Using China’s digital currency could be just like using Apple Pay

In addition to QR codes, the digital yuan app might also use NFC, allowing people to pay with a tap of their phone

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NFC used to be found only in more expensive smartphones, making QR codes a more popular means of mobile payments in China. (Picture: Shutterstock)

Masha Borak

Published: 7:35pm, 29 Apr 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

China is aiming to become the first country to roll out its own digital currency. But it looks like actually using the new digital yuan could look a lot like other popular mobile payment apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Dong Ximiao, a research fellow at the National Institution for Finance and Development, explained in an interview with CCTV on Monday how China’s long-awaited sovereign digital currency will work. Transactions could be made through NFC on smartphones, the same technology used by Apple, Google, Samsung and others to allow people to pay by waving their phones at a special terminal.

“The digital currency can be conveniently used without the internet,” Dong said. “Users can make transactions or payments by bringing two mobile phones with electronic wallets close to each other.”

Dong’s explanation sounds similar to how many digital wallets work these days. Users can exchange money in their bank accounts for the digital currency, which is then deposited in an electronic wallet, Dong said.

A screenshot purportedly showing an electronic wallet app for China’s digital yuan went viral on Chinese social media in April. (Picture: Handout)

In mid-April, a screenshot of the user interface of an app for the digital currency started circulating online. The image purportedly showed a test version of a mobile app developed by one of China’s largest state-owned banks, the Agricultural Bank of China.

The interface looks a lot like two popular mobile payment solutions in China: Alipay and WeChat Pay. It includes a function called “touch and touch,” which allows two people to simply touch their mobile phones together to make a transfer.