As the nation widens the pilots for its digital currency, China’s central bank is pushing for connectivity between its digital yuan and other conventional digital electronic payment tools through universal QR code payments.
The development of a strong ecosystem for the e-CNY, the country’s central bank digital currency, requires uniformity, according to Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), who made this statement at a symposium on Thursday.
To enable customers to scan a QR code for different types of payment access, Fan said it is critical to encourage the integration of digital identification, QR code methods, Bluetooth, and near-field communications.
The remarks come at a time when WeChat Pay and Alipay, both owned by Tencent and Ant Group, are the most popular QR code payment systems in the nation.
The PBoC plans to deploy more smart contracts for the digital yuan, according to Mu Changchun, director-general of the institute for digital currencies, who made the announcement earlier this month. This is because more use cases for the new digital currency have been revealed as it has been tested.
In October 2020, the PBoC began testing the e-CNY in Shenzhen, and since then, it has expanded the testing to at least 23 cities and provinces.
