The Central Bank of China’s digital currency (CBDC) – the digital yuan, or eCNY – has received updates giving it smart contract functionality along with a number of newly revealed use cases..
The smart contract feature went live in the Meituan app, a Chinese app that offers retail and food delivery servicesaccording to a Jan. 17 report by local cryptocurrency outlet 8btc.
When Meituan users place an order and pay with their e-CNY wallet, a smart contract is activated and looks for keywords and purchased items in their order.. If a user buys something from the keyword list of the day, he is entered into the drawing to win part of a prize.
The prize is a portion of a “red envelope” known locally as a hongbao containing 8,888 yuan, worth just over $1,300..
Hongbao are small packages traditionally used to give away money around Chinese New Year as a gesture of good luck.
In December, the e-wallet app introduced a feature for users to send digital red envelopes in an attempt to boost adoption. before the Chinese New Year, on January 22.
The digital yuan opens up new avenues of use
In addition to this novelty, new uses for e-CNY have been added in recent days.
A January 16 report in the China Securities Journal notes that e-CNY has been used for the first time to buy securities. Investors can also use the CBDC to buy securities with the mobile app of Soochow Securities, a local brokerage firm..
The yuan digital wallet app has also received an update and now users can make contactless payments with Android phones even if their device loses internet or power.according to a report by Yicai Global on Jan. 11.
The new uses of the digital yuan come at a time when China has struggled with the adoption rate of its CBDC.
A former official at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, even made a rare public admission in December; he said that he “use of the digital yuan has been low” and “highly inactive”, adding that “the results are not ideal”.
On January 10, the PBOC included e-CNY in currency circulation reports for the first time, revealing that CBDC accounted for about 0.13% of the 10.47 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) in circulation at the end of January. 2022.
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