What is "one card with multiple applications" in the digital RMB hardware wallet? What are the prospects?

In February 2021, in the "Digital Wangfujing Ice and Snow Shopping Festival" Beijing digital renminbi pilot activities, Postal Savings Bank of China and Bank of China respectively launched digital renminbi visual card and fingerprint card hardware equipped with the query function of "Health Treasure" Beijing health code wallet. In addition to digital renminbi consumption, users can complete the health treasure status query and registration by simply posting the product on the health treasure device.

This is the first time that the digital renminbi hardware wallet is equipped with other application functions in addition to the digital renminbi application. The card-based "one card with multiple applications" also gives digital RMB hardware wallets more room for imagination.

Recently, a bank practitioner revealed to the mobile payment network that it is preparing to develop and launch a "dual-core hard wallet" solution.

Specifically, two wallets are loaded on one piece of hardware, a digital RMB wallet and an industry wallet. It is similar to the video card equipped with "Health Treasure" launched by PSBC and Bank of China before, but it is more inclined to the wallet application in terms of function. After all, Health Treasure is just an information storage of personal health status.

Applications that can be boldly imagined may include:

Ningbo: 445,900 digital renminbi wallets have been opened: Golden Financial News, recently, the "Yongcheng Parking" platform has launched a digital renminbi payment method. The seven pilot financial units, including Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank, and China Merchants Bank, are actively creating application scenarios in Ningbo, and at the same time planning a wealth of consumption promotion activities to promote digital renminbi. At present, there are 10,183 digital RMB offline merchants in the city, and 445,900 digital RMB wallets have been opened, including 416,100 personal wallets and nearly 30,000 public wallets. (Mobile Payment Network) [2022/5/16 3:19:20]

1. A hardware wallet equipped with digital renminbi functions and basic security account functions such as social security and medical insurance.

2. Equipped with digital renminbi functions and hardware wallets that require pre-charge functions such as ETC and transportation cards.

3. A hardware wallet equipped with digital renminbi functions and personal identification certificates such as health codes, driver's licenses, and electronic ID cards.

The above functions can even be combined in multiple combinations, that is, "one card with multiple functions" which is familiar to the smart card industry.

Shenzhen Baoan launches 100 million yuan digital renminbi car purchase subsidy: Jinse Finance reported that Shenzhen Baoan District will send digital renminbi consumption subsidies for car buyers, of which 80 million yuan will be used for basic car purchase subsidies for individual consumers, and 20 million yuan will be used for car purchase lottery activities . (Shenzhen Commercial Daily) [2022/4/24 14:45:22]

The advantage of a multi-purpose card is naturally that one card can integrate multiple functions, which is convenient for users to avoid the trouble of applying for and carrying multiple functional cards. With the advancement of digital renminbi hardware wallets, hardware wallets with high security levels can naturally become a collection of functional cards such as social security cards and medical insurance cards, but is such an idea feasible?

One card with multiple functions is obviously not a new term. For practitioners in the card and smart card industry, one card with multiple functions does not even have a particularly good impression, because one card with multiple functions often means that "none of them are useful" in the end.

Think about it, do many people around have a social security card with financial functions in their wallets, which is useless? Think about it again, many multifunctional smart cards or wearable bracelet watches, it seems that they will be thrown into the corner of the cabinet before long.

Gongyi Digital RMB SIM PAY product successfully issued 1,000 cards: On October 13th, at the "ICM Digital RMB SIM PAY Product Launch Conference", Guan Yimin, deputy general manager of China Mobile Jiangsu, said that as the first batch of pilot cities for the central bank's digital RMB One of Suzhou, with the strong support of Suzhou City and Xiangcheng District Government, has been leading the exploration of digital renminbi. China Mobile Jiangsu Branch, together with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Mobile Finance, and China Mobile Research Institute, set up a special class in Suzhou to focus on the research and development and pilot of SIM digital RMB products, achieving multiple firsts in the industry. In November 2020, it will be the first in the country to realize SIM card-based digital RMB C2C dual offline transactions. In February 2021, it will be the first in the country to realize SIM card hard wallet C2B dual offline transactions. In July 2021, SIM digital RMB hard wallet (ie SIM PAY product ) realized the first commercial trial and successfully issued 1,000 cards. (DoNews) [2021/10/13 20:25:30]

