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    China has charged ahead with a bold effort to remake the way that government-backed money works, rolling out its own digital currency with different qualities than cash or digital deposits. The country’s central bank started testing a new electronic currency, which was named electronic Chinese yuan or eCNY, last year in four cities and have recently expanded those trials to bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, according to government presentations. No other major power is as far along with a homegrown digital currency.

    The effort is one of several by central banks around the world to try new forms of digital money that can move faster and give even the most disadvantaged people access to online financial tools. Digital currencies created by central banks give governments more of a financial grip. These currencies can enable direct handouts of money that expire if not used by a particular date and can make it easier for governments to track financial transactions to stamp out tax evasion and crack down on dissidents.

    If the eCNY is successful, it will give the central bank new powers, including novel types of monetary policy to help the economy grow. In one possibility that economists have discussed, a central bank could program its digital currency to slowly lose value so that consumers are encouraged to spend it immediately. Also, the eCNY could immediately give the Chinese government more power to monitor finance flows because a digital currency system can record every transaction.

Internet: <www.nytimes.com>(adapted).