Enhancements have been made to the China Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), often known as the digital yuan or eCNY. These upgrades have given the digital yuan the ability to participate in smart contracts and have also introduced a number of new use cases.

According to a story published on Jan. 17 by a local cryptocurrency media site called 8btc, the smart contract capability has been launched on the Meituan app, which is a Chinese app that offers retail and food delivery services.

When a Meituan user places an order and pays for it with their e-CNY wallet, a smart contract is activated and the contract examines the order for certain keywords and things that were purchased.

If a user purchases an item that is included in the keyword list of the day, they will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a share of a reward.

The prize consists of a portion of a “red envelope,” also known as a hongbao in the area, containing 8,888 yuan, which is equivalent to just over $1,300.

Hongbao are wallet-sized packages that have long been used as an auspicious way to present monetary gifts during the Chinese New Year celebration.

In an effort to encourage more people to use the e-CNY wallet app before the Chinese New Year begins on January 22, the developers included a feature in December of the previous year that allows users to send each other digital red envelopes between Yeah.

Along with the latest development, new applications for e-CNY have also been developed over the course of the past few days.

According to a story that was published in the China Shares Journal on January 16, e-CNY was used for the first time to buy securities.

Additionally, investors can purchase assets through CBDCs using the mobile app of Soochow Securities, which is a local brokerage firm.

According to a report published on January 11 by Yicai Global, the yuan digital wallet software received an update that allows users to make contactless payments using their Android phones, even when their device does not have access to the Internet or electricity.

The new applications for the digital yuan come at a time when China is struggling to increase the use of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In December 2022, a former official at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, made a rare public admission saying that “use of the digital yuan has been low” and “highly inactive,” adding that “the results are not ideal. This admission was made by saying that “use of the digital yuan has been low” and “highly inactive.”

On January 10, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) included e-CNY in currency circulation data for the first time, revealing that CBDC made up around 0.13% of the 10.47 trillion yuan ( 1.54 trillion dollars) in circulation at the end of 2022. .