Economic Daily: Accelerate the improvement of the digital RMB ecosystem

Currently, the digital RMB is being tested in 10+1 regions and scenarios across the country. How is the digital RMB different from various virtual currencies? Next, how can the digital RMB ecosystem be further improved?

"With Bitcoin and Libra as representatives, there are currently about 8,000 virtual currencies in the world, but the digital RMB is fundamentally different from them." Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of CMB Financial and part-time researcher of Fudan University's Institute of Finance, said that the digital RMB is a digitized RMB. As a form of legal tender, it will be issued by the People's Bank of China in accordance with the law and endorsed by the state's credit. The essence of virtual currency is virtual goods. As a speculative asset, it has large price fluctuations and is operated by the private sector. It is not and will not become a currency.

Dong Ximiao said that compared with virtual currencies and non-bank payment tools, the digital RMB has three outstanding characteristics: legal compensation, mandatory and universal. Therefore, he suggested that the People's Bank of China Law, RMB Management Regulations and other laws and regulations should be amended in a timely manner to clarify the legal status of the digital RMB and provide legal protection for its official issuance and circulation.

Regarding the application issues of public concern, Dong Ximiao believes that an open, inclusive and win-win digital RMB ecosystem should be built so that users across the country can use it conveniently and enjoy it, and further strengthen the legal compensation, mandatory and universal nature of the digital RMB. Specifically, we can start from four aspects: First, encourage multi-subject participation. In the process of digital RMB research and development and testing, commercial banks, telecom operators, technology companies, non-bank payment institutions, etc. have participated in it, and the characteristics and advantages of all parties should be further brought into play. At present, the participating commercial banks have expanded from the initial 4 large banks to 6 large banks and two private banks. In the next step, more strong commercial banks can be allowed to join the ranks of operating institutions.

Second, achieve multi-scenario coverage. Currently, the digital RMB supports both offline and online scenarios, covering multiple fields such as life payment, catering services, transportation, shopping, government services, etc. In the next step, we should continue to expand the scenarios, embed more application scenarios through pushing sub-wallets online, accelerate the expansion of merchants offline, and transform the original machines, and strive to achieve full-scenario coverage of small-amount and retail payments.

The third is to expand multi-functional applications. Payment is one of the main functions of the digital RMB. The current payment function has multiple methods such as scanning codes, "touch and pay", and offline payment. Next, the digital RMB should support the recharge and withdrawal of bank accounts and non-bank payment accounts; at the same time, through commercial bank counters, ATMs and other channels, the two-way exchange of digital RMB and RMB cash can be realized.

Fourth, develop multi-form wallets. At present, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China has designed a digital RMB wallet matrix from four aspects, including real-name wallets and anonymous wallets, personal wallets and public wallets, hardware wallets and software wallets, and parent wallets and child wallets. Attention should be paid to the combination of software carriers and hardware carriers. For example, embedding digital RMB wallet chips in wearable devices such as IC cards and smart watches to facilitate user use.