Ever since the beginning of the year 2020, China has been making constant efforts to master what other countries are currently trying to fully develop. China is the country ahead of everyone in the adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
It has been making all the efforts to finalize the testing/pilot phase for the digital yuan before it can be launched publicly. Towards the end of the year, the Chinese central bank had confirmed that it had carried out initial testing of the digital yuan.
In the process, the People’s Bank of China carried out several tests all over the provinces in China. On top of that, the Chinese Government also collaborated with the Hong Kong Government to carry out cross-border transaction testing.
The year 2020 turned out to be full of developments and progress for the digital yuan. Then in the year 2021, the central banks of China started working on the digital wallet for the digital yuan. All major central banks in China were involved in the process and they had also managed to bring several private banks on board.
All this was being done to ensure that the digital yuan could be readied before the 2022 Olympics that China is supposed to host in Beijing.
The central bank of China had initially announced they were planning to launch digital yuan by the end of 2021. However, due to some unforeseen scenarios, the testing/piloting phase had to be delayed. Therefore, it was expected that the digital yuan might be available until 2022’s Winter Olympics, but there were still uncertainties about it.
On Sunday, April 18, 2021, an official of the central bank of China confirmed to all the enthusiasts and stakeholders for the digital yuan that the digital currency would be available by the 2022 Olympics.
The official stated that although they did face a delay on the digital yuan, yet they had always aimed to launch it before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
They had aimed they would finalize the digital yuan and make it available for the visitors as well the athletes coming for the 2022 Winter Olympics being held in Beijing.
According to the officials, this will be the first time China will be testing the digital yuan with international users. They have already carried out several local tests, which has given them a lot of confidence that nothing would go wrong during the international testing.
By launching during the Olympics, they will be able to provide their digital yuan to international visitors and expose them to their digital currency. This would also give visitors a first-hand experience in getting used to using digital yuan (CDBC).
Further to the announcement of the digital yuan launch, the central bank of China has also clarified that their work in the digital yuan sector is not to overtake or de-thrown the United States dollar.