China’s Ministry of IT Will Speed Up Development of Blockchain Industry

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has ordered local financial authorities to speed up the development of the blockchain industry by creating a healthy, orderly, and fair market for companies.

Xinhua, the official state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China, reported that the ministry will increase its efforts in growing the local blockchain sector by pushing the testing, deployment, and implementation of the blockchain across a wide range of industries outside of finance, such as credit reporting, smart manufacturing, and supply-chain management.

The official report of Xinhua read:

“The industry remains in a nascent stage. While the technology has brought benefits, it could also bring risks such as technical loopholes, and challenges to current systems and norms, the ministry said. The ministry also said it will work with local authorities to push for healthy and orderly development of the industry.”

Spending Billions on Blockchain Development

In July 2018, Nanjing, the capital of China’s Jiangsu province, announced the launch of a $1.5 billion blockchain investment fund, to facilitate the growth of blockchain startups and development teams working on innovative blockchain-related solutions.

The establishment of the multi-billion dollar investment firm dedicated to the blockchain industry followed the optimistic comments of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who described the blockchain as a breakthrough technology.

At the time, Wang Xiaohui, the deputy chairman of Tsinghua University’s Internet Industry Research Center, stated that Nanjing, a major capital city in China, will operate as the base location for blockchain-related collaboration and development, enabling global cooperation with businesses and industries worldwide.

In April 2017, the government of Xiong’An, a state-level new area known for its support towards Alibaba and other innovative technology companies in China, invested $1 billion in the Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund, which is expected to focus on financing emerging blockchain startups and operate a large-scale accelerator to assist developers.

In a period of three months, the government of China has contributed to the allocation of more than $3.1 billion to the local blockchain sector, an amount of capital that is large enough to acquire around 20 percent of publicly listed blockchain networks in the global cryptocurrency market.

Why is China Hurrying the Deployment of Blockchain Technology?

As BTCManager reported on July 25, the government of Xiong’an, which was tasked to build Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dream city the Xiongan New Area, gave Ethereum blockchain software studio a contract to develop blockchain-based applications and platforms that will be used by the residents of the Xiongan New Area.

Founded by Ethereum co-creator Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys is a large-scale New York-based blockchain firm with more than 500 developers that create, deploy, and implement decentralized applications.

Lubin said:

“As one of our first major projects in the People’s Republic of China, we are excited to help define the many ‘use cases’ that could benefit from the trust infrastructure enabled by ethereum technology.”

Outside of its established initiatives to finance blockchain startups billions of dollars in the upcoming years, the government of China is currently working with independent contractors and blockchain networks based in foreign markets to fuel the growth of the local blockchain sector and most importantly, demonstrate the success of blockchain technology to the public.

Throughout 2018, in consideration of the positive comments regarding blockchain technology released by President Xi and state-owned media outlets Xinhua and CCTV, experts expect the government of China to aggressively research, develop, and integrate blockchain-based solutions which the country perceives as an essential element in the fourth industrial revolution.