The invitation list for the central bank's digital currency Xiong'an pilot project is released, Starbucks and 19 other companies are on the list

The well-known Starbucks and Qiangfeng Steamed Bun Shop are likely to be the first to use the central bank's digital currency in Xiongan New Area.

Interchain Pulse has exclusively learned that on the afternoon of April 22, Xiongan New Area held a pilot promotion meeting for the legal digital RMB (DCEP). The promotion meeting was organized by the Reform and Development Bureau of the Xiongan New Area Management Committee. Digital currency research and development institutions and pilot merchants were invited to participate.

It is worth noting that it was previously reported that digital currency was used for transportation subsidies in Suzhou, but in the pilot promotion list of Xiongan, catering and retail enterprises are the main ones.

Information revealed by the list

The participants of this promotion meeting consisted of three parts:

First, relevant departments, including the Development and Reform Bureau of the New Area Management Committee, the Xiong'an New Area Legal RMB Pilot Implementation Group of the Shijiazhuang Central Branch of the People's Bank of China, and the person in charge of the Xiong'an New Area Smart City Federation.

It is worth noting that among the relevant departments of Xiongan New Area, the Development and Reform Bureau is at the front, which means that the NDRC system may be an important institution to promote the promotion and deployment of digital currency.

In March this year, the National Development and Reform Commission held a research meeting on the new infrastructure of the digital economy. Experts judged the important value of the digital economy and that the central bank's digital currency would become a targeted stimulus option after the epidemic, or be launched at an accelerated pace. Now it seems that the judgment of the experts of the National Development and Reform Commission is well-founded.

The list also revealed that in order to promote the DCEP pilot, the central bank has set up separate working groups in pilot cities to connect with local administrative and industrial sectors.

Xiongan New Area Smart City Federation was established on September 25, 2019. It is guided by the Xiongan New Area Management Committee and is a cross-industry, open, non-profit association voluntarily formed by enterprises, institutions, universities, scientific research institutions and other organizations in the field of smart cities. The first chairman unit is China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, and the vice-chairmen and directors also include the three major operators, financial institutions, scientific research institutions in Xiongan, and well-known companies such as Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and Ping An.

The second part of the list is institutions involved in the research of digital currency, including the branches of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank in Xiongan, as well as relevant persons in charge of Ant Financial and Tencent.

Previous reports by Interchain Pulse have already introduced that these institutions will also be the operators of the central bank's digital currency, which is the second layer in the two-tier operating system of digital currency.

The third part of the list is the heads of the pilot units where the central bank's DCEP will be implemented. The specific list is as follows: China Overseas SPV, Jinfeng Catering, Jiankun Catering, Kaili Hotel, Oscar Cinemas, McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, Jinbaihe, Cainiao Station, UnionPay Unmanned Supermarket, JD Unmanned Supermarket, Weilai Bakery, Kunlun Hospitality Convenience Store, Qingfeng Baozi Shop, Zhongti Beili, CITIC Bookstore, Taoli Pavilion, and New Era Unmanned Vehicle.

Except for China Overseas SPV, the rest are restaurant, entertainment and retail store-type units. China Overseas SPV is a SPV company established by Xiongan Group + China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, China Overseas Real Estate, China Construction Design and China Construction Fund in the construction of the large-scale construction project of Xiongan New Area - the Citizen Service Center project. The so-called SPV company is a special purpose entity. Interchain Pulse speculates that the employees of China Overseas SPV will take the lead in opening the central bank's DCEP account and then participate in Xiongan's consumption activities.

Blockchain + digital currency stirs up Xiong'an

The pilot program of the central bank’s digital currency in Xiongan is a step in the construction of a digital city in the Xiongan New Area.

The Outline Plan for the Xiongan New Area of ​​Hebei Province clearly states: "Adhere to the simultaneous planning and construction of digital cities and real cities, appropriately advance the layout of intelligent infrastructure, promote real-time controllable intelligent application services across the entire region, establish and improve a big data asset management system, and create a digital city with deep learning capabilities and global leadership." The top-level design of the digital city in the Xiongan New Area has pointed out the direction for bridging the existing digital divide in the new area.

To this end, Xiongan New Area has fully digitized digital government affairs, digital economy, and digital life. In 2019, Xiongan will take the lead in trialing 5G networks and closely follow the latest developments in new generation information technology. It will also take the lead in new areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT.

It is worth noting that the concepts of digital currency and blockchain have a companion relationship in the early stage. After being separated at the production end, whether the two can promote each other's integration at the application end, with the support of technologies including artificial intelligence and LOT, Xiongan New Area may be the first in the world to give the answer.

On March 31, the Xiongan Blockchain Laboratory was officially unveiled. According to Li Jun, deputy director of the Xiongan Blockchain Laboratory, the laboratory has two goals in the near future: first, to establish a unified blockchain infrastructure platform that is compatible with different blockchains. Second, to further explore the application of Xiongan New Area blockchain on this platform, and integrate and upgrade it.

It can be said that Xiongan’s data is built on the blockchain.

In discussions in academia and industry, there are many combinations of digital currency and blockchain. For example, Yao Qian, former director of the Central Bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute, said that the central bank can use blockchain to effectively integrate distributed operations and better realize centralized control of CBDC. There is no inevitable conflict between the two.

In terms of usage, the blockchain system for the circulation of digital currency can better realize the transmission of value network, and the smart contract can greatly reduce the current currency circulation cost and improve circulation efficiency.

The future city of blockchain + digital currency in Xiongan New Area is coming soon.