In China, the digital yuan is already available in some pilot cities, selected to prepare for national deployment. Over the weekend, $ 3 million in digital yuan will be distributed to residents of Suzhou City via a raffle. Is the launch approaching?

The digital yuan on trial

In China , the Suzhou city ​​government is distributing 20 million yuan in digital form over the weekend , the equivalent of 3 million dollars . The 10.7 million inhabitants of the city can register for this airdrop and 100,000 lucky ones will each receive 200 digital yuan, or 30 dollars.

In order for the experiment to yield good results, the selected inhabitants will be able to spend their Bitcoin Circuit on the Internet on the occasion of “ Double 12 ”, a local version of Black Friday . Online, the digital yuan can be used for purchases on JD.com , the 2nd largest e-commerce platform in China.

At the same time, a handful of people will have the opportunity to spend their funds in stores in the city, in order to try out the digital wallet’s offline payment function .

This event is organized with the collaboration of a local bank, which will provide its mobile application dedicated to the digital yuan.

Besides being a test for the digital yuan, a Suzhou City press release on the subject explains:

“This event is also an innovative approach led by the city of Suzhou as part of the standardization of epidemic prevention and control to stimulate consumption and domestic demand. It is of significant importance for promoting quality development of the local economy. “

National deployment is getting closer

Such a free distribution of the digital yuan is proving to be a relatively effective strategy to accustom the population to the digital version of the yuan. In addition, the integration of the digital yuan within the ecosystem of local giants like JD , Alibaba or even Tencent , offers it unprecedented visibility.

Other industries such as the telephone industry are working on solutions for the digital yuan. This is particularly the case with Huawei , the smartphone maker having revealed last October that its models in the Mate 40 series will include a hardware wallet for the digital yuan .

Note that this life-size test for the digital yuan is not the first. Last November, 50,000 residents of the city of Shenzhen shared the equivalent of $ 1.5 million in digital yuan . Some of the winners of this first airdrop had not found any particular interest in the digital yuan compared to other already existing means of payment, while designating it as less practical .

The introduction of the digital yuan on the whole territory is approaching, not to the displeasure of those who have given unfavorable criticism against it …