The Sichuan province capital of Chengdu is the latest Chinese city to stage trials for the issuance of the digital renminbi via a lottery for local residents.
The Chengdu municipal government has announced that the lottery will commence on 27 January, and involve the issuance of 50 million yuan in China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital renminbi, to winning participants, making it the biggest digital renminbi lottery held so far.
This 50 million yuan amount will include 30 million yuan issued by the Chengdu government for offline consumption, and 20 million yuan issued by e-commerce platform JD.com for online purchases.
In order to participate in the lottery local residents will need to register via the “Tianfushi Minyun” app (天府市民云), as well as select a bank at which to open a digital currency wallet.
China has held several lotteries for the issuance of the digital renminbi to local consumers, including a 10 million yuan lottery in Shenzhen’s Luohu district on the weekend of 10 – 11 October, a 20 million yuan lottery in Suzhou on 12 December to coincide with China’s Double 12 E-commerce Festival, and another 20 million yuan lottery in Shenzhen’s Futian district.
All of these lottery events involved the issuance of 200 yuan in CBDC to each individual winner via digital renminbi apps, which could subsequently be used for consumption purposes within a set timeframe.
