The First Batch of Nationally Registered Blockchain Companies Announced and What Does It Mean?
This is a real translation of Yicai’s official coverage.
The Chinese national Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has announced that the first batch of 197 officially registered blockchain-based information service providers in China have successfully received their corresponding registration numbers on March 30th, 2019. CAC has been reviewing these filings in accordance with laws and regulations presented by the Management Rules on Blockchain Information Service which was released on February 15th, 2019.
The list of companies includes public internet companies such as Baidu, Tencent, Iqiyi and a number of startup companies, among the companies, eighteen are located in Shanghai, including Lufax, VeChain, Wanxiang Blockchain and etc.
It’s widely accepted that blockchain’s application in the financial industry is promising since it features openness, anonymity, and immutability. Ant Financial (Alibaba), WeBank (Tencent) and other Fin-tech companies have been deploying blockchains as early as 2017.
During an interview with a journalist from Yicai, Sunny Lu, CEO, and co-founder of VeChain commented: “Official registration is contributive to the overall development of the blockchain industry. This is the first step towards standardizing blockchain technology development and the regulatory environment in China. This also allows for an increasing number of companies to be able to develop blockchain applications on existing blockchains in accordance with the laws and regulations without being shrouded in stigma.” VeChain is currently partnering with PwC, DNV GL, BMW, Renault, D.I.G and other big enterprises to develop blockchain-based applications.
Feng Xiao, President and CEO of Wanxiang Blockchain, indicated: “Commercial benefits, undoubtedly, are the impetus that drives Enterprises to develop blockchain applications, however, the development of blockchain itself wouldn’t be achieved without developers developing applications on it. If we decentralize blockchain’s commercial application without considering compliance and regulation, no one will use blockchain anymore by the end of the day. So we contacted the department in charge of the filing of blockchain information service and asked how to carry out the record-filing process so that we can be more compliant, thereby promoting blockchain’s development.”
When answering to the question “what kind of companies need to filed and be registered” on Technical Exchange Conference on the Filing of Blockchain Information Service in Shanghai early this month, Hongliang Mao, engineer from CNC pointed out that “blockchain information services are a kind of service providing information to the general public via the internet, applications, and other media based on blockchain technology or system. For example, pool and wallet, and all these should be filed no matter if they are for a public blockchain, consortium blockchain or private blockchain. Blockchain media, industry news agency, community and other services that are not operated based on blockchain technology or system do not need to file.” He also mentioned that only the technology provider and operator of the blockchain application are required to file, not the user.
CY Cheung, partner of PwC Shanghai told the same Yicai’s journalist that “the fundamental principle of CAC’s filing regulation is to strengthen, develop and secure the industry. The launch of the regulation is also the inevitable result of the development of the blockchain industry.” At the same time Cheung added that the relevant national policy was announced last year, the latest news was only the successfully filing list and those who have not filed yet should fulfill their due obligation as soon as possible.
