China to Hold Second Lottery Trial of the Digital Yuan

A city in China will hold the second lottery of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) next month.

• On Dec. 12, a shopping festival known as "Double 12" in China, the city of Suzhou will hold a giveaway designed to gauge usability of the digital yuan, according to a report from local news source The Paper on Monday.
• The trial will be similar to one held in Shenzhen in October that allowed residents to apply for a 200-yuan share of 10 million units of the CBDC in a kind of lottery, worth around $1.5 million in total.
• The Suzhou event will trial additional aspects of the technology not activated in Shenzhen, including the digital yuan's offline feature that allows users to touch smart devices to make transfers.
• The Paper reported that "many" businesses in the Xiangcheng district of Suzhou have already installed point-of-sales tech with NFC (near-field communication) and QR code capabilities allowing the digital yuan winnings to be spent.
• The report also indicates another city, Chengdu, is holding a closed beta trial of the CBDC, allowing invited participants to use a digital wallet for transactions via a "major bank."

See also: How Ant’s Suspended IPO Is Related to China’s Digital Yuan