China is one of the world’s leading countries for cashless payment as a report in March 2020, indicated that 83 percent of transactions within are through mobile payment apps, the highest cashless adoption rate for a country in the entire globe. To put into perspective, China has a staggering figure of 776 million mobile cashless payment users, which is more than all population in the European continent combined.

Thus, it is no surprise that the country’s central bank, the Bank of China, is currently conducting a pilot project of Digital RMB, to fully replace the RMB paper notes. The Digital RMB is an app available to download in China via the iOS App Store or Android app stores in the country, and the app even supports devices as old as Android 5 Lollipop.

Recently, the well-renowned Chinese tech media site, ITHome, reported the Digital RMB app (pilot version) has received several welcomed quality-of-life software improvements. The latest version of the app is 1.0.9.0, and is now available on iOS and Android from today onwards. The Digital RMB app changelog is as follows:

• Smaller overall app size
• Faster startup times
• Faster load times
• Software Improvements on PIN-less Biometric Transactions 
• Upgraded from a 32-bit application to a 64-bit application

The Digital RMB (Pilot Version) app is an official legal digital currency that is just like your normal RMB paper notes. China is looking forward to transitioning to Digital RMB as the country’s official currency in the future. 

The app allows users to create wallets within the app, send and request currency within the app, and allow seamless transactions via QR codes, whether it be sending money to friends or family, or paying for goods and services to a business. And since Digital RMB is set to be the future official currency, merchants in the future must all be using the Digital RMB if they want to earn officially legal money.

However, the Digital RMB is still within its pilot testing stages. But earlier in March 2022, the Bank of China did announce the good news that the Digital RMB project will be expanded to more cities within the country like Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Fuzhou and Xiamen in the near future. The institution also announced that Beijing and Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province will be converted into pilot cities for the Digital RMB pilot project as well after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics are completed.

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The post China’s Cashless Currency – Digital RMB Receives New Update: Faster Load Times, 64-bit Upgrade appeared first on Gizmochina.

The Xiaomi Sichuan private bank will focus on serving individual consumers, small and medium-sized companies, as well as those engaged in the agricultural sector. One of the major investors is New Hope Group, China’s largest animal-feed producer and it holds a 30 percent stake in the company while Xiaomi controls a 29.5% stake via its subsidiary.

The business strategy seems to be tied around relying on New Hope’s sprawling agricultural presence and Xiaomi’s roughly 200 million users, which would enable the Xiaomi Sichuan private bank offer better financial services.

According to a recent Weibo post by Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun, the joint venture bank will also offer internet banking services. This could give Xiaomi an edge over its rival in the ever increasing race to offer online financial payment services by China’s mobile phone companies. Xiaomi recently launched  the Xiaomi Wallet, an internet money-market fund service and is working on its Mi Pay, a payment platform with a wide range of services.The six-year old innovative start up is also said to be building an ecosystem where internet financial services will play a key role in connecting partners and sustaining users. Internet heavyweight – Alibaba also has its own payment platform – AliPay as well as Tencent with its own TenPay.

Read More: Xiaomi Says MI Pay will Support Credit & Debit Cards, NFC & Bus card

Already the bank has got its key officials in place and a board has been put in place with them having their inaugural meeting. This no doubt marks the beginning of a new direction of internet banking. Lei Jun also hints that the bank will be opening its doors to customers soon.

source via

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