China Cashless Society – Digital Currency

Gold-Backed Digital RMB.. and all that.. Well.. actually.. just in case you missed it.. China is already a cashless society – has been for some time now.. I mean, seriously.. we just don’t use cash any more.. even me!

I can walk up the street to Grandma’s mobile veg emporium.. (You know, the one on the corner of Jinji Lu, YaoShan, on the pavement – just a few yards from the main fruit and veg stalls 😉 and buy all my fresh locally grown fruit and veg – totally without cash..

Buying a snack in Da Xu old town using WeChat pay

No notes, no coins – straightforward simple transaction with my smartphone and the world’s most awesome appWeChat! Yeah Ni-ni – Grandma (pronounce i as in ‘eye’) has it too. It’s so simple, so secure, so easy. Scan and go!

But here’s the thing: I was always totally ‘old school’ ‘I-like-my-cash-in-my-pocket’ on this – I really did prefer to ‘hold cash’.. seriously.. and now.. well.. it just happened, quite organically, without struggle or any ‘alarm bells’ going off in my head about some some huge conspiracy thing either..

Er Shi Kuai 20 RMB
er shi kuai 20 RMB – an antique?

I’ve had this ‘er shi kuai’ 20 RenMinBi note with a lovely image of *Yangshuo knocking around in my pockets for months now.. I simply don’t use cash anymore.. it just happened.. (* it is lovely too, been there 🙂

—Barrie

But let’s ponder this for a moment: In Shenzhen, China launched a trial of Digital RMB: What are the wider and deeper implications of this? We’ll be joining up some dots.. Digital CurrencyGold-Backed RMB – Demise of the Petro-Dollar system? Probably.

Shenzhen to give out 10 million yuan ‘gift money’ in digital RMBUpdated 16:34, 09-Oct-2020 CGTN

Luohu District, Shenzhen, China. /VCG

Shenzhen said it is launching a pilot program with the Chinese central bank to distribute a total of 10 million yuan in digital RMB to the public to stimulate consumption and domestic demand as well as to conduct a routine test of the digital currency.

The pilot will be funded by Shenzhen’s Luohu District, and the money will be distributed equally to 50,000 recipients through lottery. Residents can use the money at 3,389 designated merchants, including restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, metro stations, department stores, Didi, and other businesses in Luohu District within next week.

It is the latest move to further expand pilot run of digital RMB in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, following trials in four cities: Xiongan New Area in north China’s Hebei Province, Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, Suzhou in east China’s Jiangsu Province and Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.’
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-09/Shenzhen-to-give-out-10-million-yuan-gift-money-in-digital-RMB-UrAgHXfiso/index.html

— cgtn.com/news/2020-10-09/Shenzhen-to-give-out-10-million-yuan-gift-money

‘From: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-10-09/Shenzhen-to-give-out-10-million-yuan-gift-money-in-digital-RMB-UrAgHXfiso/index.html

p.s. Did you hear the one about the 6G satellite yet? 😉

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