Three to five nations worldwide will entirely replace their fiat currency with a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, by 2030, a European think tank predicts. Dutch fintech-focused non-profit think tank dGen released a report devoted to geopolitical trends of CBDCs on Sept. 9. Titled “CBDCs: Geopolitical Ramifications of a Major Digital Currency,” the 30-page report takes a deep dive on the status of major global fiat currencies like the United States dollar, the euro, and China’s yuan. Compiled with support from institutions like the European Central Bank (ECB), Standard Chartered Bank, and the Frankfurt School, the report makes some …

Two nations, two visions of the financial future: "The tech cold war is here — and the US isn't winning," wrote Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen in an opinion piece for The Hill recently. According to him, China has “a once-in-a-century opportunity to wrest away American stewardship of the global financial system, including its ultimate goal of replacing the dollar with a digital yuan." Western values of openness and freedom could be lost in this new financial order. Others have sounded similar concerns. “There is a new space race. It is the cyberspace race of building and controlling the systems and …

The People’s Bank of China is planning to put its digital currency to use at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. According to a Reuters report, Sun Guofeng, the head of the monetary policy department at PBoC, said that the bank does not have a timetable for the rollout of the digital currency. However, going by Sun’s statement, PBoC is likely to launch it before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games as they plan to use it during the international sports event. The news comes as China is ramping up pilots for the digital yuan. At present, the Chinese central …

The United States is losing the "technological cold war" to China due to its tough regulatory approach to blockchain and cryptocurrency-related companies, a senior executive at Ripple believes. In an opinion article for The Hill on Aug. 21, Chris Larsen, co-founder and chairman at major crypto payments firm Ripple, said that China’s digital currency leadership is a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to replace the U.S. dollar with the digital yuan as the world’s reserve currency. Larsen set out the main reasons for China winning the U.S. in the ongoing technological struggle. Namely, China has “already achieved near universal use of digital payments” …

A group of state-run commercial banks in China are reportedly conducting a large-scale internal testing of a digital wallet designed for China’s national digital currency, the digital yuan. According to an Aug. 5 report by Reuters, the banks are testing the wallet application to transfer money and make payments in China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC. As reported, the development was initially revealed to China’s state-backed newspaper the 21st Century Business Herald by several employees at involved state banks in cities including Shenzhen. The new development represents another major milestone in China’s progress in adopting the digital yuan and …

Despite the global economic crisis and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the development of the Chinese national cryptocurrency, the Digital Currency Electronic Payment, is steadily progressing. The increase in the number of large companies joining the digital yuan initiative as partners in testing and implementing the technology is clear evidence of the progress the project is making in its development. Meituan Dianping, the country’s largest wholesale and delivery platform for products, has become the latest corporation to agree to assist the People’s Bank of China in testing and implementing the initiative. The platform currently has almost 450 million customers …

Chinese ride-hailing juggernaut DiDi Chuxing has joined the digital yuan project, a CBDC developed by the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC. According to an announcement DiDi shared with Cointelegraph earlier today, the company has entered into “a strategic partnership” with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the PBoC. Together, DiDi and the PBoC’s think tank will reportedly work to bring the DC/EP solution to the former’s large-scale transportation network, which DiDi also refers to as “the world’s largest one-stop on-demand transportation platform.” The statement reads: “Under PBOC’s overall DCEP strategy and operation timeline, DiDi's DCEP taskforce will design and …

China’s central bank digital currency is usually identified as a way to challenge the dominance of the U.S. dollar, not Bitcoin (BTC). But it may struggle to find adoption in niches where crypto versions of the dollar thrive, primarily Tether (USDT). At the Unitize panel on Monday, Charles Yang from Genesis Block explained why the DCEP, commonly referred to as digital yuan, is not particularly attractive as a crypto replacement. Speculation and payments Yang identified two key drivers of crypto adoption, specifically in Asia. The first is speculation, noting that traders from countries such as Korea and China have a …

China’s Blockchain Service Network (BSN) is integrating Chainlink’s (LINK) oracle service into its ecosystem. BSN was recently formed by China’s State Information Center, China Mobile, China Unionpay, and Red Date Technologies. The goal of this consortium is to build infrastructure that will lower the entrance barriers to blockchain technology. Blockchain was too expensive Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology and BSN co-founder, told Cointelegraph that when his company first started experimenting with blockchain technology, he was excited about the new capabilities it enabled, but was appalled by how expensive it was: “We really saw the upgrade from the Internet …

South Korean media outlets suggest that local merchants could accept the upcoming digital yuan as a payment method once the COVID-19 pandemic passes and Chinese tourist flow increases in the country. According to news agency Yonhap, domestic merchants have been increasingly considering taking advantage of China’s upcoming digital currency, citing some tourist shops in their examples. Taking advantage of Chinese tourism The report details that in Seoul’s Myeongdong district, some stores have been accepting payments using Alipay, thus showing interest in customers from China. Reports indicate that the COVID-19 crisis has caused damages close to $2 billion in tourism income. …

The People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, clarified that there is still “no timetable” on a formal digital yuan launch. In an interview published earlier today on the central bank’s website, PBoC Governor Yi Gang was asked about the central bank digital currency’s official launch date, to which he replied: "These tests are just routine work for the research and development (R&D) of the digital currency. No schedule for an official launch has been revealed.” The pilot test referenced by Gang has been carried out in the cities of Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan new area, Chengdu and the future site of …

As China is moving forward with blockchain projects amid the COVID-19 crisis, the government has tapped another tech partnership to continue the development of China’s digital yuan. Domestic artificial intelligence (AI) startup SenseTime has partnered with the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) Digital Currency Research Institute to provide its AI expertise amid the reported trials of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC). SenseTime to accelerate AI advancement in a joint body with PBoC SenseTime, purportedly the world’s highest-valued AI startup with an over $7.5 billion valuation, will work with the PBoC to improve risk control and operational capabilities across financial …