IDEX Biometrics ASA announced that Union Smart Card Co. Ltd. (Union Smart), of Shenzhen, China, is utilizing the company’s fingerprint authentication solution to secure the Cold Wallet Visual Payment Card. Union Smart has developed this “cold wallet” card solution in collaboration with six major banks for use in implementation of China’s Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP) initiative. IDEX Biometrics is the leading provider of fingerprint authentication technologies for such secure cold wallet applications, with competitive advantages in performance and cost. Union Smart has leveraged its patented cold sealing card manufacturing technology to develop a payment card that includes Bluetooth and NFC connectivity, expanded storage, a display, and a keypad, in addition to IDEX Biometrics’ authentication solution. This innovative device represents a complete card-based solution for supporting payments using digital currency. China has a stated goal to be the leading major economy to displace traditional, central bank backed hard currency with digital currency. To that end, China will be showcasing initial deployments of both card-based and phone-based digital wallets during the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022.