China debuts its first blockchain-powered digital yuan transactions in the Xiong’an New Area.

China is progressing with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) tests, debuting blockchain-enabled salary payments through digital yuan. According to the official website of the Xiong’an New Area, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has successfully completed the nation’s first on-chain wage payouts in its national digital currency. The new CBDC pilot used a blockchain-based payment platform to transfer salaries to workers on spring afforestation projects in Xiong’an.

“Blockchain-based salary payouts significantly simplified the wage payout process.”

Announcing the news on Saturday, Xiong’an authorities said that the pilot involved guidance and support from the Shijiazhuang-based PBoC branch, the Bank of China Hebei Xiong’an branch as the National Development and Reform Commission. The new CBDC pilot used a blockchain-based payment platform to distribute salaries to workers on spring afforestation projects in Xiong’an. Engineering subcontractors made payments directly to builders’ digital wallets from a public wallet and recorded the relevant data on a blockchain. According to the announcement, blockchain-based salary payouts significantly simplified the payout process. The implementation of such wallets reportedly marks the first combination of blockchain technology with the digital yuan.

China to hand out $6.2 million in digital yuan to citizens in Beijing. 

As reported earlier, China will hand out 40 million renminbi ($6.2 million) of its digital currency to citizens in Beijing in a lottery. Residents of the Chinese capital can use two banking apps to apply to win one of 200,000 so-called red packets as part of the lottery, according to the Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau. The world’s second-largest economy, China, is yet to do a nationwide rollout of the digital yuan. It has been developing its CBDC since 2014, but the bank is currently focusing on trials in the form of lotteries around the country. On the other hand, China has continued to crack down on crypto.