Huawei’s new smartphone comes with digital yuan wallet
In Digital Fiat 1 we covered a digital Yuan giveaway – today we return to the topic of a Chinese Central Bank Digital Currency and consider a potential world first – a CBDC wallet pre-loaded on a smartphone.
Huawei’s latest range of smartphones will allow its users to store, send and receive China’s central bank digital currency.
One feature that sets the new range of Mate 40 phones apart—they are the first to come equipped with a digital currency wallet for the central bank’s digital yuan.
According to Huawei, the new smartphones’ integrated hardware wallet will allow the users to easily store, send and receive the anticipated digital yuan.
The wallet will support dual offline transactions, enabling the users to transfer funds by touching two devices together, even if both phones are offline.
It is not clear whether the digital yuan wallet will be available for all Mate 40 users or just for those in China.
The alliance between Huawei and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) with the digital yuan is strategic for both. For the PBoC, the partnership offers an easy and effective way to reach hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens who use Huawei smartphones.
The digital yuan wallet is the indication from China that the PBoC is getting closer to launching its CBDC.
The bank has conducted successful pilots in four major cities, with close to $300 million worth of the digital yuan already being exchanged.
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The Digital Fiat newsletter from Mike Chambers at Northey Point is an independent insight into the global development of CBDC’s – exploring developments in manageable chunks with a special focus on how a CBDC might emerge in the UK.