State-owned capital actions in blockchain: more than half of central enterprises are involved, and local state-owned capital participates in blockchain enterprises

Central enterprises such as State Grid Corporation of China and China Electronics Corporation have made significant progress in the public relations of core technologies and have applied for more than 1,200 core blockchain patents in total.

ChinaBlockchainNews (ID:ChinaBlockchainNews) Original author | Yang Zhengjun

On October 24, the official account of the Central Enterprise Blockchain Cooperation Platform published an article stating that central enterprises are accelerating the creation of a source of original blockchain technology and the leader of the modern industrial chain, forming a group of backbone blockchain enterprises, and producing a series of original scientific and technological achievements with international leading levels.

State Grid Corporation of China and China Electronics Corporation and other central enterprises have made significant progress in the public relations of core technologies, and have applied for more than 1,200 core blockchain patents. State Grid Corporation of China has established the world's first "blockchain + carbon trading" international standard, and China Unicom and others have participated in the formulation of 11 international standards and 3 national standards.

More than half of central enterprises are involved in blockchain

State-owned enterprises are involved in various important industries in China's economic field. They are an important pillar of the national economy and the backbone of the implementation of the country's blockchain strategy.

In 2016, the State Council issued the "13th Five-Year National Informatization Plan", which listed blockchain technology as a strategic cutting-edge technology. Many central enterprises have already started to deploy blockchain in business-related fields.

According to media reports, since 2015, China Unicom Research Institute has begun to plan research on blockchain-related theoretical technologies, open source software, distributed storage, etc., while China Mobile applied for blockchain-related patents in 2016.

In February this year, the Central Enterprise Blockchain Cooperation Platform released the "Central Enterprise Blockchain Innovation and Development Report (2021)", which pointed out that as of December 2020, 54 of the 97 central enterprises directly managed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission were involved in the blockchain field, accounting for nearly 55.7%. Central enterprises have established 13 blockchain laboratories, 2 blockchain professional companies, and invested in 3 blockchain start-ups.

The Central Enterprise Blockchain Cooperation Platform was established on October 24, 2020. It was guided by the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and jointly initiated by State Grid E-Commerce Company and more than 20 central enterprises. It is positioned to give play to the leadership and driving force of central enterprises, build a blockchain service network for central enterprises, and create new business forms for the blockchain industry.

"Chain News" found that the blockchain layout of central enterprises mainly involves government affairs, energy, finance, communications, medical care, e-commerce, manufacturing and other fields related to national economy and people's livelihood, focusing on practical applications.

In terms of scenario applications, State Grid, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, China COSCO Shipping, China Merchants Group, China Resources Group, China Communications Construction Group, etc. have implemented applications in green electricity trading, vaccine traceability, import release, cross-border trade logistics, points rights and interests, smart transportation and other scenarios.

According to Xinhua News Agency, State Grid Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd. is the first blockchain professional company of a central enterprise. It was established in August 2019 and moved into the Xicheng Park of Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park. At the same time, it released five core blockchain financial products, including electronic contracts, power settlement, supply chain finance, electricity fee finance, and big data credit investigation. In July 2020, State Grid Corporation of China also established a blockchain technology laboratory.

State Grid is one of the earliest central enterprises to enter the blockchain field and has achieved good results in the field of blockchain. According to the "Blockchain Innovation and Development Report of Central Enterprises (2021)", as of December 2020, State Grid has applied for 373 blockchain-related patents, ranking second in the central enterprise blockchain patent rankings, while China Unicom and China Mobile ranked first and third respectively.

Local state-owned assets enter the game

Against the backdrop of the country's promotion of blockchain, local governments and local state-owned capital are unwilling to lag behind, and have used policies as support and capital as momentum to push local industrial capital into the blockchain field in a big way.

In 2018, governments in many places set up blockchain-related industry funds. Among them, Shenzhen established a blockchain venture capital fund with an initial scale of 500 million yuan, with Shenzhen Angel Investment Guidance Fund contributing 40%; Beijing Financial Bureau supported the establishment of a Beijing Blockchain Ecological Investment Fund with a scale of 1 billion yuan; Changsha Economic Development Zone established a blockchain industry fund with a scale of 3 billion yuan, with the government contributing 20%; Nanjing established a 10 billion-level industry public chain fund, with government-guided funds accounting for 30%.

Since 2020, many local governments have intensively introduced special policies to support blockchain, and the idea of ​​using government-guided funds to establish blockchain industry (sub-) funds has become clearer.

According to incomplete statistics from "Chain News", as of now, more than 33 provinces and cities across the country have introduced special blockchain policies. In addition to support measures such as financial incentives, rent reductions, and talent subsidies, many places have explicitly encouraged the establishment of blockchain special funds in policy documents.

