Goldpac Orders IDEX Biometrics Sensors for New Hardware Wallet

The Goldpac Group has selected IDEX Biometrics as its technology partner for its digital currency project in China. The company now plans to deploy IDEX’s fingerprint sensors in a new hardware-based digital wallet that will be compatible with the country’s new Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP) program.

DC/EP refers to China’s new national digital currency, which is to say that DC/EP is essentially a digital version of the fiat Chinese yuan. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is based on blockchain technology, but differs from other cryptocurrencies insofar as it is regulated and backed up with yuan deposits stored in China’s central bank.

The proposed Goldpac wallet would allow people to use DC/EP to pay for goods and services online. The IDEX sensor will be used to secure the wallet, in the same way that a biometric payment card allows people to authorize transactions with fingerprint recognition. In this case, the DC/EP currency will be stored on the wallet itself, making it even more important to make sure that no one can access the funds if that wallet is lost or stolen.

“It is critical to have enhanced levels of security in our DC/EP hardware wallets and we believe that adding fingerprint technology from IDEX will provide industry leading levels of security,” said Goldpac CEO Hou Ping.

China has already trialed the DC/EP in the cities of Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Xiong’an, and plans to move forward with a full launch of the program before the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are scheduled for February in Beijing. The country hopes that the DC/EP will raise financial inclusion and allow people without smartphones to participate in the digital economy.

To that end, China is currently building the infrastructure needed to support DC/EP payments in every sector. The country will expand the program to enable international payments once the local rollout is complete.

Goldpac has already placed its first order for wallet fingerprint sensors with IDEX. The two companies have previously collaborated on biometric payment cards, delivering a product that received China UnionPay certification in January and a second letter of approval in February.

The Bahamian Sand Dollar is the world’s first Central Bank Digital Currency. The country’s Central Bank recently partnered with Mastercard to allow people to use the currency to make payments at a larger number of locations.

–

March 17, 2021 – by Eric Weiss