The digital RMB is most fully open: SIM cards, crutches and other digital wallets are all on display. How to pay by tapping, scanning, online or offline?

Recently, at the Fourth Digital China Construction Achievements Exhibition held in Fuzhou, various digital RMB wallet products were unveiled to the public for the first time, such as watches, bracelets, crutches for the elderly, alarms for the elderly, badges, access control, timers for the blind, etc., which can be used to complete payments by "touch and pay" without Internet access.

The special-shaped wallet is not only easy to operate, but also meets the needs of different groups of people to use digital RMB. Among all the wallets, the most anticipated one is the SIM card hardware wallet, which is designed to run independently of the mobile phone operating system and is safer. It supports dual offline payment, which is more convenient. It can cover more people at a relatively low cost.

It is worth noting that the research and development direction of the digital RMB is no longer limited to the two ports of collection and payment. The exploration of more application scenarios and the transformation of financial equipment have opened up the imagination space for Internet of Things payment.

The reporter of 21st Century Business Herald saw that the ICBC exhibition area was equipped with digital RMB smart phones, digital RMB paper and coin exchange machines, etc., which can realize multiple functions such as hardware wallet issuance, recharge and withdrawal, remittance, and exchange of local and foreign currencies for digital RMB. The ETC digital RMB scenario is one of the exploration results of the Internet of Everything payment. Through the identification of the on-board tags OBU and RSU, the payment transaction is completed using digital RMB, and the linkage electronic screen shows success and lifts the barrier to pass.

A variety of special-shaped card-type hardware wallets are launched to meet the needs of universal access

Digital RMB is a legal tender in digital form issued by the People's Bank of China, operated by designated operating institutions and exchanged to the public. It is based on a broad account system, supports loose coupling with bank accounts, and is equivalent to paper money and coins. In other words, digital RMB can be simply equivalent to cash RMB, but the form of presentation is different, but it has the same legal tender as cash.

The use of digital RMB requires the help of a mobile phone APP software wallet or a hardware wallet. Compared with the visual card digital RMB wallet that was previously tested on a small scale, the standard card hardware wallet and innovative card hardware wallet displayed by ICBC have allowed people to see more possibilities for digital RMB hardware wallets. Among them, the card-type hardware wallet is a type of hardware wallet developed in accordance with the specifications of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, and is used as a sub-wallet of the software wallet. By writing the digital RMB security module on the card-type hardware wallet, payment is achieved with the NFC transmission function, supporting single/dual offline payment modes. At the same time, the hardware wallet binding activation and management functions can be completed on the wallet APP.

The reporter saw three types of card-type hardware wallets in the exhibition area. One is a card-type hardware wallet that only has the payment function, and the transaction is completed by touching it; the other is based on the former, with a display screen and buttons for power on and off, and query, which can show the balance, the last consumption record and the last recharge record; the third is both payment and collection functions, and can also query transaction details and set up the wallet. ICBC staff on site demonstrated to reporters the dual offline transaction process between the third card-type hardware wallets: after turning on the machine and entering the password, the screen displays the home page, press the OK button to enter the main menu, select "payment" and enter the amount, and touch it with another card-type hardware wallet to complete the transaction.

(Card-to-card transaction demonstration)

In addition to standard card-type hardware wallets, banks support the customization of various special-shaped card-type hardware wallets according to market demand. Such as watches, bracelets, crutches for the elderly, alarms for the elderly, badges, access control, blind timers and other special-shaped devices, which are more convenient to carry and more convenient to pay. They can be widely used in public transportation, closed park management, large-scale events and other livelihood areas, bridging the traditional payment gap. Di Gang, deputy director of the Digital Research Institute of the Central Bank, said at the summit that "the digital RMB is designed to meet the needs of public and inclusiveness, and proposes solutions for different user groups."

(Some special-shaped card hardware wallets)

It is worth mentioning that ICBC also demonstrated a SIM card with a digital RMB hardware wallet function. This SIM card is not just a phone card, it also carries the payment function of the digital RMB. According to relevant ICBC officials, the digital RMB SIM card hardware wallet was jointly developed by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Mobile. Compared with the common mobile APP digital RMB software wallet, the SIM card hardware wallet is more versatile and safer. On the one hand, it supports both the payee and the payee to complete dual offline payments in areas without network or poor signal through a "touch and pay" method, which is an indispensable and powerful supplement for the digital RMB to achieve full regional coverage, full population service, and full-scenario applicability goals. On the other hand, the security level of this SIM card is the same as that of the mainstream financial IC chip, supports the national secret algorithm, and the operating system runs independently of the smartphone operating system, which guarantees the security of user data in the SIM card to the greatest extent.

