As China moves closer to rolling out the world’s first major sovereign digital currency, speculation over the global implications has reached a fever pitch.
Historian Niall Ferguson is calling the digital yuan a "potentially fatal challenge” to decades of American financial hegemony. Franklin Templeton’s Michael Hasenstab says it could undermine the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. Joe Biden’s White House is studying the potential threat to U.S. interests.
Yet talk to people who have actually used the digital yuan in China, and you’re more likely to get a different response: shrugs of indifference.
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