As we discussed some weeks ago China is close to launch its own virtual cash or that is what derives from statements of PBOC’s deputy director on Saturday on a financial forum. Apparently, not blockchain, a very high concurrency throughput/performance needed, something broadly discussed by pundits elsewhere and here (Digital renminbi a fiat coin to make M0 great again). If I understand it well, it will be a two-tier system, not 1 tier with PBOC direct to people, rather, PBOC sitting above with the Banks in the middle, that is why I mentioned on June 9 it would be a ‘kind of’, virtual currency.
All in all it will certainly help China to address some of issues such as shadow banking, while reinforcing PBOC’s role versus the influence gained by some external players, read Alipay, WePay etc. Notice that, doesn’t come as a surprise, China adopts a ‘Chinese twist’ in the implementation, and this way it can react to initiatives such as Facebook’s Libra very simply, considering Libra just a foreign currency, like any other else.
I have no doubt that if there is a country where this initiative can be done quickly at a massive scale, that country is China, it seems to be completely ready for launching. Source is Shanghai Securities News
