Blockchain technology usage in China is steadily rising due to support from the government. The latest push by the policymakers gives hope that China will finally accept the usage of both public and private chains in the country.
The opening of China’s first blockchain industrial park was opened in Shanghai’s Baoshan District in November 2016 highlighted its commitment to technology. The country has been leading from the front and investing a significant amount of money into technological advancement.
Since then, over $24 billion has been spent in opening more industrial parks around the world. Efforts have also been made to connect the technology with finance, insurance, real estate, intellectual property, and other industries in the country.
Support of blockchain technology
Chinese government’s efforts combined with their private sectors, which is also investing heavily in the technologies, underpins their ambitious plan to become blockchain leaders. Chinese businesses are also leading in the number of patents application in the industry with more than 6,000 patents already.
The three biggest Chinese tech companies, collectively known as BAT (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent), have taken a huge chunk of these patents, for instance, Alibaba holds 534 patents alone. They see it as an important industry of the future and investing heavily.
However, China has always opposed the abuse of blockchain technology, which has led to crackdowns of the technology in the past. In 2017, the Chinese government banned the initial coin offering (ICO) in what they described as a measure to prevent scamming and also protect their regulate the market. This lead to many people questioning their commitment to advancing the technology.
The recent comments by President Xi in October may have opened possibilities of China, allowing the use of public chains. In the past, the Chinese government has been opposed to decentralized blockchain technology, but they are becoming more open-minded.
Some universities are now offering blockchain technology courses. With the full support of the president, China is also embarking on a journey to create a blockchain research institute in collaboration with Conflux.
The collaboration is expected to yield a worldwide platform for digital blockchain usage. It also opens doors for the use of both public and private chains within China.
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