China Releases Beijing’s Blockchain Innovation Blueprint Version One

Officially published on July 16, a 145-page comprehensive plan of blockchain innovation based in Bejing demonstrates China’s ambitions in implementing blockchain-propelled applications. This is the first time the capital of China unveiled details of its blockchain operations. 

Following after success achieved by four pilot sites in Beijing, the plan broadens its geographic range along with extending its industrial scope. In a statement said by the government, 140 government services are already using blockchain and the technology is helping China to recover more quickly from the Covid-19 lockdown.

The whole system is built on a national blockchain platform with an extensive outlook. Stressing the importance of building a “programmable society”, the plan covers 12 sectors including airport industry, clearance, identity authentication, e-accounting, financial services, real estate registration, e-certificate, e-governance and so on. 

The plan for building e-governance service is considerably more detailed than other applications in the blueprint. Covering 6 major districts in Beijing, the plan specifies the number of particular services each district will be implementing, with the Haidian district leading a hundred blockchain scenarios. Some features include data sharing, business collaboration, and electronic deposit certificates. 

“This looks real, unlike a lot of vaporware in the space”, Balaji Srinivasan, VC investor and economist, commented on the twitter, “This is an official government document in Chinese that appears to lay out system diagrams, specific data structures, and API calls.”

However, details of how to implement an identity and social credit platform which is mentioned by the Beijing government previously, haven’t been laid out in the plan. 

“There are many ethical critiques of China one can & should make! But that should not mean underestimating them”, Srinivasan added.

By Lily Yang

Related Articles