China will use national cryptocurrency to pay for travel

The Chinese government has started implementing plans to expand the use of the national cryptocurrency — CBDC is already used to pay for public transportation.

As it became known, the second round of the pilot program to test the digital yuan began on Tuesday. From now on, Guangzhou residents will be able to pay CBDC fares on ten routes. To use the new service, city residents need to install the e-CNY app, top up their account, and scan the QR code in the bus.

Obviously, the Chinese government has paid attention to the popularity of the digital yuan among the population. Thus, according to the Central Bank, as of May 31, 2022, the Chinese have made more than 264 million transactions in digital yuan, with a total volume of more than 83 billion yuan (approximately $ 12.3 billion). Recently, Zou Lan, Director of the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Department, emphasized that China is ready to scale up the use of the digital yuan.

Interestingly, while China is expanding the use of CBDC, Japan has announced the abandonment of plans to create its own cryptocurrency. According to the Central Bank of Japan, cryptocurrencies are not a priority area for the development of the country’s domestic and foreign economy.