The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics not only brought together the top athletes in winter sports. They also served as the stage for introducing the digital yuan to users around the world— a project that the People’s Bank of China launched in 2014 and tested throughout 2021 in various locations across the country, reaching a total of 260 million digital yuan account holders and cumulative transactions worth the equivalent of US$14,000 million by the end of 2021. China is the first major economy to launch its digital currency, following in the footsteps of smaller nations—such as the Bahamas, Nigeria, and Cambodia—that have already done so.

Most of the world’s central banks—including the Central Bank of Chile—havedigital currency projects at various stages of development. The main advantages of digital currencies are lower transaction costs, greater security, and the ability to promote financial inclusion (they are used via a mobile app or a physical card). One of their weaknesses, however, is that they could affect transaction privacy.