The People’s Bank of China made an announcement at a conference on digital currency that they plan to issue their own digital currency “as soon as possible”.
In 2014, the PBOC had set up a team to work on creating a homegrown digital currency and to study experiences in China and abroad.
Two years later, the team “has made progress on technology, legal issues, and the impact on financial systems,” Xinhua said.
Charlie Custer, a tech writer in Asia said “Chinese consumers are historically conservative about their savings, and dumping lots of money into a brand-new wholly-abstract digital currency could be a tough sell, even for China’s Central Bank.”
PBOC claims that a digital currency is cheaper (because it reduces the need to print money), makes trading and financial transactions easier, and also helps cut down on money laundering and tax evasion.