Chinese Military Mulls Blockchain Technology Adoption and Crypto Rewards for Soldiers

China’s military hierarchy is reportedly eyeing the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency rewards for its personnel. Global Times reports that the Chinese military is keen to enhance the confidentiality of data transmission within its armed forces.

PLA Looking Towards Blockchain

Earlier in November 2019, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) expressed plans to create modalities for blockchain technology utilization within the force. As part of its report, the PLA highlighted the benefits of blockchain as part of efforts to improve the operations of the Chinese military.

According to the Global Times, this blockchain adoption could include the use of technology to create a secure database for military personnel. China’s military hierarchy is reportedly considering blockchain adoption given the robust nature of the technology’s security architecture.

Incentivizing Soldiers via Crypto Rewards

The PLA is also looking to introduce a crypto token reward system for soldiers. A spokesperson for the PLA told Global Times:

“It sounds similar to a KPI system that will give feedback to the troops very frequently.”

The PLA Daily — the official mouthpiece of China’s military, declared that a token reward system could create a means of objective assessment for its personnel. Commenting on the proposed move, the newspaper declared:

“To award or deduct tokens according to one’s daily performance and thus generate an objective assessment would effectively energise the human resource management.”

If implemented, the crypto token reward system might replace the current reward and promotion system that recognizes only long-term outstanding achievements.

The new reward token will not, however, act as money. A PLA spokesperson declared that the tokens will most likely be redeemable for a set of physical rewards.

China’s Expanding Blockchain Adoption

Reports of China’s military looking towards blockchain further strengthens the growing drive towards greater decentralized ledger technology (DLT) utilization within state agencies in the country. Back in October President Xi Jinping described blockchain as a “core technology.”

As previously reported by BTCManager, the country’s central bank is also looking to create a digital RMB. This move has caused some concern among stakeholders in Europe and the United States.

However, despite numerous reports of Beijing adopting a positive stance towards blockchain, critics say this pivot will not include the promotion of decentralization. Instead, detractors of China’s government say authorities in Beijing will use the technology to tighten their censorship grip upon the citizens.