By MAX YAKUBOWSKI
April 10, 2021
China has been discussing the possibilities of national digital currency for half a decade, and the Chinese digital yuan project — referred to as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP — has years of history. Back in 2014, the People’s Bank of China set up a research group “to study digital currencies and application scenarios.” The research team was conducting a digital currency study and reportedly considering issuing its own digital currency. In 2016, the PBoC announced plans to develop a digital currency of its own and started to hire blockchain experts. The same year, China’s State Council included blockchain technology in its 13th Five-Year Plan.
In 2017, the PBoC launched the Digital Currency Research Institute, which focused on the development and research of digital currencies. According to China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (formally known as the State Intellectual Property Office), the institute filed more than 63 patent applications related to blockchain and crypto during its first year of existence alone. In 2018, a report — released by the Chinese Institute of International Finance, operated under the People’s Bank of China — indicated that the central bank would institute a regulatory crackdown on all types of digital currencies.
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