China Begins $6 Million Digital Yuan Airdrop Trial

China has been developing its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Yuan, for over seven years. The project has come to a critical test phase and its ready to be used by the citizens.

A report by CNBC confirms that China will give around $6.2 million in its digital currency to lucky people living in the capital, Beijing. The Asian giant will select the recipients of the CBDC via a lottery.

To participate, citizens must download two of the banking apps that enable them to register and enter the contest. The registration deadline is June 7th.

Those people selected in the lottery will receive one of the 200,000 “red packets”, per the report. These envelopes contain $31 or about 200 yuan to be used in certain stores. The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) has been operating with the same mechanism in other parts of the country to test their CBDC.

Cities such as Chengdu and Shenzhen have participated in the lottery. According to statements from top-level government officials, the Digital Yuan could be a major part of the 2020 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Also known as Digital Renminbi or e-CNY, the Chinese CBDC appears to be further in development from other projects around the globe. A month ago, Alibaba‘s affiliate Ant Group, one of China’s largest payment services providers, signed a cooperation with the PBOC to submit their database.

This is part of a “joint development” between the institution and other private companies to advance the CBDCs progress. The PBOC apparently needs assistance in two critical areas: infrastructure and distribution channels.

Yao Qian, a member of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, suggested the use of Ethereum‘s network or Diem’s network to launch the Digital Yuan. The government official presented this case at the International Financial Forum (IFF) 2021 in Beijing.

However, as entrepreneur Qiao Wang said, the government official was simply making a thought experiment. Wang added:

It‘s not a statement it’s thought experiment. Id put it at <1% chance it happens on Ethereum – even less on Diem.

Primitive Crypto partner Dovey Wan commented on this possibility. Wan believes there is a 0% chance for the Digital Yuan to be launch on top of Ethereum and added:

DCEP/digital rmb (Digital Renminbi) has a technical framework published long ago, it will run on PBOCs private cloud.

Previously, Wan presented a preview of the Digital Yuans wallet and its user interface. This allows users to send and receive money with just a swipe up or down, as seen below. Wan said:

This is a beta now being tested in Shenzhen, some municipal payment and public economic activity will be first adopted, then merchant adoption. China is really good at deploying new tech infra at large scale, this wont be exception.

At the time of writing, ETH trades at $2,792 with sideways movement in the 1-hour and daily chart.