China Tracks Victims of Coronavirus with WeChat and Alipay

The officials revealed that they tracked both offline and online purchases of fever medicine to organize relief efforts.

"Since January 20, a comprehensive investigation has been conducted on patients with fever treated by various medical institutions and those who purchased fever and cough medicines through physical drug stores or online. The information including the time, name, citizenship number, current residential address and contact telephone numbers of the above-mentioned patients has been taken in. On-site verification, follow-up testing, isolation and treatment have been organized."

While no direct mentions were made, it is implied that the information has been collected thanks to Alipay and WeChat, the country's duopoly of mobile payment systems - especially for online purchases.

China is notable for its high degree of digitization within payments.

To build on this even further, the People's Bank of China is among the chief global proponents of Central Bank Digital Currencies, or the "Digital Yuan.".

It has been hinted that its usage will be primarily in the retail and purchases sector, which would displace WeChat and Alipay as payment mechanisms.

The extreme measures taken against the Coronavirus seem to suggest that the government is perfectly capable of tracking its citizens' purchases.

While progress with the digital Yuan is ongoing, Libra has faced a tough audience even outside of China.

The massive, individualized tracking initiated by Chinese officials for the Coronavirus outbreak is something that can only be made possible by centralized payment systems.

While medication purchases in Bitcoin would have likely eluded scrutiny in this case, the cryptocurrency's ledger is completely open to the world.