A state-owned Chinese commercial bank, ICBC, has enabled a feature that authorizes users to convert their digital yuan to cash at over 3,000 ATMs located in the national capital, Beijing.
The feature lets users effectively shift between digital and non-digital renditions of government-issued currency with ease, bringing the nation one step closer to having a digital currency designed aloft a blockchain network.
According to a report by Xinhua Finance on Friday, The Industrial Commercial and Commerce Bank of China (ICBC) has become the main bank within the country to introduce such a feature.
The People’s Bank has been conducting trials of its digital yuan with commercial banks and income suppliers. However, CBDC, The Central Bank of Digital Currencies, need not necessarily be account-based.
Yao Qian, director of the Science and Technology Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the weekend that CBDCs shouldn’t strive just to be a digital form of physical cash, but should integrate smart contract functionality, Sina Finance published.
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Wise contracts are automatically implementing pieces of blockchain code that carry out functions when certain constraints are met, and might even be developed to strengthen or renovate the legal contract.
The report also noted the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the nation’s “big-four” broker, had installed an analogous feature at over 10 ATMs in the capital city’s Wangfujing shopping locale.
The People’s Bank of China and the country’s central bank have been working on trials of its digital yuan with different businesses, commercial banks, and payment providers in an attempt to thrust ahead its plans.
The digital currency has been in pilot testing in ten cities around China over the last year with the objectives of being offered to international athletes and tourists at next year’s Olympic Games in the national capital. This could be the first experimental trial with multinational users.
Source: Yahoo Finance
