The Chinese central bank has increased the capabilities of its digital currency, the eCNY, by giving it smart contract capacity and a range of newly displayed applications.

Meituan, a Chinese app that provides retail and food delivery services, introduced a smart contract function on its platform, as reported by 8btc, a local cryptocurrency media outlet, on January 17.

Whenever someone using Meituan pays for an order with their digital Yuan wallet, a smart contract goes into action. This contract searches the order for certain keywords and items purchased. If an item in the order is contained on the list of words chosen for that day, the user is entered into a lottery with a chance to win a portion of the prize.

Winners will receive a portion of a 'red envelope' referred to as a hongbao, which contains 8,888 yuan, approximately $1,300.

Red envelopes traditionally given out during Chinese New Year are called 'Hongbao' and are seen as a symbol of luck and goodwill.

In order to increase its user base prior to Chinese New Year on the 22nd of January, the e-CNY wallet app released a function in December which allowed people to send digital red envelopes.

The e-CNY is finding new ways for used In addition to the recent progress, additional applications for the electronic Chinese Yuan have been implemented recently.

The China Securities Journal reported on January 16th that the e-CNY was utilized to purchase securities for the first time. Additionally, it was mentioned that individuals can also use the CBDC to purchase securities through a mobile application provided by Soochow Securities, a Chinese brokerage company.

According to a report from Yicai Global on January 11th, the digital yuan wallet app has been updated to allow users to make contactless payments using Android phones, even if their device is not connected to the internet or has no power.

As China has been facing challenges with getting people to widely use its digital currency, new ways to utilize the digital yuan are being explored.

In December, a past representative of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, openly acknowledged that the usage of the digital yuan has been minimal and inactive, stating that the outcomes are not satisfactory.

For the first time, on January 10th, the People's Bank of China included e-CNY in their reports on currency circulation. This revealed that the CBDC made up about 0.13% of the total 10.47 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) in circulation at the end of 2022.



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