This week we unpack how China’s digital yuan quietly “graduated” from pilot to full-scale, interest-bearing money — and why that shift could reshape both domestic finance and global power.

- How reclassifying eCNY from M0 to M1 turns it into a yield-generating, sticky alternative to Alipay/WeChat balances — and what the new two‑tier structure means for banks, fintechs, and users.

- The real “killer apps”: smart-contract escrows that protect prepaid customers, programmable subsidies, and ultra-fast dual-offline payments that make digital cash as resilient as paper.

- Project mBridge as a geopolitical earthquake: how a live multi-CBDC rail (with China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE, and Saudi Arabia) is settling billions, routing around SWIFT, and making the digital yuan the dominant settlement currency on the network.

- The tradeoff at the core of all this: “managed anonymity,” full-spectrum financial visibility for the state, and the risks of programmable money becoming a tool for behavioral control.

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Stay curious, stay kind.