21st Century Business Herald Reporter Xin Jizhao Intern Yang Jingyi Shenzhen Report What is the experience of using the digital renminbi that is being piloted and promoted?

A reporter from "21st Century Business Herald" noticed that in addition to the central bank's "Digital RMB" App, the six major state-owned banks have also embedded digital RMB modules in their respective mobile banking apps.

The public in pilot areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen only need to download the mobile banking apps of the six major banks to experience the "digital renminbi" function. The reporter noticed that the digital renminbi portal of the state-owned bank’s App has been mentioned on the secondary page from the search box. At the same time, major commercial banks have also begun to promote "hardware wallets" for digital renminbi, but the progress is uneven.

A reporter from "21st Century Business Herald" noticed that the mobile banking apps of major state-owned banks have embedded digital renminbi modules, and have been mentioned from the search box to the secondary page from the entrance.

However, the locations of the digital renminbi modules of each bank are different. Public Accounts and China Construction Bank place it under the account category, while Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China place it under the payment category.

Take the "Bank of China" mobile APP as an example. If you want to open a digital wallet in the bank's mobile APP, you need to click on the home page - more - payment - digital renminbi icon, and click to enter the digital renminbi page to complete the mobile phone application. Just register.

Various banks are quite active in promoting digital RMB wallets. In the ICBC App, a digital RMB advertisement is launched on the homepage to promote the bank.

In July this year, the central bank released the "White Paper on the Research and Development Progress of China's Digital RMB". The digital RMB adopts a two-tier operation model. The People's Bank of China is responsible for the issuance, cancellation, cross-institutional interconnection and wallet ecological management of digital renminbi. At the same time, it prudently selects commercial banks with certain conditions in terms of capital and technology as designated operating institutions to take the lead in providing digital renminbi exchange services.

Specifically, designated operating institutions, under the quota management of the People's Bank of China, will open different types of digital RMB wallets for customers based on their identity recognition strength to provide digital RMB exchange and redemption services. At the same time, the designated operating agency, together with relevant commercial institutions, undertakes the circulation services of digital renminbi and is responsible for the management of retail links to achieve safe and efficient operation of digital renminbi, including payment product design innovation, system development, scenario expansion, marketing, business processing and operation and maintenance Waiting for service.

A reporter from "21st Century Business Herald" noticed that in order to meet the needs of offline payment, major commercial banks have also begun to promote "hardware wallets" for digital renminbi.

The central bank stated that digital RMB wallets are divided into soft wallets and hard wallets according to the carrier. The soft wallet provides services to users based on mobile payment apps, software development kits (SDK), application programming interfaces (APIs), etc. The hard wallet implements digital renminbi-related functions based on technologies such as security chips, relying on IC cards, mobile terminals, wearable devices, IoT devices, etc. provide services to users. The combination of soft and hard wallets can enrich the wallet ecosystem and meet the needs of different groups of people.

Previously, Luo Rui, Director of the Monetary and Bullion Bureau of the People’s Bank of China, said: “In order to bridge the ‘digital divide’, the digital renminbi will also explore the launch of ‘hard wallets’ such as smart video cards to solve the problem for the elderly and the disabled. It is inconvenient for certain groups to operate smartphones.”

However, the number of consecutive offline transactions for each bank’s hardware wallet is limited to 100, taking the ICBC digital renminbi wallet as an example. However, Bank of China has not yet released the status of hardware wallets.

Currently, many banks are exploring RMB hard wallets. As early as the beginning of this year, the video card hard wallet launched by the Postal Savings Bank of China was available in the staff canteen of Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July 2021, ICBC displayed a variety of hard wallets such as pendant wallets, watch wallets, and cane wallets.

The technical routes for opening and binding different mobile banking hardware wallets are not consistent. After testing, a reporter from "21st Century Business Herald" found that the ICBC hardware wallet needs to turn on the NFC (near field communication) of the mobile phone and bring the hardware wallet close to it before binding. The Agricultural Bank of China hardware wallet needs to turn on the Bluetooth of the mobile phone and then bind the hardware wallet.

The "21st Century Business Herald" reporter noticed that the digital RMB App has launched a sub-wallet function, but most of the major mobile banking apps have not embedded the sub-wallet function, and there are very few usage scenarios.

For example, as digital renminbi is being tested in various places, major mobile banking apps have also launched digital renminbi coupons to win customers. The digital RMB coupons on the ICBC App are aimed at the 100 yuan coupons issued by the Zhuhai Municipal Government to citizens. Coupons can only be used by the individual. If there are any violations (abnormal channel acquisition, malicious cash-out, false transactions, abnormal exchange, etc.), the digital currency will be disqualified for redemption.

The China Construction Bank App digital renminbi launches usage scenarios such as credit card repayment, sub-wallets, red envelopes, smart canteens, gifts and souvenirs, etc. However, the smart contract and hardware wallet functions are only displayed and cannot be opened. In addition, China Construction Bank has set up a digital renminbi area on Shanrong Business, the bank's B2C shopping platform, where personal wallet customers can use digital renminbi to shop.

Currently, in Shenzhen, there are more than 30,000 merchants that can use digital renminbi for payment, including large shopping malls such as China Resources Vanguard, Suning.com, and Shenzhen Book City.

However, not many people consciously understand the digital renminbi. A "Meiyijia" convenience store in Shenzhen has a "digital renminbi" sign next to the cashier, but the clerk said that very few customers use digital renminbi and she is not familiar with the "digital renminbi" payment operation.

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