People's Bank of China's digital currency research department signs agreement with Huawei

The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China recently signed an agreement with the multinational technology company Huawei to conduct "financial technology research."

People's Bank of China (PBoC) officially established a digital currency research institute in January 2017, focusing on areas such as blockchain and financial technology. After five years of research and development, they are preparing to launch their digital currency, the CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), in the near future.

The news was officially announced through Huawei's official WeChat account, mentioning a "strategic cooperation" agreement with the financial technology research department of the People's Bank of China. However, neither Huawei nor the central bank mentioned the motivation behind the collaboration.

Prior to this, Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei openly supported China's development of an internal cryptocurrency. He stated:

"China has the capability to issue such currency, why wait for Libra? A country's strength should be greater than that of an internet company."

Additionally, Huawei is actively deploying blockchain solutions to help companies reduce costs and deploy blockchain applications in a large-scale, cost-effective manner.

The director of the China Digital Currency Research Institute, who is also in charge of China's central bank digital currency CBDC, Mu Changchun, pointed out:

"The design of China's digital currency will be similar to Facebook's Libra project. China's cryptocurrency will also be usable on major payment platforms like WeChat and Alipay."

According to previous reports by ABM, Xi Jinping recently expressed his views on blockchain, claiming that China will become a major supporter of global blockchain technology and will integrate blockchain technology throughout its economic development process.

Following Xi Jinping's positive stance on blockchain, China is swiftly embracing blockchain technology as mainstream and is set to pass the "Crypto Law" in January next year.

China's active adoption of cryptocurrencies seems to signal global financial leaders to accept China's version of cryptocurrencies.

However, Dovey Wan, founder of the venture capital firm Primitive Crypto, believes that China's blockchain initiative is significant but may have been exaggerated. She stated:

"China's 'National Blockchain Initiative,' whether it eventually becomes the digital renminbi or not, is not a scam. It will become a widely used and highly practical new form of financial infrastructure. There will be an interesting distinction between existing public chains and 'blockchains with Chinese characteristics.'

Further Reading

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