The oldest news about "one card with multiple uses" that can be searched from the background of the mobile payment network was in 2010, when the development of financial IC cards was in the early stage, and the "migration" of chip cards was launched nationwide. All kinds of one-card products, such as traffic cards and transportation cards, are complicated and belong to the time when the chaos first opened.

Central Bank: In accordance with the national "14th Five-Year Plan" plan, we will continue to steadily promote the pilot research and development of digital renminbi: On July 16, the People's Bank of China issued a white paper on "China's Digital Renminbi Research and Development Progress", and the People's Bank of China will follow the national "14th Five-Year Plan". "Planning and deployment, continue to steadily promote the pilot research and development of digital renminbi, and do not presuppose a launch timetable. Focus on the following areas: First, continue to steadily and orderly promote the research and development pilot work. The second is to study and improve relevant rules and regulations. Actively promote the revision of the Law of the People's Bank of China and other laws and regulations. Research and formulate relevant management measures for digital renminbi, and strengthen the protection of personal information in digital renminbi. The third is to strengthen research on major issues. Deepen the research and evaluation of the deep impact of legal digital currency on monetary policy, financial system, and financial stability.

As of June 30, 2021, there have been more than 1.32 million digital renminbi pilot scenarios, covering life payment, catering services, transportation, shopping, government services and other fields. Opened more than 20.87 million personal wallets and more than 3.51 million public wallets, with a total of more than 70.75 million transactions and an amount of about 34.5 billion yuan. [2021/7/16 0:57:04]

At that time, the central bank issued the "Opinions of the People's Bank of China on Promoting the Application of Financial IC Cards" to accelerate the pace of promotion of financial IC cards. Since the chip card upgraded from the magnetic stripe has the characteristics of large chip capacity and high security, It can store information such as keys, digital certificates, and fingerprints. Its working principle is similar to that of a microcomputer, and it can handle multiple functions at the same time, providing cardholders with the convenience of using one card for multiple purposes.

Industry insiders: The digital renminbi is expected to gradually reconstruct the electronic payment pattern: The Economic Information Daily published an article today saying that as more test content-zce was exposed, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China has reached an agreement with companies such as Didi Chuxing and JD Digital. Strategic cooperation, digital renminbi and more online payment scenarios are full of imagination. Industry insiders interviewed said that the digital renminbi is superior in terms of privacy protection, security, and credit foundation, and will provide more redundancy for the current electronic payment system. Structure electronic payment structure. [2020/11/11 12:15:24]

In 2012, the central bank issued a series of technical standards for my country's financial mobile payment, which clarified various technical requirements for the development of mobile finance in my country, and guided and standardized the innovative development of mobile finance in China; in 2013, a national mobile financial security public service platform ( MTPS), which solves the problems of inter-agency application sharing, entity mutual trust, and system interoperability, and provides a platform foundation for the innovation and development of my country's mobile finance; The innovative pilot work aims to explore the operation mode of mobile banking with one card and multiple applications. At the end of 2014, the central bank issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Application of Financial IC Cards" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), aiming at comprehensively improving the influence of multiple applications of financial IC cards in various industries, and introducing financial IC cards in public The one-card-multiple applications in the service field are sorted and summarized into three categories according to the implementation methods.

The first type of application is ordinary consumer applications (such as retail, fast food, one-ticket bus, taxi), which is an important basis for realizing financial IC cards to benefit people's livelihood, and can be realized by standard debit or credit or electronic cash; Class applications are time-sharing and section-based fee deduction applications (such as parking meters, section-deduction bus and subway), which are an effective way to improve the public service level of financial IC cards, and can be realized through electronic cash expansion applications; three types of applications Personalized applications for industries (such as medical and health applications, campus cards) are an important means for commercial banks to provide differentiated services and enhance their own competitiveness, which can be realized by loading industry applications or data through financial IC cards.

