Through several years of development, the application of E-CNY has been continuously implemented. From top-level design to policy support, E-CNY is accelerating. Not long ago, the news of using E-CNY to pay wages once again sparked people's attention to E-CNY.

Nowadays, has the E-CNY entered the homes of ordinary people? What further efforts are needed to achieve the "last mile" of using E-CNY? In the middle of May, a reporter from Science and Technology Daily interviewed relevant experts on these issues.

E-CNY is the legal tender in digital form

E-CNY is the legal tender in digital form issued by the People's Bank of China. It integrates users' electronic deposit, mobile banking, online payment and other business functions with digital technology, and is operated by designated operating institutions and converted to the public. Based on the broad account system, it supports the loose coupling function of bank accounts.

What are the similarities and differences between E-CNY and paper currency, WeChat, Alipay and other payment methods, and what are the advantages in terms of distribution, storage, use and other public concerns?

Regarding this, Yan Huaizhi, the director of the Institute of Network and Security at Beijing Institute of Technology, introduced to a reporter from Science and Technology Daily that the similarities between E-CNY, paper currency, and coins are also the key differences between E-CNY and other virtual currencies. E-CNY is a legal tender in digital form, equivalent to paper currency and coins, with value characteristics and legal compensation. It belongs to cash in circulation and therefore does not bear interest. E-CNY, paper currency, and coins will coexist for a long time.

The main difference among E-CNY, paper currency and coins lies in the "virtual" and "real" differences in terms of issuance and usage. E-CNY supports controllable anonymity and can be issued and used in the circulation through networks and information systems. Although paper currency and coins are also legal tender, they cannot be issued and used in the circulation through networks and information systems. Meanwhile, compared to paper currency and coins, E-CNY has advantages such as fast and convenient payment, automatic settlement, easy access and operation, and high security.

"E-CNY is totally different from WeChat and Alipay, so there is no competition," said Yan Huaizhi.

In addition, he also introduced that WeChat and Alipay are not money in themselves, but financial infrastructure used to "hold money", which can be easily understood as "wallet", while E-CNY is a payment tool and "the content of wallet". Before the issuance of E-CNY, people could use WeChat and Alipay as "wallets" to make electronic payments, but the wallets contained commercial bank deposits. After the issuance of E-CNY, we can still use WeChat and Alipay to pay, but the wallet is full of digital currency.

To increase, enrich, and strengthen digital application scenarios

Currently, the usage scenarios of E-CNY are gradually increasing. Overall, how is the promotion of E-CNY?

At the end of 2019, China's E-CNY officially made its debut. At present, E-CNY is accelerating its integration into various fields of people's clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Since the beginning of this year alone, many regions in China have continuously introduced policy measures to strengthen the application of E-CNY. In March, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province issued the Pilot Work Plan for Deepening the Promotion of E-CNY in the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, proposing 10 specific measures to comprehensively improve E-CNY acceptance environment in the Yiwu market, promote a significant increase in transaction scale, and enrich the application scenarios of digital trade. On April 21st, the Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau of Changshu City and the Finance Bureau of Changshu City in Jiangsu Province issued a Notice on the Implementation of Full Payment of Wages in E-CNY. It was proposed that starting from May, in order to accelerate the pilot work of RMB in the city, full payment of wages in E-CNY will be implemented for civil servants (including public officials), public institutions, and personnel of state-owned assets units at all levels in the city.

After four years of development, E-CNY has continuously expanded its application models and scenarios, and its own advantages have emerged.

However, the landing speed of E-CNY is still slightly slow, and there is still significant room for improvement in transaction scale.

According to data, as of the end of 2022, the number of E-CNY personal wallets opened in Shenzhen has reached 28.4075 million, but the cumulative transaction amount is only 37.685 billion Chinese yuan. Even in cities such as Changsha, Xi'an, and Chongqing, the cumulative transaction limit of E-CNY is less than 10 billion Chinese yuan.

What further efforts are needed to break through the "last mile" of using E-CNY and effectively increase transaction scale? Yan Huaizhi frankly stated that to achieve this goal, it is essentially necessary to create a good E-CNY ecosystem. "Specifically, the first thing to do is to increase, enrich and strengthen the digital application scenarios, enhance the cooperation with WeChat, Alipay and other third-party payment platforms, and increase the use scenarios and frequency of E-CNY in the daily life of the public. In addition, we need to increase the publicity and promotion of the use of E-CNY, publicize the functions and use methods of E-CNY to the public through science popularization, advertising and other forms, and expand pilot promotion.” Yan Huaizhi suggested.