Avalanche Enabling Payment App Solutions Available to 100,000,000 Users in South East Asia

March 21, 2024 The Daily Hodl

Cambodian digital currency bakong amps up use case with Alipay agreement

November 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The CBDC-like bakong provides digital payment services in riel and the U.S. dollar. It has been steadily extending its regional scope.

The bakong, a digital currency operated by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), will provide users with access to the Alipay merchant network and enable cross-border transactions on Alipay+ using QR codes under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed at the FinTech Expo in Singapore, the local press reported.

The bakong service operates by the NBC on a blockchain, but it is not a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as the currency is a liability of the commercial banks that use it. The bakong enables both United States dollar and Cambodian riel accounts. The Cambodian economy is heavily dollarized.

The MoU means that Cambodians will be able to use riel from their bakong wallets to shop with 83 million merchants worldwide on the Alipay network. In addition, Chinese tourists who have accounts with China’s massive Alipay electronic payment system will be able to shop in Cambodia using the QR codes of the bakong KHQR system. NBC governor Chea Serey said:

“The simplicity of making payments provides merchants with a revenue boost, helping to stimulate economic activity. I’m confident this collaboration with Alipay+ will be beneficial for all parties.”

There were 35.4 million transactions worth $12 billion using the bakong in the first half of 2023, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Nov. 17.

The bakong payment was launched in 2020 and was designed for sending remittances an making purchases. Its mobile app was developed in collaboration with Japan’s Soramitsu blockchain. In August, Soramitsu announced plans to use the bakong to develop a cross-border payment system encompassing India, China and Japan. The bakong is already used in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Local vendors can now use the KHQR network of the Bakong system, a part of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), to make payments to over 80 million Alipay merchants globally.https://t.co/hLagrXU08X
— The Phnom Penh Post (@phnompenhpost) November 17, 2023

In July, the NBC signed a MoU with China’s UnionPay International on the use of QR codes for cross-border payments.

Magazine: China’s 180M digital yuan airdrop, Devastation in Turkey, Laos’ CBDC: Asia Express

China’s Wechat Adds Support for Digital Yuan Payments

March 8, 2023 Bitcoin.com

China’s CBDC wallet resorts to ages-old tradition to boost adoption

December 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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A traditional Chinese way of gifting money that’s gone virtual with the rise of digital payments has been introduced into the digital yuan wallet app.

China’s wallet app for its digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) introduced a feature for users to send money in an electronic version of traditional “red packets” to try to attract new users.

The new feature was released over the weekend, around one month ahead of the Chinese New Year on Jan. 22, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Dec. 26.

The “red packets,” called hongbao in China, are traditionally used for gifting money around the Chinese New Year and other celebrations as a gesture of good luck. The rising use of digital payments has seen virtual red envelopes offered by popular local services such as WeChat Pay and Alipay.

Reportedly, the e-CNY app allows a red packet to be sent to only one person, or a “lucky draw” can be set up for a group of people who will get a random amount from a pool of funds, both WeChat Pay and Alipay have a similar feature.

Users can choose a packet cover that displays well wishes for the new year or birthdays as well as wishes for a “prosperous China.”

Digital yuan transactions crossed the $14 billion (100 billion yuan) threshold on Oct. 10 seeing an increase of only 14% since the $12 billion (87.6 billion yuan) reported at the end of 2021 by the People's Bank of China.

A Dec.18 report in the Chinese Workers’ Daily newspaper reported the e-CNY trails will expand to the cities of Jinan, Nanning, Fangchenggang and Kunming. The trials previously expanded in September to four of the country’s provinces, including its most populous, Guangdong.

Despite the government’s rapid expansion of the trials, the latest reported user base of the e-CNY wallets was in January 2022, with 261 million users have set up a digital wallet.

China’s government may seemingly have to leverage WeChat Pay and Alipay to boost the adoption of its digital yuan.

Both services accept e-CNY, with WeChat reportedly having 1.3 monthly active users in the September quarter, according to financial reports, while Alipay had over 1 billion annual active users in its fiscal year ending Aug. 17, 2020.

