Are Central Bank Digital Currencies Real?

The central bank's digital currency, the English name Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), is a blockchain project being researched by the People's Bank of China. The People's Bank of China is likely to be the first central bank in the world to launch a digital currency. The central bank's digital currency has been researched since 2014, which lasted five years, and is expected to be the first to be piloted in Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places.

In 2014, Zhou Xiaochuan, the then governor of the central bank, advocated the research and development of digital currency and central bank digital currency; in the same year, the central bank of China established a special research group for legal digital currency; on January 20, 2016, the central bank first proposed the public issuance of central bank digital The goal of currency; on January 29, 2017, the central bank officially established the Digital Currency Research Institute, the first director is Yao Qian, who is currently the general manager of China Securities Regulatory Commission.

After five years of research and development, the central bank's digital currency is ready to emerge. On October 28 this year, Huang Qifan, academic consultant of the China Finance Forty Forum (CF40) and vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, announced at the plenary meeting of the first Bund Financial Summit: "The People's Bank of China is likely to be the first in the world to launch a digital The central bank of the currency.” On December 9, Caijing magazine officially published an article: “Led by the People’s Bank of China, the three major operators of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom jointly participated The central bank's legal digital currency pilot project is expected to land in Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places. "Caijing" also revealed that the People's Bank of China's "legal digital currency" pilot project will go out of the central bank system and enter transportation, education, medical and other service scenarios, reaching the C-end Users generate frequent applications, and pilot banks can choose scenarios based on their own advantages.

What are the benefits of a central bank digital currency? The cost of traditional banknotes and coins is very high in issuance, printing, return, and storage. It also requires investment in anti-counterfeiting technology, and there are many layers of circulation, which is inconvenient to carry. The central bank’s digital currency does not require an account, making the transaction process dependent on the account. The degree is greatly reduced, which is conducive to the circulation and internationalization of RMB. At the same time, the central bank's digital currency can realize real-time collection of data such as currency creation, accounting, and flow, and provide useful reference for currency delivery, monetary policy formulation and implementation.

For ordinary people, how to obtain the central bank's digital currency? The specific way is that commercial banks buy from the People's Bank of China, and we go to commercial banks to exchange RMB. In addition, the central bank's digital currency can complete transactions without a network. Some interpretations say that even if the mobile phone cannot be connected to the Internet, the two mobile phones can transfer money by touching each other, that is, offline payment is supported. It is expected that the central bank's digital currency will come out as soon as possible.