The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has announced that it is planning to launch its own digital currency.

With blockchain-based payment solutions introduced to billions of messenger users and bank customers, we can be sure that every major organization in the world will have to respond to this situation. And the competition between nations and ideologies - and a war for global monetary supremacy in the case of China and the U.S. - can actively accelerate the delivery of solutions that will form the basis for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

China represents centralized control without foreign influence, suppressing technologies coming from outside in favour of those under its influence. The Great Firewall of China blocks pages such as Twitter, Facebook, Google and WhatsApp and, instead, promotes its own alternatives like Sina Weibo, Baidu and WeChat.

Foreign cryptocurrencies have been similarly suppressed in China. In 2018, China issued a ban on all crypto activities, including access to all the international exchange platforms. Thus, the People’s Bank of China launching its own digital currency does not come as a surprise. Foreign cryptocurrency projects will probably be suppressed in favour of the People’s Bank of China, which would be consistent with previous policies.

While China is expected to launch a single, centralized, monolithic digital currency and suppress all others, the West is expected to launch a number of initiatives in retail payments as well as transfers of funds.

The People’s Bank of China is said to be collaborating with eight institutions that will be the first beneficiaries of the new currency, including Alibaba, Tencent, China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, Chinese banking association Union Pay and an eighth beneficiary that is unknown yet.