Among the 33 local blockchain policy documents counted by Lianxin, 16 places clearly proposed to establish blockchain industry investment funds or sub-funds led by government state-owned capital. Among them, the documents of Hainan, Guangzhou, Loudi and Suzhou clearly stated that the amount of (sub-) funds is 1 billion yuan or not less than 1 billion yuan. In addition, 4 local governments expressed that they would use existing government-guided funds to support blockchain companies, and 9 local governments encouraged private capital to establish blockchain industry funds, and the government gave corresponding support.

Chen Zhaohui, president of the Fujian Blockchain Application Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Fujian Wanwei Blockchain Technology Co., Ltd., told ChainNews that under the guidance of blockchain policies in various regions, state-owned capital has entered the blockchain field on a large scale. Driven by state-owned capital, the scale of the government blockchain market has grown rapidly, state-owned transportation and logistics have ushered in an explosion of blockchain applications, and banks and financial departments have made large-scale inroads into supply chain finance as a pilot.

"Chain News" found that many well-known blockchain companies have the shadow of state-owned capital behind them. For example, Tianhe Guoyun's investors include Hunan Caixin Industrial Fund, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hunan Provincial Government; Shenzhen Capital Group has invested in Sooyun Technology and Yunxiang Blockchain; Bubu Blockchain's investors include Shenzhen China Merchants Venture Capital Fund and Beijing Yizhuang State Investment Corporation; China Merchants Bank's subsidiary CMB International has invested in Xita Technology; and State Investment High-tech (Shenzhen) Venture Capital Fund has invested in QuChain Technology.

Due to differences in capital ecology in various regions, the ways of investing in blockchain by state-owned capital in the mainland and coastal areas are different. According to people familiar with the matter, because the coastal economy is relatively developed and the private economy has a strong internal driving force, it is easier for industrial blockchain to form a business ecology, and state-owned capital investment is often mainly guided, with a relatively small investment proportion. In the mainland, such as the southwest region, many blockchain projects are led by state-owned enterprises or are completely dominated by state-owned capital.

Sichuan Chuantou Cloud Chain Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2018 and focuses on commercial paper services, supply chain finance, etc. based on blockchain technology. According to its official website, Sichuan Chuantou Cloud Chain is a provincial state-owned financial technology platform enterprise controlled by Sichuan Chuantou Information Industry Group.

In April 2021, the country's first blockchain-based vanadium-titanium full-industry chain service platform "Titanium Rongyi" was launched in Panzhihua. According to the official website of Titanium Rongyi, the developer of Titanium Rongyi is Panzhihua Titanium Network Internet Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Panzhihua State-owned Investment (Group) Co., Ltd.

State-owned blockchain landscape: serving national strategy + establishing investment ecosystem

In promoting the development of the blockchain industry, both central enterprises and local state-owned capital play an indispensable role. However, due to the differences in their investment logic, central enterprises and local governments have different characteristics in blockchain investment.

As the national economic pillar, state-owned enterprises serve the national blockchain strategy and tend to focus on serving their own industries in the layout of the blockchain field. For example, the State Grid has implemented green electricity trading, "blockchain + dual carbon goals" and other scenario applications; China Ocean Shipping Company has launched a contactless import pickup solution based on blockchain; China Communications Construction Group has launched a "blockchain-supply chain" financial leasing service to accelerate the process of smart transportation.

The participating entities of central enterprises are mainly their subsidiaries. For example, China Network Security is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Electronics Corporation responsible for the blockchain field. State Grid Blockchain is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Grid. China Enterprise Cloud Chain is led by CRRC Corporation Limited and jointly established by China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, China National Machinery Industry Corporation Limited and others.

Local state-owned capital is often guided by local policies to create a good industrial blockchain investment ecosystem.

The "Notice on Several Policy Measures to Accelerate the Development of Blockchain Industry in Hainan Province" issued by the Hainan Department of Industry and Information Technology in May 2020 proposed the establishment of a blockchain industry fund, encouraging the provincial industrial and information industry investment fund to initiate the establishment of a 1 billion yuan blockchain industry sub-fund in a market-oriented manner, attracting social capital to gather and form a capital supply effect, and providing multi-level services for blockchain companies.

Although the policies in other places are expressed differently, their purposes and methods are similar. State-owned capital plays a guiding role, attracts social capital to gather, and better provides financing and other services for industrial blockchain.

In terms of specific investment areas, local state-owned capital also plays a guiding role. Chen Chaohui said that in general, state-owned capital is more sensitive and cautious in the field of tokens, and is more interested in areas such as certificate storage and government affairs.