Bank of China unveils new e-CNY smart contract test program for school education

According to local news outlet Sohu.com, on Tuesday, the state-owned Bank of China announced a new program to bridge primary school education with smart contracts. In a combined partnership with local education and financial authorities, parents residing in the city of Chengdu, located in China’s Sichuan province, will be able to enroll their children in after-school or extracurricular lessons using the digital yuan central bank digital currency, or e-CNY.

Under the pilot test, parents start by paying a deposit to a private educational entity for a series of lessons. Afterward, a smart contract binds each lesson on a pro-rata basis to the deposit. This way, should their children miss a lesson, the e-CNY payment is automatically credited back to their account via smart contract. The Bank of China stated:

“The program seeks to explore the benefits brought forth by e-CNY smart contracts. One potential use case is replacing the role of regulatory authorities to monitor payment transactions between parents and private education entities. Another is improving transactions’ liquidity via zero transaction fees embedded in the e-CNY design.”

Previously, the Bank of China rolled out an e-CNY airdrop program for the residents of the city of Chongqing as part of a local incentive to lower carbon emissions. Users receiving the airdrop can dispense their funds for scooter rides, food deliveries without packaged utensils, recyclable shopping bags and tickets to public transport. Over 4,567,000 merchants across China now accept e-CNY as payment in alignment with the country’s strategy to stimulate and digitize the economy with the aid of emerging technologies such as blockchain.