The Central Bank of China’s (CBDC) Digital Currency – the digital yuan, or eCNY – has received an upgrade that provides smart contract functionality along with several newly announced use cases.
A smart contract function is being launched on the Meituan app, a Chinese app that offers retail and food delivery services, according to a Jan. 17 report by local cryptocurrency media outlet 8btc.
When Meituan users place an order and pay with their e-CNY wallet, the smart contract will trigger and search for keywords and purchased items in their order. If a user buys an item on the keyword list for that day, they will be entered into a draw to win a prize.
The gift is part of the “red envelope” known locally as Hongbao it contains 8,888 yuan, worth more than $1,300.
Hongbao A small package that is usually used to give gifts on Chinese New Year as a sign of good luck.
In December last year, the e-CNY wallet app introduced a feature for users to send digital red envelopes in an effort to boost adoption ahead of Chinese New Year on January 22.
The digital yuan sees new ways of being used
In addition to the latest developments, new uses for e-CNY have also been added over the past few days.
A January 16 report from the China Securities Journal said e-CNY was used to buy securities for the first time. Investors can also use CBDC to buy securities with the mobile app for Soochow Securities, a local brokerage firm.
The digital yuan wallet app also received an update with users now able to make contactless payments using their Android phone even if the device is without internet or power according to a January 11 Yicai Global report.
The new use for the digital yuan comes as China has struggled with CBDC adoption rates.
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A former official from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, even made a public admission in December 2022 saying that “the use of the digital yuan is low” and “not very active” and added, “the results are not good.”
On January 10, the PBOC included e-CNY in its currency circulation report for the first time showing that CBDC represents about 0.13% of the 10.47 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) in circulation by the end of 2022.