On Tuesday, Forbes’ Michael del Castillo published an article about the 50 largest public companies exploring blockchain adoption. The list includes all ten of the largest public companies in the world, including the Agricultural Bank of China Limited and the Bank of China, both of which are developing blockchain projects.
Despite heavy interest in the decentralized information aspect of the blockchain that enables individuals to own their individual data, China continues to scrutinize ICOs — which were banned domestically in September of 2017. This does, however, not mean that the Chinese government isn’t extremely interested in the technology itself.
In June of last year, just before the ICO ban, we saw many of China’s largest financial enterprises announce partnerships with major tech and internet companies. The bank of China made agreements with Tencent to test the use of blockchain technology in financial apps, while others chose to explore options to improve their supply chain management.
Positive Tone
Now, in 2018, interest in the blockchain has only grown larger. Coindesk reports that, during a June broadcast of the state-owned broadcaster CCTV, viewers heard the following statement: “The value of blockchain is 10 times that of the Internet.” The quote came from Zhang Shoucheng, a physics professor at Stanford University and founder of Danhua Capital, a VC firm that is primarily interested in blockchain.
The increased positive tone coming from the Chinese government has caused a wave of excitement among the Chinese private sector. In late May of this year, President Xi Jinping went on record stating that “A new generation of technology represented by artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, internet of things and blockchain is accelerating breakthrough applications.”
Governmental Adoption
China’s government seems adamant on adopting blockchain technology nationwide, but they will do it on their own terms. Some argue that despite these embracing statements from the president, China is not interested in public blockchains — which was echoed by the ban on cryptocurrency trading. Rather than going for full decentralization, they are moving towards creating their own centralized digital currency.
There is no doubt that China has seen the importance on becoming a global center of science and innovation, but as is often their way; they are going to make sure the technologies are being controlled by the government primarily. One might argue that this goes against the entire nature of decentralization, while others might say it is necessary to ensure the technology serves the needs of the country, and not individuals looking to make a quick buck.
One thing is certain: the Chinese government sees the value of blockchain and is not afraid to implement it on a national scale. Which is something other nations can learn from.
Cheers,
Jan Heemskerk
Content Manager at Parksen
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