbi?
1. Recharge, only recharge will become powerful, you need real-name authentication and then use a bank card to recharge;
2. Make money, let the other party or other people directly use the payment function to transfer money to you.
After you have money, you can pay online, in addition to offline payment. If you abstract your thinking, a virtual big wallet can be split into multiple sub-wallets. The sub-wallets are pushed to other apps we use daily through the digital RMB app to connect, and then you will see this when you pay. Option, then you can pay for it. For example, I can push the sub-wallet of this digital renminbi wallet to the B station app. When the B station app recharges the B coin, hey, I can directly deduct the money from the digital renminbi wallet, and then I can give the favorite up The main charge is up.
Another example is to connect to JD.com for shopping. JD.com used to ask me to tie a card and jump to WeChat payment. Now I can pay directly in digital RMB. JD.com only knows that I paid the money, and I don’t know anything else. And in the future, it can also avoid the payment monopoly behavior of Taobao not being able to use WeChat and WeChat not being able to use Alipay, because digital renminbi is legal tender and the platform must also accept it.
5. The digital renminbi can be paid without internet connection. What should I do if it is stolen?
Here we will mention the fourth major feature of the digital renminbi: high security performance.
In the past, if you lost your banknotes, you couldn’t find them. Now, after you have a digital renminbi, if your mobile phone is broken or lost, you can report the loss of the digital renminbi account and retrieve it, and the money will not be lost. Moreover, through the verification method and system that the central bank has not exposed, the visual inspection is an optimized version of the blockchain technology. Your transaction cannot be tampered with, and your account cannot be forged or copied by others. A currency will be synchronized after each transaction is completed. information.
There is no need to worry about stolen brushes.
Financial departments and telecommunications operators each have a part of the data. Once such crimes such as stealing and brushing occur, judicial organs and law enforcement agencies will try to catch the bad guys. Moreover, Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, said that if digital renminbi telecom fraud occurs, the money can be recovered to protect the safety of property.
6. Why doesn’t the digital wallet give interest?
The digital renminbi is money, and the digital renminbi account is a virtual wallet. Imagine if you put paper money and coins into your wallet, will it raise interest on its own? That would certainly not accrue interest. Therefore, a digital renminbi account needs to be abstractly imagined as a wallet in the digital space. The money is stuffed into the wallet, and it is not deposited as a current or financial product, and naturally there will be no interest.
However, it is conceivable that in the future, the sub-wallet will be pushed to the financial APP, and the digital renminbi will be processed for financial management, and the financial management functions of Yu’ebao and WeChat can also be realized.
7. Will digital renminbi kill Alipay and WeChat Pay?
They are not the same thing, there is no saying that they are killed, but it may change the mobile payment landscape.
As I said earlier, the digital renminbi is currency, the “money” itself, while WeChat Pay and Alipay are a way to collect or pay money. Let’s buy ice cream again. This ice cream is worth 2 yuan. You can choose to pay in paper money or coins, or scan the QR code with WeChat Pay or Alipay, or pay with one touch of digital RMB. In this process, you put 2 yuan worth of The renminbi is transferred to the boss through hand, payment software, and digital renminbi. The boss receives the money and gives you ice cream.
No matter what method you use, you always pass the money to the other party, but the method and transmission path have changed. The advent of Alipay and WeChat Pay has made the payment process more convenient and faster. There is no fake money yet, so it has quickly become popular. They must charge a fee for providing this kind of service. The price is that you give them your privacy and information, you have to watch a lot of advertisements, there are handling fees when the funds are withdrawn and transferred, and some merchants also have handling fees. You don’t need to spend money to use RMB. You probably have not heard of the handling fee for buying ice cream with banknotes.
As an irresistible legal currency, the sub-wallet of the digital renminbi wallet may be connected to all apps that require payment, so it is also likely to subvert the current mobile payment pattern. After all, you can now choose a newer when you pay. A digital renminbi option that is safe and does not peek at your privacy.
At present, 94% of China’s mobile payment market is dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay. This market may be broken. Look carefully, the past few pilots were all arranged on JD.com.
8. Can people who don’t know how to use mobile phones use digital renminbi?
The use of digital renminbi is not mandatory, it is a supplementary form of banknotes.
If you want to use paper money, use paper money, and use digital renminbi if you want to use digital renminbi. WeChat Pay and Alipay are still used as usual.
Of course, in order to enable everyone to enter the digital renminbi era as soon as possible, many products for the elderly have appeared.
The digital renminbi hardware wallet of the postal savings pilot can apply for such a card for the elderly in the future, deposit some money in the wallet, set the number of times that can be used offline, and grandparents only need to bring this hardware wallet to touch after going out. Is it convenient to complete digital RMB payment with one touch? And because of the controllable anonymous security, there is no need to worry about the elderly being deceived.
9. Can you mine digital renminbi?
Digital RMB is legal currency, it can only be obtained by recharge or transfer, it cannot be mined! Not 1050ti, not 3090!
Many people care about whether the digital renminbi is related to digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Digital RMB and Bitcoin are not the same thing.
The digital renminbi issued by the People’s Bank of China is a legal tender endorsed by the government’s credit. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are decentralized virtual assets, and their value is a consensus value. The digital renminbi and the renminbi have a 1:1 value equivalent.
10. Can the digital renminbi become an international currency?
Regarding whether the digital renminbi can be internationalized, experts from the central bank also said in April that they have begun to explore the application of digital renminbi cross-border payment. At present, the launch of the digital currency of the People’s Bank of China is far faster than all other countries. The United States and Europe are still discussing whether to do it or not. At that time, we have already tested it on a large scale.
Author/ Translator: Jamie Kim
Bio: Jamie Kim is a technology journalist. Raised in Hong Kong and always vocal at heart. She aims to share her expertise with the readers at blockreview.net. Kim is a Bitcoin maximalist who believes with unwavering conviction that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency – in fact, currency – worth caring about.