(Rejected Double up) E-commerce Giant JD.com To Assist China’s Central Bank Build Mobile Apps for Digital Currency Project

The People’s Bank of China has partnered with e-commerce giant JD.com to develop mobile apps and infrastructure that would support the digital yuan project. JD is not the first firm announced to be working with the nation’s central bank on the digital currency, but this ideal has been described in more specific terms.

The announcement is the newest example of China’s central bank working with commercial enterprises on the national digital currency project.

JD.com is among the listed Fortune Global 500 companies and the major online retailer rival to Tencent and Alibaba in China.

JD.com To Help Build Digital Yuan Ecosystem

According to the news sources, JD.com is helping the Central Bank develop online and offline functionalities of the product and build a digital wallet that are compatible with the forthcoming national digital currency. Both institutions will work together to build mobile apps and blockchain platforms for the anticipated Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The mobile apps will support China’s digital money and will be integrated with existing services and platforms and services of JD Group. The digital money is expected to be performed as cash in the country, being utilized for retail payments through mobile apps.

The current work on the pilot project focuses on testing digital currency payments for catering, retail, card recharge, transportation, and other petty payments areas that are similar to the use cases of electronic payment experience and payment platforms.

China’s State-Run Banks Testing CBDC digital wallet

China’s CBDC has been in development since 2014, and currently, four major state-run commercial banks in the country are undertaking large-scale internal testing of the digital yuan wallet app, where users can transfer money, make payments, withdraw money, and top up accounts after registering with their mobile phone numbers.

Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of China are piloting the digital yuan with the People’s Bank of China in major cities, including Shenzhen. The banks are also testing cases where users can transfer money without the internet.

Employees of some of China’s leading state-run banks have also already begun using the national digital currency to pay bills and make transfers.

The central bank has reiterated that the DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment) will not replace cash in circulation in the form of coins and notes. The CBDC is tilting toward the digitalization of existing cash, which is controlled by the central bank, and reaches people through the existing banking system.

Instead of offering an alternative to cash (yuan), China’s sovereign digital currency will be a more competitor to existing payment services, including WeChat Pay and Alipay, which so far have dominated mobile payments in China.