On January 4th, the People's Bank of China rolled out the country's first digital currency mobile app. Known as "e-CNY", the app is still in a developmental phase and can only be used in a handful of pilot cities including the Beijing Winter Olympics area, where the digital yuan will be available for international users. But in just two weeks the app enjoyed 20 million downloads, and since the digital yuan was introduced in China and promoted last year, there have already been 261 million digital yuan accounts set up.

Why do we need a digital currency? How does it work? And how will it affect money transactions in the future? To find out, we've invited Prof. Jun Qian, executive dean of the Fanhai International School of Finance at Fudan University; Dr. William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute; and Liu Zhiqin, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of China.