Blockchain
China is preparing for a new push for blockchain technology after promising to train half a million new “experts” to work in the sector.
Blockchain was designated as a growth sector by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2018.
In the years that followed, blockchain salaries in the country skyrocketed.
But in recent years, China’s blockchain fervor has slowed.
However, Beijing seems keen to put a stop to this.
According to the China Youth Daily, Beijing has opened a new National Blockchain Research Center after plans to launch the center were unveiled last week.
The center is tasked with training “500,000 blockchain professionals”.
It has also been told to ensure that blockchain technology plays “a central role” in China’s “digital economy”.
The center was established in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology.
And it has been mandated to partner with universities and research institutes across the country.
IT companies will also be asked to work next to the centre.
China’s Latest Blockchain Pivot: Why So Urgent?
Beijing has also unveiled plans to launch a “national” blockchain network solution.
This solution, the ministry said, will connect existing blockchain protocols and “provide support for other industries”.
Professor Zheng Zhi Ming of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed that the center should address the issue of “blockchain islands”.
Zheng explained that these “islands” have come about as different companies and industries have built their own, individual, closed-chain blockchain networks in recent years.
China banned most forms of crypto-related activities during nationwide crackdowns in 2017 and 2021.
As such, developers cannot work on decentralized public networks like Ethereum.
Instead, blockchain professionals should work on private networks.
This phenomenon has effectively excluded Chinese companies from the crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) sectors.
Zheng spoke of an “uneven underlying technology network”.
The academic also said a “fragmented technology ecology” had emerged, with “different blockchain applications”.
The professor said:
“The phenomenon of ‘blockchain islands’ is becoming more and more serious. This new type of information island has seriously hampered the development of the digital economy.”
But the academic claimed:
“Building the National Blockchain Technology Center […] will improve significantly [Chinese] innovation capacity and core competitiveness. It will help China take a leading position in the development of the global digital economy.”