DCEP, China’s digital yuan was used to create the so-called “red packets”—financial incentives that the recipients were able to spend at designated merchants in Luohu, a district in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

The 50000 “red packets” has a denomination of 200 CNY each. The “red packets” can be used in 3389 merchants who have completed the transformation of the digital yuan system.

Anyone who is in the administrative area of Shenzhen city can apply for the “red packets” by mainland China mobile phone numbers and the second generation of resident ID cards.

Though China’s digital yuan is defined as MO (cash in circulation), there is still a need for opening banks for the application. At present, China’s central bank mainly cooperates with the four state-owned banks of China for the digital yuan pilot.

The 3389 designated merchants covering catering, supermarkets, gas station, subway, department stores. The WeChat official account of Shenzhen city said that the pilot is Shenzhen’s innovative practice in stimulating the consumption and the internal demand during the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, it is a routine test as well.

In the past, most of DCEP’s testing focused on the distribution side and partners, China’s digital yuan was distributed as a transportation allowance to government employees of Suzhou, a city in southeast China in May. These tests are highly closed in terms of distribution and scene, so it is difficult for the public to directly participate in.

The “red packets” distribution in Shenzhen means DCEP now is open to the public, millions of Shenzhen citizens have the opportunity to participate in the test of digital yuan. Well-known enterprises like Wal-Mart, CR Vanguard, Sinopec all support this pilot, which marks the beginning of digital yuan testing from closed testing to open testing and testing in the daily consumption scenarios with the highest frequency.