When flooding inundated a central Chinese language metropolis over the summer time, the calamity dented a key plank of the nation’s much-watched bid to switch paper cash with digital forex: reliability. Heavy July rains pushed rivers over their banks in the city of Zhengzhou , inflicting widespread electrical outages that immobilized mobile service. As a result of city Chinese language usually use mobile-phone fee apps like Tencent Holdings Ltd. ’s WeChat and Ant Group Co.’s Alipay as a substitute of money, instantly inoperable networks meant many within the metropolis of 12 million had no cash, on high of no technique...