China: Digital Yuan ‘to be Tested in Four Cities’

• China: Digital Yuan ‘to be Tested in Four Cities’
  by AT CONTRIBUTOR, https://asiatimes.com/
  China’s central bank has selected Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiongan for the initial trial
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  Screenshots of a purported pilot version of a wallet app for China’s forthcoming digital yuan are circulating on social media, Cointelegraph reported. Ling Zhang, executive director of M&A, global fiat, at cryptocurrency exchange Binance first shared the images on April 14. They were later retweeted by the exchange’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). 
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  Four cities selected for trial
  According to Ling, the app is available for download in four cities selected for the initial trial – Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiongan. She highlights the inclusion of Xiongan, a new metropolis located on the outskirts of Beijing, which has been the site of a “smart city brain project.”
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  The Xiongan New Area will have enhanced intelligent infrastructure that spans satellite information services, sensor recognition, a 5G network, supercomputing and big data facilities. The city has already attracted the country’s tech giants Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu, with President Xi Jinping visiting on more than one occasion.
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  Commenting on the screenshots, CZ remarked on China’s apparent “execution speed” in rolling out its trial for the central bank digital currency.
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  Ahead of the game
  China has been been accelerating the development of the digital yuan, notwithstanding the C0vid-19 crisis. On March 24, the Bank of China apparently completed the development of the currency’s basic functions and was drafting laws for its implementation.

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