China’s new digital yuan or e-CNY App by the #PBOC earns 5 stars out of five in my review.
Hey the new digital yuan app is simply wonderful, and it’s not just me saying it. The app scored a 4.4 out of 5 in China’s Apple app store!
The question that needs to be answered with the e-CNY app is: “Does it bring anything new to the game?
Alipay and WeChat Pay are already great apps, if the e-CNY is going to be accepted it’s got to bring something to the table.
I was quite surprised and frankly, it does!
Watch the video to see the app at work but here are what I think are the major new features that will be important enough that they’ll get some to change.
1) UNLIMITED spending limits! This is perhaps the most mind-blowing feature but according to the PBOC documentation, an e-CNY wallet that fulfills the highest level of KYC will have “unlimited” spending! Want to buy $100k of stock? The e-CNY can do it. (See caveats in video.) Alipay personal accounts top out around RMB 20,000.
2) Selectable limits: A great feature of the app is the ability to set spending limits not just on the entire account but on all of the sub-wallets! This is great since you can budget through the app. A nice feature for money management that the payment platforms don’t have.
3) Anonymity: The PBOC set the anonymous spending limit at RMB 2000, that’s approximately $300. This means that under RMB 2000 your payments are anonymous! The PBOC doesn’t know and doesn’t care. There is no equivalent for the payment platforms or western credit cards! Only cash compares!
Will this make Alipay and WeChat pay obsolete? No way no how!
I think of these payment systems as symbiotic and the e-CNY will draw users who want specific features, or those who work for companies that begin paying in e-CNY.
Whether you like or dislike the e-CNY the app is very slick and people will use it. It does a great job of aggregating your bank accounts and puts all your e-CNY wallets in one place. For convenience it’s a great start.
One final thought. This is just one wallet, the PBOC version. There will be bank wallets, telecom wallets, all sorts of wallets in what I have named the “wallet wars.”
All of these wallets want your business and many will be trying to build new platforms. Think of wallets as being “personalized” with features and uses that match the user a big step forward for consumers.
So 5 stars for #PBOC’s e-CNY app but competition is coming!
The video link below can be shared and offers a higher resolution and more flexible viewing expreience:
https://watch.mmhmm.app/en-US/z_H3sDX3cvbeXjoOSAD18o
