China’s central bank reveals physical CBDC card with dynamic QR codes

The People’s Bank of China has developed a digital yuan visual hard wallet, showcasing dynamic QR codes and offline payments.

China is moving forward with the adoption of its central bank digital currency — also known as the digital yuan or e-CNY — this time presenting a payment card similar to traditional debit or credit cards. According to a Global Times report on Nov. 7, the new technology is a physical visual card that allows its owners to conduct both online and offline payments.

The digital yuan card, first unveiled at the 18th Shenzhen International Financial Expo, supports both “tap-to-pay” and “scan-to-pay” options. With both features, merchants can accept card payments via POS terminals as well as scanners or mobile devices.

Per the report, the 1mm-thick also features a screen that displays both balance and payment details, as well as dynamic QR codes for payments. The digital yuan hard wallet first debuted in pilot applications in 2021 and has since integrated with the HarmonyOS system, allowing access without a dedicated app.

According to Chinese local news outlets, the wallet is already available for public transport payments in cities like Qingdao, in East China’s Shandong Province.

Despite the latest product release, the digital yuan has struggled to gain significant traction since its debut in 2020, with some officials preferring not to keep their money in the state-controlled digital currency due to concerns over the absence of interest and limited usability.

Beijing, in the meantime, is reportedly coercing local payment giants to lower their market share to create space for the digital yuan. As crypto.news reported earlier, Tencent Holdings is under pressure from Chinese regulators as the country’s mobile payment ecosystem is dominated by WeChat Pay and Ant Group’s Alipay, despite the presence of approximately 185 non-bank payment institutions.