Chinese authorities to distribute digital yuan to population for the first time

As part of testing the People's Bank cryptocurrency, 50 thousand residents of Shenzhen will receive 200 yuan for free,which can be spent within six days.

The Shenzhen authorities will conduct a pilot program inwithin which 10 million yuan (about $ 1.5 million at the current exchange rate) will be distributed as part of the testing of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) cryptocurrency. The project will be financed by the Luohu County Administration, according to the Chinese newspaper Sina Finance.

10 million yuan will be distributed in the formatlottery, the winners will be 50 thousand people. The registration process is open from October 9 to October 11, and the lottery will be run by the Shenzhen Municipal Cyberspace Administration. To participate, you must provide information about your name, ID-card and mobile phone number.

Winners will be able to activate the walletregistered with Cina Construction Bank, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank, or Agricultural; Bank of China with 200 yuan (roughly $ 30) digital currency. They can be spent from 12 to 18 October at one of the 3,389 participating outlets. The list is available on the lottery website.

The money received in this way cannot be transferred to another person or withdrawn to a bank account. Unspent funds will be debited from wallets after October 18th.

Earlier, the Central Bank of China reported that it processed transactionsby 1.1 billion yuan ($ 162 million) as part of testing the digital currency. The deputy chairman of the regulator Fan Yifei announced this at the Sibos 2020 conference, organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), SCMP reports.

The digital yuan is being tested in major cities including Shenzhen and Xiong'an. The national cryptocurrency will be used in the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing.

This is not the first time that the country's authorities are distributingthe population of digital currency. In December 2019, Venezuela held a free giveaway of its petro cryptocurrency. To take part in the airdrop, it was enough to download a special application and register your account and wallet in it.

Each new user received 0.5 petro,which at that time was about $ 30. At the same time, only some of the population could receive cryptocurrency - pensioners, civil servants, the military, etc. They could exchange their petros for bolivars and withdraw them to a bank account.

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