The CoinGeek Pulse: Episode 16

China breaks in its digital yuan to residents of Shenzhen in the hopes of going full throttle towards a cashless society.

In the latest update to the People’s Bank of China digital yuan test runs, Shenzhen attracted nearly two million citizens for its virtual yuan red packet giveaway—a fresh approach from the traditional giving of red packets in the country. 

This is the first time the Central bank has involved the general public to run its test of the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP)—the nation’s currency digital version.

The tech hub city announced that a lottery of DCEP would take place to test and promote the central bank-backed digital currency and to improve its functionality. Nearly 2 million applied and yet only 2.1% of applicants were successful.

According to local authorities, the distribution of 50,000 digital red packets began Monday. Each red packet contains 200 yuan or $30. Recipients are required to open an e-wallet thru the official Digital Renminbi App to use their digital yuan. They can make purchases at over three thousand designated shops in Luohu District until Oct. 18.

Shenzhen is the latest city to test and promote its sovereign digital currency to its citizens. Reports say that it will soon roll out in other regions in the country, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, and the Greater Bay Area. The country wants to prioritize testing DCEP in wealthier cities ahead of the rest.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest economies are coming together to set standards for sovereign digital currencies and to establish regulatory frameworks with international finance authorities.

A report on Tuesday released by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) said the Group of Twenty (G20) is working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies.

The report also includes high-level recommendations for the effective regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoins (GSC). These include the completion of international standard-setting work by December 2021. The creation of regulatory and oversight approaches for GSC arrangements are expected to enhance cross-border payments commissioned by the G20.

In other news, it looks like tokens are about to explode on Bitcoin SV.

Tokenized CEO and Founder James Belding recently did an online demonstration of the company’s smart management platform at a Bitcoin Association webinar.

In this presentation, Belding provided an in depth look at the long awaited solution. This included the Slack inspired interface –with headings for balances, activity, treasury, contracts and relationships. The app also has the ability to send and receive any kind of asset.

Belding also demonstrated an on-chain atomic swap—allowing a user to send one kind of token while the receiver gets another.

Tokenized is building interfaces that make it easy and safe for users to issue, manage and trade security tokens on the blockchain even without any technical expertise.

The Tokenized app is due for release in November.

Watch James Belding’s presentation at CoinGeek Live, Smart Contracts & Tokens on Bitcoin SV: Going Mainstream.