By Zhang Modong, source: Financial Times

What is a digital RMB wallet? At the 13th Lujiazui Forum on June 11, Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, explained in detail the meaning and types of digital RMB wallets on this issue of concern to the outside world.

Digital RMB wallet is the carrier of digital RMB. Mu Changchun said,"Under the premise of centralized management, unified cognition and realization of anti-counterfeiting, we and various operating institutions adopt a common and shared approach to develop a wallet ecological platform to manage the wallet and authenticate the digital RMB, and realize their respective visual systems and special functions. By building the digital RMB wallet ecology, we realize the full-scene application of digital RMB online and offline, meet the differentiated needs of users in multiple subjects, levels, categories and forms, ensure that the digital RMB wallet is universally accessible, and avoid barriers to use due to technical literacy or dependence on communication networks, etc."

Mu Changchun introduced the following types of digital RMB wallets according to different dimensional divisions.

The first type is a wallet that is divided into different levels according to the strength of customer identification. The operating institution identifies customers and manages digital RMB wallets in tiers according to customer identification strength, giving each type of wallet different per-transaction and daily transaction limits and balance limits according to the strength of its real name. The four types of digital RMB wallets with the lowest authority are anonymous wallets with a balance limit of RMB 10,000, a single payment limit of RMB 2,000, and a cumulative daily payment limit of RMB 5,000. It can be opened using only one's cell phone number, reflecting the design principle of controlled anonymity of digital RMB. "If you want to pay more than $2,000 for something, you can upgrade your wallet by uploading your valid ID information and bound bank account information, for example, after upgrading to a Type II wallet, your wallet balance limit will change to 500,000 yuan, single payment limit rises to 50,000 yuan and cumulative daily payment limit to 100,000 yuan." Mu Changchun said to.

The second one is divided into personal wallet and public wallet according to the opening subject. Natural persons and individual entrepreneurs can open their personal wallets, and adopt categorized transaction and balance limit management according to the corresponding customer identification strength; other legal persons and unincorporated institutions can open public wallets, and determine the transaction and balance limits according to whether they are opened at the counter or remotely, and the wallet functions can be customized according to user needs.

The third type is divided into soft and hard wallets according to the carrier. Soft wallets include mobile payment APPs and services provided by software development kits (SDKs); hard wallets include IC cards, wearable devices, IoT devices, etc. Mu Changchun, for example, said that we have launched a hard wallet product with health code function for the elderly, which provides safe and convenient payment function and also facilitates the daily travel of the elderly under epidemic prevention and control.

The fourth type is divided into mother wallet and child wallet according to the attribution of authority. Wallet-holding subjects can set the main wallet as the mother wallet and can open several sub-wallets under the mother wallet. Individuals can realize functions such as limit payment, conditional payment and personal privacy protection of payment scenarios through the sub-wallets; enterprises and institutions can realize functions such as fund aggregation and distribution, accounting processing and financial management through the sub-wallets.

"Different combinations of wallets in the above dimensions form the digital RMB wallet matrix system," Mu Changchun said, adding that on this basis, we work with designated operators to develop basic payment function components and use smart contracts to realize conditional payment functions triggered by time conditions, scenario conditions, and role conditions. For example, for single-use prepaid cards, the fund management function to avoid risks such as running away with the money. Designated operators and other authorized institutions can further develop complex payment/financial products and build a wallet ecological platform to meet the needs of multiple scenarios and realize special functions.