Blockchain technology will be used to verify the real identities of China’s 1.4 billion people, according to an announcement from the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), China’s national-level blockchain initiative – a move likely to raise concerns will lead among data privacy advocates.
China’s Ministry of Public Security led the initiative, called RealDID, with help from BSN.
With the launch of the RealDID service, users can register and log in to websites anonymously using DID addresses and private keys, keeping business data and transactions separate from personal information.
China’s six largest social media platforms, including WeChat, Sina Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu, require content creators with more than 500,000 or 1 million followers to publicly display their real names or those of their backers. State media reported this in October.
According to state media, this was intended to increase credibility and allow for public scrutiny.
BSN said in a press release that this is the world’s first decentralized real name identity system at the national level.
BSN China is operated by the Chinese National Information Center in collaboration with Chinese major technology companies China Mobile and China UnionPay. The international operations are independently managed by BSN Global, which is said to be a separate entity with a firewall.
CoinDesk recently reported that there is a bipartisan US bill was in the works to ban federal government officials from using Chinese-made blockchains and transacting with companies such as Tether’s parent company iFinex, with the aim of preventing potential national security risks and protecting private data from the access of foreign adversaries.
Recently, the US removed the Chinese Institute of Forensic Sciences, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security, from a trade sanctions list to promote counter-drug cooperation despite concerns about China’s human rights practices, with the aim of combating the trafficking of fentanyl and related chemicals into the US
Following this, China warned its chemical manufacturers against producing fentanyl precursors.
The National Narcotics Control Commission writes this in a recent circular anyone involved in the production of chemicals used to make the opioid was at risk of ending up in the “long-arm jurisdiction” of foreign law enforcement.