Yesterday China’s pilot digital yuan was enabled in WeChat Pay, the payment wallet of the largest social network in the country. China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) can now be used for faster payments not only in the WeChat app but in several WeChat mini programs. Additionally, the digital yuan is being promoted in Hong Kong for limited use cases.
The digital yuan or e-CNY is usually linked to a bank wallet. So to use the digital yuan in WeChat, the two wallets must be synchronized, which also means the same phone number must be used in both.
One of the stated objectives of the CBDC was to enable interoperability between separate payment apps. The dominant ones are Ant’s Alipay and WeChat Pay. Chinese news outlet The Paper reported that WeChat Pay also supports the digital renminbi wallet of MYbank which is associated with competitor Alipay.
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