China's Central Bank comments on Bitcoin and digital Yuan relationship

 

Wang Xin, director of the China Central Bank Research Bureau, said interest in the digital yuan project was growing. A central bank official explained that one of the things that triggered this could be the rise in the price of Bitcoin.

China is one of the first to act in this area with its digital central bank money (CBDC), which it began developing in 2014. The Central Bank, which distributed $ 1.5 million of digital yuan for testing purposes in Beijing in February, announced that the continuation of these tests would come.

Bitcoin's rise may have affected

“Everyone closely follows the digital Yuan, " Wang Xin, a central bank official, told CNBC."the interest in the project is growing," he said.

One of the reasons for this may be the increase in the number of countries trying to make their own digital money, he said. In recent months, countries such as Turkey, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom have started various works for CBDC.

Another reason people are becoming interested in the digital yuan, according to Wang, may be the rise in the price of Bitcoin. The digital yuan is a departure from Bitcoin in its decentralized and blockchain-based aspects.

China had decided to close the country's bitcoin exchanges in 2017.

Digital yuan tests to continue

China, which has so far conducted tests in Beijing as well as cities such as Shenzhen and Chengdu, said the work would continue. Wang said the “scale” of publicly conducted tests would grow.

China's Central Bank aims to train citizens to use the digital yuan, which is not yet clear when it will be completed.