The total number of personal and corporate digital yuan wallets issued in China has risen from 24.5m in July to 140m as of October, an increase of nearly 600%, the People’s Bank of China’s Mu Changchun has revealed... More
Blockchain
Tequila brand adds NFC tags for product authentication and customer engagement
Consumers purchasing bottles of Otaca tequila can now authenticate their purchase, access information about the brand and place further orders by tapping an NFC tag on the bottle cap with their NFC-enabled Apple or Android device... More
French fashion house uses NFC to link garments to unique digital NFT assets
French fashion house AZ Factory has added NFC tags to a range of T-shirts in its Love Bring Love collection that enable purchasers to redeem an original digital artwork by tapping the tag embedded in their garment’s label... More
Chinese bike hire service to let customers use an NFC digital currency wallet to pay for their ride
Chinese e-commerce platform Meituan is to enable customers of its bicycle hire service to pay for their rides with the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) while offline using an NFC-enabled digital yuan hard wallet... More
Survey: ‘Growing number’ of Europeans support creation of national digital currencies independently of EU
A “growing number” of Europeans would support the creation of national digital currencies with the specific aim of asserting “some monetary independence” from the European Union, according to a survey commissioned by Euronews... More
Estonia’s central bank tests blockchain-powered digital euro solution
Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has tested a blockchain-powered technical solution for the use of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it says is capable of handling more than 300,000 simultaneous payments a second and enables payees to receive a payment in less than two seconds... More
People’s Bank of China issues digital yuan trial progress report
Nearly 21m (20.87m) personal and 3.51m corporate digital yuan wallets have so far been issued during China’s ongoing trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed... More
European Central Bank officially launches digital euro project
The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched its digital euro project with a two-year investigation into key issues regarding the design, distribution and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
China to launch digital yuan nationwide after 2022 Winter Olympics?
China could be ready to officially launch the digital yuan as a fully operational central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, according to reports in the Chinese media... More
Beijing Rail Transit lets passengers pay their fares with digital yuan
Passengers on 24 subway lines and four suburban rail services in the Chinese capital of Beijing can now use the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make contactless payments for their fares from a digital yuan mobile wallet issued by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China... More
Beijing banks add support for digital yuan at 3,000 ATMs
Customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Agricultural Bank of China can now exchange cash for digital yuan and vice versa at more than 3,000 ATMs across Beijing, China, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency... More
Hong Kong to explore potential for digital HK dollar
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is launching “a comprehensive study” that will explore the use cases, benefits and risks of developing a digital Hong Kong dollar as a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Riksbank extends e-krona pilot to real world test environments
Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank is to begin testing its e-krona central bank digital currency (CBDC) with external partners to assess how a digital krona would operate within a real world banking and payments infrastructure... More
Austrian Post adds NFC to blockchain postage stamp
Collectors and investors purchasing a limited edition “crypto stamp” issued by Austrian Post will soon be able to authenticate their purchase by scanning an NFC chip embedded in the packaging of the physical version of the postage stamp with their smartphone... More
Swift and Accenture lay out requirements for cross border CBDC payments infrastructure
Ensuring that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are interoperable and integrated with existing payment infrastructures are among the key requirements for their successful implementation in cross border transactions, according to a joint paper published by Swift and Accenture... More
Kazakhstan to pilot central bank digital currency
The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan has published a public consultation document as part of its plans to develop and pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Bahamas links digital currency to bank accounts
Consumers in the Bahamas will be able to use mobile wallets integrated with the country’s Sand Dollar “like an ATM” and transfer the central bank digital currency to their wallet directly from their bank account, the governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, John Rolle, has said... More
More than 90% of consumers worldwide will consider using digital payments in the next year, Mastercard predicts
More than nine in 10 consumers (93%) will consider using digital payment methods including contactless, QR code and biometric payments as well as cryptocurrency transactions in the next year, according to a Mastercard survey... More
Mastercard in talks with PBOC over support for cross-border digital yuan transactions
Mastercard is seeking a role in the development of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) by supporting the use of the digital yuan for cross-border transactions and its conversion to and from foreign currencies, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP)... More
Chinese banks unveil CBDC hardware prototypes for multiple use cases
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have unveiled prototype hardware devices that support the use of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of different use cases... More