Social Media Giant Wechat to Support China’s CBDC, Platform Expected to Boost Adoption Rate

January 9, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Chinese Bank Employees Told to Entice 300 Customers to Use the Digital Yuan

July 7, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Chinese banks tell staff to recruit up to 300 new digital yuan users each

July 7, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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Six of China’s top banks have tasked their employees with promoting digital yuan wallets to between 200 to 300 people a year.

Chinese banks have begun a hard sell of digital yuan wallets, asking staff to recruit hundreds of new users each year.

According to a translation of a June 6 article from Shenlian Caijing, employees of top banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of Communications, along with four other state-owned banks, have been instructed to promote digital yuan wallets to an average of 200 to 300 people a year.

To entice new users, employees are able to offer an odd variety of small gifts, such as “laundry detergent, data cables, card holders, Chinese knots, umbrellas, and tissues.”

The banks have included the task of promoting the central bank digital currency (CBDC) on employee evaluations, with the number of CBDC wallet recruits determining each branch's end of year bonuses.

Essentially the banks have deployed an incentive scheme focused on mass recruitment of wallet users, and will reward branches and their employees with favorable performance reviews and monetary bonuses.

Employees of some Chinese commercial banks are required to promote digital renminbi wallets, and each person must promote 200 to 300 individuals. By Jiemian https://t.co/Trl8bF7I22
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 6, 2021

From the Chinese government’s perspective, the ramp-up in digital yuan wallet adoption is part of a move to get a stronger hold over the financial tech market, as it will be in competition with payment service providers such as Alipay and WeChat, who reportedly account for 98% of the mobile payment market in China.

Cointelegraph reported on April 26 that in the lead-up to an online shipping festival on May 5, six of China’s largest banks promoted the CBDC as a better alternative to Alipay and WeChat.

As part of China’s ongoing testing of the CBDC, the local government of Chengdu, located in the Sichuan province, announced on June 2 that it is issuing 12 million digital yuan ($1.85 million) via a lottery to 100,000 residents.

The theme of the lottery is dubbed “Green Travel - low carbon summer” and interestingly, the 12 million digital yuan is pre-programmed to work specifically for public transportation payments, such as bus and subway tickets, along with shared bike rental payments.

NFT Roundup: Beeple’s We.new Platform, DeLorean DMC-12 NFTs, Jerry Garcia’s Music Art

June 26, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Shanghai Man: China retains mining control? Alipay’s ancient NFTs and Amber’s big raise

June 24, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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A look at miners shifting hardware overseas, Amber raises $100m, and Bitmain temporarily shuts down sales among dropping hashrate sales.

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.

So low you've got to reach up to touch the bottom

This week in China felt like one giant mining-farm sized pile of FUD. This is usually a pretty good indication that a bottom is close to being in, but one can never be too sure when it comes to downwards volatility in cryptocurrency. Canaan, one of the largest mining companies in China, announced it was setting up shop in neighboring Kazakhstan. This is an ideal compromise for Canaan as it can remain close to China, while mitigating their regulatory risk. Reading between the lines, it seems like the plan is to mostly continue administration of the company from China while sending the machines overseas.

This would put a wrench in the works of the Bitcoin purists who believe that the crackdowns are a good way to break up China’s dominance in the mining industry. Just this week, a professor at a university in Singapore wrote in Chinese that the shift to a more decentralized network would be a good thing. This raised some eyebrows for the use of a made up word that translates roughly to ‘de-China-ization’, but the article holds even less weight when large mining companies like Canaan are able to shift physical equipment overseas but still remain in control of the governance.

Too big for postage stamps

On June 21, CNBC’s Beijing Bureau Chief Eunice Yoon posted on Twitter that a logistics company in Guangzhou was shipping 3,000 kilograms worth of mining hardware to Maryland, US. According to her claim, the price was $9.37 per kilogram. Some quick math reveals that the total cost would be less than the price of one Bitcoin, at least at the time of writing.

Bitmain lends a helping hand

Cointelegraph reported on June 23 that massive mining company Bitmain was suspending sales of mining hardware in a move to support the over-supplied secondhand markets. According to the article, sales of hashing power in China has seen a decrease of around 75% since the Spring. Bitmain is reportedly moving operations abroad as well, which would be a major move for the hardware manufacturing giant.

