Will going digital transform the yuan’s status at home and abroad?

WITH A FEW taps on her phone, Lu Qingqing, a 24-year-old office worker, leapt into the monetary future. She was one of 50,000 people in Shenzhen selected late last year for a trial of China’s digital currency, called eCNY. She downloaded an app, received 200 yuan ($30) from the government and went shopping for books. The app’s display showed a traditional banknote. “It felt like real money,” she says.

Legally, it is as real as hard cash. All the money in an eCNY app, offered by one of six commercial banks, is backed by an equivalent deposit at the People’s Bank of China. Just as the central bank stands behind any paper yuan, so does it guarantee eCNY. If, say, the commercial bank that made Ms Lu’s digital wallet went bust, her eCNY—linked to her personal-identity number—would be transferred to a new wallet.