It was a matter of time before a country determined a digital cash alternative. No, I’m not talking the debit and credit cards… but almost a cryptocurrency. Well, perhaps. China’s digital Yuan is touted as cash, but up front we know that it’s controlled by the central bank, and has tools to monitor usage, so is it a crytpocurrency, or any form of cash at all? Perhaps at best, it’s like Apple Pay, Venmo, or Paypal, where it’s tossed around digitally, but it’s not anything more than what we’ve known already, other than backed by a state entity.
A cyber yuan stands to give Beijing power to track spending in real time, plus money unlinked to the global financial system dominated by the dollar. It also could soften the bite of U.S. sanctions.
Found at www.wsj.com
