NEWS//China's digital currency

Chances are that you have never bought anything with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. Only a few countries have issued their own cryptocurrency (e.g., Venezuela, Dubai, Tunisia). The United States has declined to issue a "Fedcoin."

But in October, China began field-testing its own cryptocurrency. However, China's digital currency is different from Bitcoin in that it is issued and controlled by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank.

The cities of Shenzhen and Chengdu have made China's digital renminbi ("dollar") available to its citizens. In its test run, Shenzhen gave away about $1.5 million worth of the digital currency to 50,000 people. The currency can be spent at thousands of retailers, including local supermarkets and pharmacies.

Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, is quoted in last Sunday's China Finance magazine. "We must build an independent and high-quality financial infrastructure … quicken the pace of research and development of the central bank digital currency, and ensure that pilot tests show [the digital currency] is controllable and safeguards the security of payments."

According to Dion Rabouin, a reporter for Axios, "The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the world's move away from paper money and producing the world's first central bank digital currency could put China in the driver's seat to steer the future of payments and currency."

Sources: Axios, Finance.sina.com, CNBC