Market News
China starts accepting digital yuan payments - MANILA TIMES
SHANGHAI: Automatic vending machines in some metro stations in this China’s second biggest city can now accept digital yuan (also called renminbi), as part of the offline application scenarios for digital currency being promoted across the city.
As a critical link in the pilot use of digital currency, offline application scenarios for digital renminbi have been piloted in a variety of situations including in shops and at hospitals across the city, according to media reports.
Users can pay through mobile phones apps or bank cards at venues that accept digital currency check-out functions or digital wallets.
At the moment, only clients who are invited can try the digital currency. Banks issued “red envelopes” of digital renminbi to users in a test before the Spring Festival holidays. An employee at a small shop selling duck necks in Shanghai told the media that the process of using digital renminbi is very similar to the process for Alipay and WeChat, and it is “very smooth.”
One bank sent “red envelopes” worth 30 yuan ($4.65) each to clients as part of a test. There were no large-scale businesses among those participating in the test.
As the first pilot institute for digital renminbi, Tong Ren Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine launched the payment channel for the digital currency in early January and all the 2,000 medical staffers at the hospital can pay for their meals through a bank card that stores the digital renminbi, Xinhua reported.