Mine-ami

Francis Suarez, everyone’s favorite Bitcoin-friendly mayor, was at it again on June 18 when he announced that all Chinese Bitcoin miners were welcome in Miami. The announcement was translated and posted on Sina Finance’s Blockchain Weibo account, which attracted over 53 comments from surprised netizens. Most of these user comments were negative in nature however, both towards Suarez and Bitcoin in general. A large portion of Weibo users hold cryptocurrencies in ill-regard, especially those that have been investing in the stagnant Chinese stock market.

Amber is the color of your energy

Amber, a cryptocurrency service provider based in Hong Kong, completed a Series B funding round worth $100m. Amber is well known among institutions for their financial services that include asset management, OTC services and lending.

Alipay’s foray into NFTs

Top payment processor Alipay continues to push its AntChain technology by partnering with the Dunhuang Research Academy to release 8,000 NFT skins. Dunhuang is famous for being an old silk road outpost and is home to Mogao Caves, a Unesco Heritage site. The NFTs featured artwork inspired by the cultural site and quickly sold out. AntChain is a private blockchain developed by Alibaba’s Ant Group.

Banks fall in line as China’s central bank cracks down on crypto accounts

June 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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AgBank — the world's third-largest bank by assets — has indicated it will follow the PBoC's cue and work to stamp out its clients' crypto-related activities.

The Agriculture Bank of China (AgBank) — the world's third-largest bank by assets — is set to implement Beijing's firm anti-cryptocurrency measures and rigorously vet its clients to ensure they are not engaged in any form of illegal activities involving crypto transacting, trading or mining.

Agbank's statement today followed the institution's meeting with the People's Bank of China (PBoC), which convened major domestic banks and mobile payment service providers and ordered them to ensure that banking and settlement services are denied to clients engaged in crypto-related transactions. An official PBoC statement today reiterated that all banks and payment institutions “must not provide account opening or registration for [virtual currency]-related activities.” It outlined:

“Institutions must comprehensively investigate and identify virtual currency exchanges and over-the-counter dealers’ capital accounts, and cut off transaction funds payment links in a timely manner; they must analyze the capital transaction characteristics of virtual currency trading hype activities [...] and ensure that relevant monitoring and handling measures are implemented.”

In addition to AgBank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Construction Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China and the Industrial Bank, alongside mobile payments app AliPay, were all present at the PBoC meeting.

AgBank's statement is the first made by a Chinese state bank in line with the tenor of this year's renewed suite of anti-crypto measures, which have included the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee decision in late May to curtail Bitcoin (BTC) mining amid financial risk concerns.

Regional financial regulators in China have also upped their game and issued warnings against illegal crypto- and blockchain-focused financing platforms or advertising campaigns, as well as banning financial and payment institutions from “directly or indirectly [providing] services related to virtual currencies.”

Agbank has indicated that it will immediately shut accounts and suspend ties with any clients found to be involved in cryptocurrency trading. The megabank initially appealed to its clients to report any suspected crypto-related frauds, although this request has reportedly since been deleted from the bank's statement.

Having banned token issuance and crypto trading as early as 2017, during the market's first major bull run, this year has seen a consolidation of Beijing's antagonistic stance towards decentralized cryptocurrencies. In mid-May, three major Chinese trade associations — The China Internet Finance Association, China Banking Association and China Payment and Clearing Association — issued a joint statement warning the public about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.

Beijing's major crackdown on crypto mining has cited concerns over the industry’s carbon footprint, especially in areas such as Inner Mongolia. At least three mining firms — BTC.TOP, Huobi and HashCow — have been driven to cease their activities on the mainland. Social media networks and internet companies in the country have also fallen into line with the center's anti-crypto stance and have, over the last few months, censored crypto-related search results and banned crypto-related profiles.

Alipay

So low you've got to reach up to touch the bottom

Too big for postage stamps

Bitmain lends a helping hand

Mine-ami

Amber is the color of your energy

Alipay’s foray into NFTs

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