The latest digital yuan test in Beijing featured automatic teller machines that could convert China's central bank digital currency to physical cash and vice-versa.
The Chinese capital is the latest city to conduct a real-world digital yuan test. The $1.5 million trial took place during the Lunar New Year holiday in early February.
As part of the test, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) debuted eight ATMs in two of its branches in Beijing that had the icon of e-CNY (electronic Chinese yuan) on them.
The feature is an integral part of the digital yuan framework that China is building ahead of a formal launch of its Digital Currency / Electronic Payment system.
The eight ATMs sport a feature called 'digital transaction.' By selecting the feature, users can choose whether they want to convert cash into digital yuan or the other way around.
The banker demonstrating the function suggested that to deposit cash, customers must first type in the phone numbers they used to activate their digital yuan wallets. The process then takes a few seconds to credit the balance to the users’ mobile wallets.
To convert digital yuan into cash, users must scan a QR code on the ATM screen using their digital yuan wallet app and then type in the cash amount that they want to withdraw. After a few seconds, the teller machine delivers the requested cash.