An announcement from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated its goal to standardise the blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) industry. An organisation named ‘National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee’ will be formed to oversee the standardisation.
The announcement notes that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have begun classifying blockchain technology. China has reportedly contributed towards the ISO’s research into blockchain and DLT.
Last week China’s national People’s Congress (NPC) discussed the positives and negatives of the new technology. The consensus from the conference was that despite the technology being at a early and rudimentary stage the tech had significant potential.
Pony Ma, Tencent CEO was quoted in a Q&A:
“Although the invention of blockchain is [excellent], the key to its future lies largely in actual applications. Meanwhile ICOs remain highly risky. We do not intend to participate in launching our own cryptocurrency.”
Blockchain Not Bitcoin
China has taken the most aggressive stance against cryptocurrencies, banning ICOs and crypto trading in 2017. Bitcoin has been used successfully as a tool to avoid strict currency capital controls imposed by the authoritarian state. Which has led to the hostile stance towards all decentralised and borderless cryptocurrencies which they do not have control over.
However, China appears to be aware of the potentially innovative use cases of blockchain technology it is clear that the government will not compromise its control in adopting any form of blockchain technology.