(SIM Card Wallet)

The reporter learned that currently only some specific mobile phones support dual offline payment, and the difference between dual offline payment and SIM card hardware wallet is whether the security chip is installed in the mobile phone or the SIM card. At present, the price of mobile phones that support dual offline payment is relatively high, and the only requirement of SIM card hardware wallet is that the mobile phone has NFC function, which greatly reduces the cost of using dual offline payment and is conducive to covering more people.

Scenario applications focus more on industrial integration and explore the Internet of Everything payment

At present, the digital RMB is still in the pilot stage. At the end of 2019, the digital RMB pilot and test were launched in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an, Chengdu and the Beijing Winter Olympics venue. By October 2020, six pilot test areas were added, including Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao and Dalian, forming a "10+1" pilot scope. From the initial digital RMB APP wallet to the POS machine adaptation and transformation upgrade, to dual offline payment, standard card hardware wallet and innovative card hardware wallet, the digital RMB has not only made significant progress in the research and development and testing of the payment and payment ends, but has also begun to explore digital RMB exchange, hardware wallet recharge and withdrawal, wallet upgrades and other aspects.

Four smart machines were placed in the ICBC exhibition area, namely the digital RMB smart machine, the digital RMB and cash two-way exchange deposit and withdrawal machine, the smart ATM, and the digital RMB and paper coin two-way exchange machine.

According to on-site staff, the digital RMB smart machine can realize multiple functions such as hardware wallet issuance, wallet recharge and withdrawal, digital currency transfer and remittance, and domestic and foreign currency exchange for digital currency; the digital RMB and cash two-way exchange deposit and withdrawal machine is the ICBC deposit and withdrawal machine that has launched the digital RMB cash exchange function. Digital RMB withdrawals can be completed by scanning the code, and cash can also be deposited by entering the digital RMB wallet number; the smart ATM innovatively uses biometrics, intelligent identity authentication, voice recognition, big data and other technologies, and has the function of upgrading Class II wallets to Class I wallets; the digital RMB paper and coin exchange machine realizes the flexible exchange between digital RMB soft and hard wallets and paper coins in online or dual offline states.

(Coin transfer hardware wallet demonstration)

From the current application scenarios, online scenarios are realized by pushing sub-wallets, and offline payment methods include POS machine payment, code scanning payment, and touch payment, etc. The dual offline payment function is mainly completed by touch payment. In order to ensure the security of funds, the digital RMB offline payment is designed to set the transaction number and balance limit.

Di Gang emphasized at the meeting that "the digital RMB also focuses on strengthening industrial integration in its application, and provides diversified payment methods for all walks of life by launching a series of innovative application scenarios for the digital RMB. At the same time, it continues to integrate and iterate with innovative technologies such as 5G, Internet of Vehicles, and Internet of Things to provide a full range of Internet of Everything payment experience, build a sustainable development ecosystem, and closely integrate new infrastructure to empower the development of the digital economy."

The reporter noticed that there were also relevant scene displays in the digital RMB exhibition area.

For example, farmer-friendly vending machines organically combine the Internet of Things, digital RMB, and smart agriculture, rural areas and farmers; ICBC smart canteens use new technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, biometrics, and digital currency to help canteens achieve digital operation and management; in the ETC digital RMB scenario, through the on-board label OBU and RSU identification, digital RMB is used to complete payment transactions, and the linked electronic screen displays success and the barrier is lifted for passage.

It is understood that in the future, the digital RMB will focus on key areas such as the Winter Olympics in Science and Technology, smart cities, smart agriculture, rural areas and farmers, digital government affairs, digital education, etc., combined with the development plans and local characteristics of the pilot areas, and continuously explore new digital RMB application models that are compatible with local economic development, and build a new digital RMB ecosystem based on the principles of openness, inclusiveness and long-term evolution.