In the era of financial IC cards, the promotion of one card with multiple functions has achieved certain results, but in the end, many factors have restricted its development, the most important reason being the low utilization rate of "electronic cash".

From the implementation of financial IC card multi-application implementation, the first and second types of applications are mentioned to be realized through "electronic cash". Moreover, the "Notice" clearly stated that in order to improve the utilization rate and convenience of electronic cash, financial IC card electronic cash should be used as an important tool to realize inclusive finance, and the inclusive and convenient effects of applications such as electronic cash should be fully utilized . At the same time, it is necessary to focus on expanding the second-type applications of electronic cash, actively promote the third-type applications, and effectively improve the utilization rate and convenience of electronic cash.

However, the actual situation is that "electronic cash" not only has a low utilization rate, but also is not easily understood by consumers.

The low usage rate of "electronic cash" is mainly reflected in: on the one hand, industry applications are not sufficiently attractive to the main project unit, and some cards are easy to handle, and after-sales services such as reporting the loss and returning cards are extremely troublesome, and the division of responsibilities among relevant departments for multiple applications It is not clear enough for users to understand; on the other hand, the convenience of a single item is limited, and multiple applications are often reduced to a single-function stored-value card and door card, which is difficult to reflect the advantages of universal networking and "one card with multiple functions".

The lack of understanding by consumers is mainly reflected in: On the one hand, the "loading" of electronic cash is too professional, and various professional terms such as the difference between bank master accounts and electronic cash accounts, and the difference between electronic cash and QuickPass make consumers "Prohibition"; on the other hand, some banks need to cancel the bank card in order to transfer money due to ignorance, which means that the money in the electronic cash account cannot be retrieved.

In November 2015, UnionPay began to pilot the UnionPay card "Small-amount Password-free and Visa-free". Cardholders use UnionPay chip cards or mobile payment devices with the "QuickPass" function. No password or signature is required when the sum of consumption is less than or equal to RMB 1,000, which is the so-called "online quick payment". However, the electronic cash that has been promoted with considerable energy, that is, the so-called "offline quick payment", has gradually withdrawn from the market due to mediocre market response, and even problems such as loading and flash cards. .

As for the multi-use of financial IC cards, due to the rapid development of online applications, QR codes, online memberships and other methods have more convenient and more user-friendly user interaction capabilities, and card-based multi-applications have gradually begun to decline.

The existence of digital renminbi hardware wallets will bring about the re-emergence of hardware devices based on "chips". Among them, video cards, Bluetooth cards, fingerprint cards and other products that exist in cards will be their main forms.

And "one card with multiple uses" based on hardware wallets will also become an important direction for digital renminbi. Just like the several types of application forms mentioned at the beginning of the article, medical insurance, social security, transportation, identity certificates, etc. will all be the extensible direction of the digital RMB hardware wallet.

However, in the view of the mobile payment network, the digital RMB hardware wallet also has the problem of "electronic cash", which needs to be "recharged" in advance before it can be used, which will hinder its development, which is why other card-type "soft wallets" are needed. The reason (for details, see: Analysis of the difference between digital RMB card-style "soft wallet" and "hard wallet").

Since the digital renminbi is already being promoted, why not directly popularize industry wallets to support digital renminbi?

The above-mentioned bank practitioners further explained to the mobile payment network that the digital renminbi is in the early stage of promotion. In some special industries, the full popularization requires a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. Therefore, the multiple applications of the digital renminbi hard wallet can be regarded as an early transition plan. .

Therefore, in the view of the mobile payment network, the "one card with multiple uses" of the digital renminbi is actually a false proposition. If the digital renminbi fully supports all walks of life, then there will be no so-called one card with multiple uses, because the digital renminbi It itself is an "interconnected" financial infrastructure that breaks down industry payment barriers.

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