Will China's Digital Yuan Apps Push the Digital Dollar Ahead?

Bitcoin has survived China's "crypto-purge."

Bitcoin mining has totally recovered from the Chinese crypto crackdown that took more than half the world’s miners offline virtually overnight... The recovery is measured by looking at hashrate, an industry term used to describe the computing power of all miners in the bitcoin network. ...data from Blockchain.com shows that the network has completely pared back those loses, up about 113% in five months.

But now, China raised the stakes by launching the digital yuan wallet apps for Android and iOS mobile devices.

Bitcoin is out of the woods. Comparing the digital yuan with any cryptocurrency is even more pointless than comparing apples and oranges. A quick reminder of why that's the case:

...this E-Yuan is not like a digital crypto currency such as Bitcoin but rather this is the digital version of Yuan which is to be issued and controlled by China’s central bank.

That's right. The terms "controlled" and "centralized" can't be found in any crypto vocabulary. So, you can forget about privacy too.

The Deutsche Bank says it will have “controlled anonymity,” meaning users can choose to conceal their identities from counterparties, but it will still let the authorities monitor transactions for illegal activities like money laundering.

Plain and simple, the Chinese authorities will be able to track all transactions using digital yuan at any given moment. So, who in their right crypto mind would want to use this "cryptocurrency oxymoron?" More importantly, why is China pushing its digital currency "agenda" so hard? Especially when we take into consideration that "digital payment apps like WeChat and AliPay already have a strong foothold in China, with around nine in 10 Chinese people saying they used either app within the past year. It might seem unlikely for the Chinese to want to switch over to the digital yuan, but China has been working hard to promote it."

It seems that the Chinese digital dragon has a bigger fish (to try) to fry.

USD vs. CNY: Digital Currencies War - Olympics Edition

China has been experimenting with the digital yuan, or renminbi, since 2014, launched pilot projects in four major cities in 2019 and last November expanded to six additional cities including the financial hub of Shanghai.

Talking about long-term planning and preparations.

Bloomberg even describes how some banks at the event demonstrated how foreigners could sign up for an e-CNY account using their passport and phone number, as well as convert foreign currency to e-CNY. As we get closer to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, this may be a way for China to leverage the currency as a way for visitors to easily make payments.

China may have the best interests of the Winter Olympics visitors in mind to make their time enjoyable and payments as simple as possible. On the other hand, China doesn't hesitate to twist some of the most popular brand arms the ensure the supremacy of its digital currency.

The Financial Times reported in October that the Chinese government is pressuring McDonald’s MCD, -0.23% to expand the number of locations at which it accepts digital yuan for payment, beyond the 270 locations in Shanghai where it already does. The FT also cited a source familiar with the situation that Nike NKE, -0.58% and Visa V, 0.57% are being pressured by the government to integrate the digital yuan into their operations.

What's happening in the USA at the same time? The focus is on the political implications of boycotting the Bejing Olympics rather than the future economic consequences. The global foreign trade is in the same-old-same-old mode. Meaning, the USD is still the predominant international invoicing currency. But, for how long after the latest China's digital "moves?"

“China wants to eliminate that process,” Dharmapalan told MarketWatch. “Retailers outside of China will be able to convert to digital renminbi without ever having to run to a bank to do it. With China being the supplier of the world, essentially, they’d love for everything to be bought and sold as soon as possible in renminbi.” (Jonathan Dharmapalan, CEO of eCurrency)

The digital dollar still has a long way to go ahead of it. The first place to pay a visit is the US Congress divided over need for a CBDC digital dollar.

Then, there are some tech "hiccups" the digital dollar has to deal with. Did you know that The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has been working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the past 18 months to develop open-source code that would enable private parties to begin pilot projects that could demonstrate a digital dollar’s utility?

Apparently, we got stuck between "Democrats’ desire to see the Fed and other financial regulators take on issues ranging from climate change to workforce diversity and Republicans’ fears that a digital dollar could destabilize the domestic banking industry."

Hey, Digital Dollar, It's Now or Never!

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will start in one month. Unfortunately, the good old Olympics Spirit already got the law row seats. And, the gold medal in the digital currencies category already has the digital yuan symbol on it. The only question is whether or not is going to be recognized and accepted by the global economy and trade?

The digital dollar's clock is ticking. It seems that's easier to attain bipartisan support and funding for a time machine project than the digital dollar's "finishing touches."

You, on the other hand, still have enough time to vote for your favorite stories in the Business, Entrepreneur, and Entrepreneurship categories for this year's Noonies Awards.