China Overtakes the US & the rest of the World becoming a Leader in Blockchain Adoption

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aelf

4 min readNov 13, 2019

China accounts for 25% of all blockchain projects worldwide and almost 40% of all blockchain patents.

On the back of comments from China’s General Secretary about the countries stance on Blockchain technology, there has been a flurry of media announcements around the world involving China. On October 24th, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee conducted the 18th collective study on the status quo and trends of blockchain technology development. In his study, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the integrated application of blockchain technology plays an important role in new technological innovation and industrial transformation. On the face of it, these views appear surprising given China’s hard stance on cryptocurrencies and ICO fundraising in the past; however, Jinping, specified that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies should not be confused. The Government has been following blockchain technology development quite closely for some time.

In June, District Officials and other governors visited the aelf office in Beijing. This visit was part of a bigger look at Jinnan District Haitang Startup Street.

Although the hardline stance China has taken against cryptocurrencies, the country still boasts many high end projects, including aelf, housing offices throughout. Other well known projects that have been recognised by China’s Center for Information & Industry Development (CCID) include EOS, NEO, Cosmos, Waves, Zilliqa and Tezos. Many of these projects rank in the top 20 of it’s crypto projects ranking. Lesser known is the fact that companies like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu all have been registered as ‘blockchain providers’ in China.

According to Blockdata, China accounts for approximately 25% of all blockchain projects in the world. In addition, China has also been known to lead the world in the number of blockchain patents with 790 patents published. Further signifying the distinction between blockchain and cryptocurrency, of the 2747 patents published globally, 2127 include the term ‘blockchain’ in the title, while only 260 patents contain ‘crypto’, ‘virtual currency’ or ‘digital currency’.

The latest statements from Jinping were, in fact, not the first time China’s leader has praised blockchain technology. In May, 2018, he called the technology a ‘breakthrough’, emphasizing the need for China to focus on its technological development.

China is also one of the first countries to form a committee to develop a national standard for blockchain technology, which will create a solid framework for future development to occur. The committee includes members from many industries and areas of expertise including aelf, to create the best environment for well-founded standards to be developed.

Many of the latest media posts about China have been revolving around the new national digital currency that is soon to be released. This currency comes in a time where Libra is seeking to gain traction and approval for development, but is still struggling with many global regulatory bodies. A key feature of the Chinese Digital Currency is the ability for the token to be used without an internet connection, as suggested by Mu Changchun, Deputy Director of PBOC’s payments department.

Mike Novogratz mentioned the seriousness of this shift away from the US in a tweet, stating that this could result in the US losing their reserve status. It is clear that Blockchain is being taken seriously by countries all around the world, and the time is fast approaching where clear and public stances need to be taken in order to not be left behind. Part of this relies on clear and stable regulations and directions from authority bodies which has long been an issue in many countries including the US.