China’s digital currency adds support for AliPay – the Alibaba payment app with over 700 million users
- Reference: 1620712688
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/11/digital_yuan_alipay/
- Source link:
China’s state-controlled on Monday reported that the Alipay app has added a feature allowing transactions in the Digital Yuan. Alipay has over 700 million monthly active users in China alone.
State-backed journal China Securities Journal [1]reports that functionality to link to a bank is currently limited, and that no merchants are listed. Nor has the feature been made available to all users. But the Journal reports that real-time, anonymous, transactions are possible.
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A second Journal [5]reports that an Ant-Group-backed bank has also linked accounts to the Digital Yuan, as have some other banks.
While news Ant’s banking interests have been favoured with access to the Digital Yuan suggests a thawing between Beijing and Alibaba’s fintech arm, news of Alipay integration suggests otherwise because the QR-code-based payments system has become all-but-ubiquitous across China. If Beijing wants to use the huge installed base of the Alipay app to boost the prospects of the Digital Yuan, that will happen.
And just like that, the digital currency could be closing in on a billion users.
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A decent number of those users could be outside the Middle Kingdom, because Alipay is already used by many merchants around the world.
[7]Bank of England ponders minting 'Britcoin' to sit alongside the Pound
[8]Japan tests digital currency, because all the cool kids are doing it already
[9]China’s found Huawei to spread its Digital Yuan
[10]China to test digital version of its currency at 2022 Winter Olympics
The Register has encountered differences in opinion over the matter of whether China wants the Digital Yuan to disrupt existing cross-border payment systems and maybe even the US Dollar’s role as the world’s default currency. Some argue that China is moving fast to establish a digital currency plus a supporting ecosystem, so will therefore have first mover advantage and attract those who wish to find new ways to move money around the world without involving the ticket-clippers in the payments system.
Others suggest the Digital Yuan is aimed at local consumption, in part because it will allow Chinese authorities to shrink the cash economy and make more transactions trackable. That’s an outcome China would like, as quashing corruption is a major theme of Beijing’s plans.
Beijing’s offered few hints about its strategic intentions but adding the Digital Yuan to more banks and Alipay shows it’s certainly happy for the digital currency to be more useful for more everyday transactions. ®
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[1] http://cs.com.cn/sylm/jsbd/202105/t20210510_6164989.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YJpVvu0BxxqwJUJFZfGAHQAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YJpVvu0BxxqwJUJFZfGAHQAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YJpVvu0BxxqwJUJFZfGAHQAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] http://www.cs.com.cn/yh/04/202105/t20210510_6164960.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YJpVvu0BxxqwJUJFZfGAHQAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] http://www.theregister.com/2021/04/20/britcoin_taskforce/
[8] http://www.theregister.com/2021/04/06/japan_pursues_digital_currency_because/
[9] http://www.theregister.com/2020/11/02/huawei_mate_40_digital_yuan/
[10] http://www.theregister.com/2020/05/27/china_plans_digital_yuan_trial_at_winter_olympics/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I suspect the majority of governments including China would like transactions to be nominally anonymous but accessible by themselves, in the same way they support end to end encryption.
After all it would be for our own good and those who have nothing to hide etc......
Opportunity
Does it inflate like other crypto? i.e. you are supposed to put assets into a worthless token to give it value, as miners are playing the "crypto lottery" to dilute your assets with free money to them? Their wins are really turning your assets into diluted assets. But hey, it will keep going up as long as more suckers can be found than withdrawer+miners.... not like all the other things before it, from junk bonds to tulips. Those were junk but crypto is totally different!
If it is a mined crypto, I'm not interested, that's just worthless junk for suckers. 200 junk assets and counting, an endless churn of bogus assets to lure suckers, "Buy our Bitcoin" then becomes "buy Etherium" becomes "buy Dogecoin", buy "Shitycoin", buy "madeupium", its the new winner!
https://coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/
But then again, a digital Yuan backed by the actual Yuan, is a different story.
@"China wants the Digital Yuan to disrupt existing cross-border payment systems and maybe even the US Dollar’s role as the world’s default currency. Some argue that China is moving fast to establish a digital currency plus a supporting ecosystem, so will therefore have first mover advantage and attract those who wish to find new ways to move money around the world without involving the ticket-clippers in the payments system."
Disrupt? IMHO they see it as an opportunity.
What do you want with a transacted currency? Instant, free reliable transfers. Nothing else. If you hold assets in that currency, you expect it will only inflate according to growth of that country so it holds its value too.
If you can deliver me that, I'll hold an account in that currency and pay bills using that account.
I live in Thailand mostly, I am use to going tap tap tap and instant transfer, no random shit from banks. The money arrives, the bill is paid, you can rely on it. I never give it a thought that the transfer won't go through. It creates all manner of trade opportunities simply because it works. I know that I can pay any bill here instantly and reliably without jumping through hoops. They know that they can accept bank transfers instantly and reliably from me. I can be on the phone, and the other person instantly gets the money and confirmation. But that only works inside Thailand, and via Promptpay to Singapore, other things like Bahtnet are insanely expensive (e.g. > 5% Thailand to Vietnam). It does not scale Asia wide.
There isn't an ASEAN wide, or ASIA wide transfer system. The nearest I've seen is the Chinese paying their bills via Alipay which is practically everywhere and apparently dirt cheap to Chinese people, and UnionPay, the ATM network that is supported everywhere, reliable and dirt cheap commissions, again Chinese. Works across the world, I usually travel with my UnionPay card whereas I'd once travel with a credit card.
I want what I have in Thailand, everywhere in the world, or at least in Asia. Instead, cheap reliable transfers underpinned by a real currency.
What about Euro?
I also deal with Europe, my god the simplest of things in Europe end up complicated just send a few stupid euros across a border! The EU let the OECD inject suspicion into every transaction, they let the bank inject delay and expense into the transfer. Euro is useless as a transaction currency as a result, even within the Euro zone itsel, and IBAN will never become the world payment system..
Visa, Mastercard as world payment system? Overpriced, overcomplicated unreliable only good for small amounts. Google Pay, Apple Pay? Unsupported, more like feature marketing for the handsets than a real transfer system, low value, small amounts.
I betcha the Chinese will deliver a cheap worldwide payment system, because they largely already do it for Chinese people, and their ATM network is solid. If its underpinned by RMB and China lets them leave asset in it, then it will become the defacto holding currency.
Maybe this coin is it, maybe this is Ant just promoting their Alipay. I don't have enough information yet, just I know what I need and what I don't need and can see the huge opportunity that exists there. The Chinese are not known for passing up opportunities.
So are these transactions "anonymous" or "trackable"? Opinions in the article differ and it makes quite a big difference in a police state. My guess is that they are trackable and that the state media lackeys at the Journal know it but are choosing to lie through their teeth.