People in China are no strangers to digital payments-if anything, it's easier to move around and shop in Shanghai or Beijing with an Alipay or WeChat Pay smartphone app than it is bearing a pocketbook filled with yuan notes. Now the Chinese government has begun a pilot program for an official digital version of its currency, with the likelihood of a bigger test at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Some observers think the virtual yuan could bolster the government's power over the country's financial system and one day maybe even shift the global balance of economic influence. Most money that gets swapped around electronically is just credits and debits in accounts at different banks. China's digital cash is designed to be an electronic version of a bank note or a coin but one that happens to live in a digital wallet on a smartphone. But it would offer China's authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.
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