Huawei Adds Support for China’s CBDC to HarmonyOS Next: Reports
China’s Huawei recently unveiled its new operating system HarmonyOS Next to power its hardware devices. Among other upgrades, HarmonyOS Next reportedly comes with support for the Chinese Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Huawei aims to drive widespread adoption of the digital currency. The brand is among the top smartphone brands in China and is said to serve approximately one billion users, potentially enabling widespread access to the e-CNY and accelerating its reach to the masses. The e-CNY is also called the digital renminbi (RMB).
China has accelerated its efforts to develop and test its CBDC. By representing fiat currency on blockchain, CBDC transactions are recorded on blockchain networks, creating a permanent and immutable ledger. This increases the transparency and reliability of CBDC transactions.
Huawei device users in China do not need to install the CBDC app released by authorities there report by Cointelegraph said citing reports from local Chinese publications. This integration is expected to further strengthen financial supervision, which is supervised by the People’s Bank of China.
In April 2022, the country made its CBDC trials available in 23 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, to enable residents of these cities to pay for goods and services with the e-CNY.
In July 2023, China began testing offline payments via the e-CNY to cater to merchants and citizens living in regions with low internet connectivity. The same year in November, Standard Chartered bank entered the Chinese CBDC trials.
A recent study on CBDCs by the CFA Institute shows that emerging markets such as India and China have found wider acceptance for CBDCs in other regions in Asia and the Pacific. The report noted that 70 percent of users surveyed in China were in favor of the launch of the CBDC.
Huawei’s involvement in China’s Web3 ecosystem is in line with the position of the country’s government.
While the tech giant has expressed support for the e-CNY CBDC, it also recently joined a newly formed organization in China that aims to set standards for Web3 technologies such as Metaverse and NFTs. Cryptocurrencies, meanwhile, remain banned in China as of 2021.
