Among over 80,000 blockchain projects launched globally, only 8% are still being actively maintained and their average life span is only about 1.22 years, says an official at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

“(These blockchain projects) emerge quickly, and die quickly as well,” He Baohong, the director of Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute of CAICT, a specialized think-tank for the government directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China. “In this context, governments all over the world are speeding up and competing to formulate unified standards, in a bid to dictate the rules of the industry and application realization of the technology.”

He made the comment and called on governments to establish unified standards for blockchain at the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 held in Guizhou city in southwest China, which draws attendees and officials from over 30 countries including “the father of digital economy” Don Tapscott. According to a previous report by 8btc, China is expected to complete the formulation of its national standards for blockchain by the end of 2019.

“We have established distributed ledger and verifiable blockchain programs in China. At present some 200 enterprises have joined it,” He said. “(This) will enable blockchain technology and blockchain industry to be more transparent and open.”

Speaking of the development and achievement of global blockchain industry, the official said the most important change he has seen is the growing global interest in blockchain. He concluded six major changes including that a database or a ledger is maintained by multi-parties rather than by an individual or organization; built-in contract realized by smart contract rather than traditional contract; increasing information transparency; the close integration of the flow of data and asset; the tamperproof feature via the block chain structure; the growth of digitized data and assets.

A report on top 10 trends of global blockchain industry was also released by CAICT, which includes the growing iteration of blockchain technology, industry progress and application achievement, as well as its standardization, potential risks, government regulations and talent training.