The Central Bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute is officially launched

According to multiple domestic media reports, the Central Bank Digital Currency Research Institute has officially opened in an international building near Beijing Deshengmen. It is understood that the building is mainly composed of many subsidiaries of China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation. The Central Bank Digital Currency Research Institute is located on the 9th floor of the building, on the same floor as the China Banknote Printing and Minting Authentication Center.

The picture comes from the Internet

According to information previously released by the central bank, the Digital Currency Research Institute is a research institute under the central bank that specializes in the technology and possible applications of digital currency. Yao Qian, former deputy director of the Science and Technology Department of the People's Bank of China, will serve as the director of the Digital Currency Research Institute, and Di Gang, former deputy director-general of the Science and Technology Department and director of information technology at the Silk Road Fund, will serve as the deputy director. The institute will have seven departments with different divisions of labor.

The People's Bank of China has always been supportive of digital currency and blockchain technology and has actively carried out relevant research. As early as early 2014, the central bank formed an expert research team to discuss the required regulatory framework or national digital currency.

In 2016, the State Council included blockchain in the 13th Five-Year Plan to strengthen the strategic frontier technology layout. In this year, the central bank's digital currency research has made significant progress. On January 20, at the digital currency seminar held by the central bank, the goal of issuing digital currency to the public for the first time was announced. In July, the central bank launched the prototype development of a digital bill trading platform based on blockchain and digital currency, and decided to use the digital bill trading platform as a pilot application scenario for legal digital currency, and use the digital bill trading platform to verify blockchain technology.

In 2017, the People's Bank of China successfully tested a digital bill trading platform based on blockchain. In June this year, the People's Bank of China issued the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Information Technology in China's Financial Industry", which clearly put forward the guiding ideology, basic principles, development goals, key tasks and safeguards for the information technology work in the financial industry during the "13th Five-Year Plan". Among them, actively promoting the application research of new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence was listed as a key task.

Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the central bank, believes that it is inevitable for the central bank to promote the issuance of legal digital currency. The central bank's digital currency is guaranteed by national credit and can be used online and offline simultaneously to the greatest extent, maximizing transaction convenience and security.

In the past two years, central banks and other financial regulatory agencies around the world have gradually stepped up their research in the field of digital currency. Central banks in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Singapore, Japan and other countries have expressed their intention to explore and study the institutional design and key technologies of legal digital currency.

The digital currency seminar held by the central bank previously believed that under the current new normal of my country's economy, exploring the issuance of digital currency by the central bank has positive practical significance and far-reaching historical significance. The issuance of digital currency can reduce the high cost of issuing and circulating traditional paper currency, improve the convenience and transparency of economic transaction activities, reduce illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering and tax evasion, enhance the central bank's control over money supply and circulation, better support economic and social development, and help realize inclusive finance. In the future, the establishment of a digital currency issuance and circulation system will also help my country build a new financial infrastructure, further improve my country's payment system, improve payment and clearing efficiency, and promote economic quality, efficiency and upgrading.