China gets first glimpse at sovereign digital currency after screenshot leaks online

A screenshot of China’s sovereign digital currency has emerged online, offering a rare look into the development of Beijing’s digital yuan

Testing of the currency’s mobile app has reportedly been done over several months at China’s state-owned banks, although there is no official timetable for launch

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A screenshot circulating online purportedly showing a test version of China's sovereign digital currency. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:54pm, 15 Apr 2020Updated: 4:56pm, 21 May 2020

A screenshot of the user interface for China’s long-awaited sovereign digital currency has begun circulating on the Chinese internet, fanning speculation that the People’s Bank of China is a step closer to an official launch.

The image, which has been shared extensively on Chinese social media, is purportedly from a test version of a mobile app developed by one of China’s largest state-owned banks, the Agricultural Bank of China, for a small group of internal users to experiment with the virtual currency.

The Digital Currency Research Institute, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) unit which oversees development of the project, declined to comment on the screenshot, which is unlikely to show the final version of the currency.

Neither China’s central bank or the Agricultural Bank of China have released information about the mobile app.

China is the first major economy to explore launching its own digital currency, which will be tightly controlled by the PBOC rather than operating on a decentralised system that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and does not require administration from a central authority.

Testing of the sovereign digital currency has been going on for several months at China’s state-owned banks, a source told the South China Morning Post.