China’s Huawei recently unveiled its new operating system called HarmonyOS Next to power its hardware devices. Among other upgrades, HarmonyOS Next reportedly comes with support for China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). Huawei aims to drive widespread adoption of the digital currency. The brand is among the top smartphone brands in China and is said to cater to around a billion users – potentially enabling broad access to the e-CNY and accelerating its reach to the masses. The e-CNY is also known as the digital renminbi (RMB).
China has been accelerating its efforts to develop and test its CBDC. By representing fiat currency on blockchain, CBDC transactions are recorded on blockchain networks, creating a permanent and immutable ledger. This enhances the transparency and reliability of CBDC transactions.
Huawei device users in China will not be required to install the CBDC app released by the authorities there, a report by CoinTelegraph said citing reports by local Chinese publications. This integration is further expected to ramp up financial monitoring that is overseen by the People’s Bank of China.
In April 2022, the country made its CBDC trials available in 23 cities including Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen to enable residents in these cities to pay for goods and services with the e-CNY.
In July 2023, China started testing offline payments through the e-CNY to cater to merchants and citizens residing in regions of low web connectivity. The same year in November, the Standard Chartered bank entered China’s CBDC trials.
A recent survey on CBDCs by the CFA Institute had said that emerging markets like India and China have found a broader acceptance for CBDCs among other Asia-Pacific regions. The report noted that 70 percent of users surveyed in China favoured the launch of the CBDC.
Huawei’s involvement in China’s Web3 ecosystem has been in alignment with the stance of the country’s government.
While the tech giant is showing support for the e-CNY CBDC, it recently also joined a newly formed organisation in China that aims to set standards for Web3 technologies like Metaverse and NFTs. Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, remain banned in China since 2021.
