China has already set itself ahead of the competition regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While there is a ban placed on cryptocurrencies, the nation has been making great progress regarding the development of blockchain technology.

A blockchain-based infrastructure could potentially give the government more control over the nation’s economy. It is this sentiment from the government that played into its decision to harshly stamp down on ICOs, Bitcoin, and even access to cryptocurrency exchanges through 2017 and 2018.

According to Hong Qi, chairman of Minsheng Bank, blockchain technology would boost China’s economy:

“The full adoption of digital technologies such as blockchain is expected to accelerate the digital transformation and upgrade its agriculture, manufacturing, finance and other services in the next 10 years.”

The nation is seeing rapid growth in terms of blockchain development. Information gathered by LongHash has revealed that in January itself, 714 blockchain firms have sprung up, resulting in a total of 26,089 companies operating in the country in this sector.

Tencent plays a key role

Boosting the nation’s efforts, Chinese tech giant Tencent, the company behind popular video game PUBG, has launched a blockchain accelerator program called the Tencent Industrial Accelerator. The Chinese conglomerate has been actively working to empower blockchain technology within the nation and has previously backed China’s blockchain consortium.

Now the company’s accelerator program has started accepting applications as per the official announcement. The program is open to both new blockchain start-ups and well-established companies looking to implement blockchain technology. The only eligibility criterion is that the applicant must have already completed at least one funding round.

The announcement further states that the selected projects would be able to avail a number of benefits that include four mentoring meetings per year, the opportunity to learn about the industry overseas, and a valuable new network of industry peers.

The participants will also be eligible for year-long free access to Tencent’s blockchain-as-a-service platform. Built on Tencent cloud, the platform allows quick development of IT infrastructure and blockchain services on a flexible and open cloud platform.

Selected projects will be subject to a second round of judging at the end of June. The cost per person for participation in the accelerator will be 100,000 RMB, slightly over $14,000.

Last year, Tencent was responsible for filing the most blockchain patent applications. With a total of 5,800 applications, the company filed 718 of them.

As previously reported by The Daily Chain, the company is also a part of the newly launched “National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee,” that comprises of 71 companies and public entities. The group has been formed to discuss and set industry standards for distributed ledger technology.

Meanwhile, China is already close to deploying their much talked about Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), also referred to as the Digital Yuan. Last month reports surfaced that the nation has already begun the trial of what seems to be the purported pilot version of a wallet app for China’s digital Yuan.