Co-Hosted by MATRIX, the inaugural meeting of the China Standards and Innovation Alliance’s Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Council was held in on November 16th.

Any company, whether focused on products or services, needs standards to serve as benchmarks. Only by setting relevant standards can new value and new business models consistently rise to the forefront. Standards, it can then be said, allow businesses and industries to operate effectively. To this end, the development of blockchain standards has been a topic of conversation over the last several years — both domestically and abroad. A few highlights:

· September 2016: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) establishes the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies Committee (ISO/TC307)

· October 2016: The China Electronics Standardization Institute establishes the China Blockchain Technology and Industrial Development Forum

· December 2017: The China Electronics Standardization Institute leads the development of China’s first national blockchain standards

For the past couple years, Chinese entities have been hard at work attempting to standardize the development of blockchain technology and solutions to align the goals and directions of the domestic Chinese market. Indeed, this past August, MATRIX CTO Dr. Bill Li helped established the Huabiao MATRIX AI Network Blockchain Application Standards Research Institute. As these efforts progress, the hope is that the standards themselves become more granular and focused. Enter the China Standards and Innovation Alliance’s Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Council.

Under the guidance of the China Standards and Innovation Alliance, the Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Council aims to build a cross-industry, interdisciplinary artificial intelligence and blockchain exchange platform. The council serves various industry associations and aims to generate economic and social benefits while actively promoting and abiding by the existing national blockchain standards. The council comprises universities, NGOs and enterprises. It is fully supported by the Beijing HuaBiao WeiYe Science & Technology Development Co, Ltd.

The council’s inaugural meeting — co-hosted by the MATRIX AI Network and the Beijing HuaBiao WeiYe Science & Technology Development Co, Ltd — was held in Beijing on November 16th. Attendees included Sinosoft, China Youth Credit, Rong Bao Zhai, BJTTSX (TianTuo Digital), Venustech, and Chengdu Yancheng Technology.

The combination of artificial intelligence and blockchain has extensive real economy implications. There are numerous potential applications in the fields of finance, supply chain management, cultural industries, intelligence manufacturing and social welfare. As such, the council’s secretariat consists of 6 working groups: Information Technology, Product Traceability, Financial Technology, Culture & Art, Credit Management, and Network Security. A primary purpose of the inaugural meeting was for council members to agree on the division of labor of each working group.