People's Daily Online, Beijing, August 17 (Prince Zhang Guigui, Hou Zhoujing, practises Zodiac Congcong) The Ministry of Commerce recently issued the Overall Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Pilot Program of Innovative Development of Service Trade on its official website. It is mentioned in Article 93 of the "Pilot Tasks, Specific Measures and Division of Responsibilities for Comprehensively Deepening the Innovative Development of Service Trade" that digital RMB pilot projects should be carried out in Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area and pilot areas in the central and western regions that meet the conditions. The People's Bank of China formulates policy guarantee measures; First, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiong'an New Area and other places as well as relevant departments of the future Winter Olympics scene will assist in promoting, and then expand to other regions as appropriate. The pilot areas for comprehensive deepening include 28 provinces and cities (regions) including Beijing.

As a "new thing", the digital RMB has attracted the attention of all parties since its appearance. How will digital RMB affect our lives? What is the impact on RMB internationalization? What problems should we pay attention to in popularization? The reporter of People's Daily Powerful Forum interviewed relevant experts.

Rich usage scenarios of digital currency

"Digital currency is an uncontrolled and digital currency, which is usually issued and managed by developers and accepted and used by members of specific virtual communities." Liu Rong, Dean of the School of Finance and Taxation of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, said that digital currency has the characteristics and advantages of low transaction costs, fast transaction speed and fixed number of currencies.

"From a global perspective, digital currency is mainly divided into private digital currency and legal digital currency." Liu Yushu, Director of Macro Research Department of Chongyang Institute of Finance, Renmin University of China, said that private digital currency can be divided into two forms: encryption or non encryption, centralization and decentralization. For example, Bitcoin is a decentralized crypto virtual currency; Digital RMB (DC/EP for short) developed in China is the digital form of paper currency, which is the legal digital currency launched by the Central Bank.

The use scenarios of digital currency are becoming more and more abundant, which makes its user acceptance grow continuously. The use of digital currency has covered various scenarios such as shopping consumption, wage payment, transportation, travel, takeout settlement and tuition payment. In general, the number of users of digital currency still accounts for a small part, but its number is growing.

The first batch of pilot sites have multiple considerations

Pan Helin, Executive Dean of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said in an interview with the media that the choice of Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xiong'an New District and other places to carry out digital RMB pilot projects has political, economic and technological considerations.

In terms of politics, Shenzhen and Chengdu are sub provincial cities and national central cities. Xiong'an New Area is another new area with national significance after Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Shanghai Pudong New Area.

In terms of economy, these regions are all important economic cities in China, especially in the development of digital economy. They have the basic economic conditions to pilot digital RMB.

In terms of technology, Shenzhen has a mature financial technology ecology. Suzhou has taken the lead in developing an independent, safe and controllable underlying blockchain platform with corresponding technological maturity. Chengdu has created a domestic intellectual property pledge financing service platform based on blockchain technology. Xiong'an New Area has formed the basic idea of "digital Xiong'an" construction from the beginning, It can be said that they all have advanced and mature scientific and technological conditions.

Digital currency is different from Alipay

Liu Rong told reporters that the functions and attributes of digital currency are exactly the same as paper money, but its form is digital. The digital currency of the central bank is the digital replacement of paper money, that is, digital currency and electronic payment tool. It is easy to understand the concept of digital currency by regarding the digital currency issued by the central bank as digital RMB cash.

Liu Rong said: "The usage scenario of digital currency is like this: as long as you and I have DC/EP digital wallets on our mobile phones, neither needs the network. As long as the mobile phone has power, and two mobile phones touch, you can transfer the digital currency in one person's digital wallet to another person. Digital currency does not need to be bound to any bank account when making payment, unlike the bank card that is bound to WeChat and Alipay now. "

Liu Rong stressed that DC/EP is digital RMB cash, which is settled by the central bank and has legal compensation. DC/EP payment is the first tier of direct payment means, while Alipay and WeChat payment are third-party payment means, which are settled by commercial banks with money stored. There may be an extremely low probability of bankruptcy risk. As legal currency, DC/EP can realize offline payment with higher security and limit than Alipay and WeChat payment.

Digital currency helps RMB internationalization

"Digital currency is the strategic commanding height in the era of global digital economy, and also an important channel for RMB internationalization." Liu Yushu believes that with the continuous strengthening of China's national strength, the central bank's digital currency will play an important role, and may become an important anchor for stability of the international monetary system in the future.

First, it is conducive to building a global financial system in which finance and the real economy are harmonious and unified, and internal and external finance are harmonious. The central bank's digital currency is digital cash, which is endorsed by the national credit. In addition to bookkeeping, payment, value storage and other functions, it can achieve full data management of the currency life cycle. Compared with traditional currency, the use efficiency of currency will be further improved under the support of big data and artificial intelligence technology; The supervision of financial stability will be more timely and the control of financial and economic crises will be more precise.

Second, it is conducive to seizing the international market opportunities in the digital currency era. At present, the research and development work of digital currency of the central bank of China is in the leading position in the world. This time, the double-layer digital currency framework system proposed by the central bank has been recognized by most countries in the world. At present, the relevant pilot work is progressing rapidly. With the international integration of the digital economy, the technical and institutional advantages of DC/EP's payment, settlement and pricing functions in the international market will provide an effective starting point for RMB internationalization.

Third, it is conducive to strengthening the financial stickiness of regional cooperation. The convenience and reliability of DC/EP is conducive to the establishment of more diversified and flexible financial cooperation between China and neighboring countries; Digital RMB can provide a new impetus for promoting the construction of bilateral win-win investment with countries, jointly resisting systemic financial risks, and enhancing the vitality of regional capital markets.

Three aspects of digital currency popularization are worth noting

Zhang Huanbo, Deputy Director of the Institute of American and European Studies of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, believes that there are three aspects worth noting:

First of all, the digital RMB has national sovereign credit endorsement, so the currency value is more stable, and it is also conducive to tracking the flow of money, so as to combat corruption and other criminal acts. On the other hand, the country needs to increase the protection measures for personal information security.

Secondly, on the premise that domestic mobile payment has been relatively mature and widespread, digital RMB needs to further optimize the convenience and improve the public acceptance.

Finally, while promoting digital RMB, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of relevant infrastructure, not only to download applications for online transactions, but also to facilitate users' transactions in different use scenarios.  

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