"Policy dividends" release industrial blockchain breakthrough

On June 18, according to a document, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Bureau issued a notice on the cleanup and shutdown of virtual currency "mining" projects. Sichuan, a major hydropower province, officially stopped Bitcoin mining.

This shows that various regions are continuously deepening their implementation of the requirements of the 51st meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council on "cracking down on Bitcoin mining and trading activities."

Therefore, under the "heavy fist" of supervision, blockchain entrepreneurs are lost. On June 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Application of Blockchain Technology and Industrial Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), which pointed out the direction for the development of the industry at the national level.

Yu Jianing, rotating chairman of the Blockchain Committee of the China Communications Industry Association, said in an interview with the media that the "Guiding Opinions" encourage local governments to combine their resource endowments, highlight regional characteristics and advantages, build blockchain development pilot zones in accordance with the "regulatory sandbox" concept, and create blockchain "famous parks."

"In other words, the release of the Guiding Opinions means that the country's top-level design for the development of the blockchain industry has been basically completed." Yu Jianing said that this means that the development goals of the blockchain industry in the next 10 years have been clarified, which has important guiding significance for the overall development of the blockchain industry.

Blockchain becomes an important breakthrough in innovation

As an important part of the new generation of information technology, the country is relatively supportive of its application. As early as 2016, the "13th Five-Year National Informatization Plan" issued by the State Council listed blockchain technology as a strategic frontier technology.

On October 24, 2019, at the 18th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, it was emphasized that "we must take blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation in core technologies, clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on conquering a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the innovative development of blockchain technology and industry."

At the press conference of the National Development and Reform Commission on April 20, 2020, the official clarified the scope of "new infrastructure" for the first time, and blockchain was officially included in the scope of new infrastructure.

In other words, since the 2019 Politburo meeting and the 2020 new infrastructure plan, the role and importance of blockchain technology have been recognized, and the development of the blockchain industry has ushered in new opportunities. In addition, the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Term Objectives for 2035" also lists blockchain as one of the emerging digital industries.

Huobi Research Institute wrote that in 2020, the number of blockchain-related policies issued nationwide reached 198, a year-on-year increase of 153.84%. The total number of blockchain projects in my country reached 194, a year-on-year increase of 102.8%. In recent months, my country has mentioned blockchain in a number of policies, including the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Consumption", "Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Mechanism for Realizing the Value of Ecological Products", and "Special Action Plan for Optimizing and Upgrading the Commodity Market (2021-2025)", involving multiple high-level departments such as the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Commerce.

Huobi Research Institute believes that the release of the "Guiding Opinions" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China will bring an opportunity for the accelerated development of my country's industrial blockchain. In the long run, with the joint efforts of the government, industry organizations, and corporate personnel, the development of industrial blockchain is an inevitable trend.

On June 13, a relevant person in charge of the Information Technology Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that my country's current blockchain technology applications and industries already have a good foundation for development, and a number of representative blockchain applications have emerged in the fields of anti-counterfeiting and traceability, supply chain management, judicial evidence storage, government data sharing, and people's livelihood services.

He believes that the supporting role of blockchain in my country's economic and social development has initially emerged. However, at the same time, my country's blockchain is also facing problems such as the urgent need for breakthroughs in core technologies, immature integration applications, a need to improve the industrial ecology, and a significant shortage of talent reserves.

Industrial blockchain is experiencing an explosion

Last year, the "2020 Blockchain Industry Development Report" compiled by Tsinghua University, Peking University and the China Institute of Communications showed that as of now, the number of blockchain patent applications in China is 4,435, accounting for about half of the world.

Recently, at the China Industrial Blockchain Summit, a number of authoritative industry organizations, including the Blockchain Application Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, jointly released the 2020 Top 50 Chinese Industrial Blockchain Companies list and analysis report.

The report is based on the statistical analysis and verification of relevant data of enterprises throughout 2020. The report shows that the top three companies are Ant Group, Ping An Group and State Grid in terms of comprehensive scale and industry influence, innovation and sustainable development, technical service capabilities, and industrial application capabilities. Ant Group also ranks first in the individual evaluation of the above four indicators.

In addition, the number of patents can be used as a powerful indicator to measure the technological strength of enterprises to a certain extent. The report shows that the total number of blockchain patents of the top 50 enterprises has exceeded 9,000, of which technology enterprises have the largest number of blockchain patents, about 2,300, and industrial enterprises have the largest number of blockchain patents, about 410.

On June 15, Securities Daily wrote that the "China Blockchain Standard Blue Book (2020)" jointly released by Digital Asset Research Institute and other institutions pointed out that 2020 was a year of rapid development of China's blockchain standardization, achieving a breakthrough in industry standards, and also achieved many "firsts" in the formulation of international standards. Multiple standard projects have been successfully established in international organizations. As of December 2020, my country has issued 3 blockchain/distributed ledger technology industry standards, 5 provincial local standards, and 34 group standards.

In addition, statistics from Zero One Think Tank show that as of the end of 2020, the number of blockchain patent applications worldwide has reached 51,400. Among them, China has applied for more than 30,000 blockchain patents, ranking first in the world.

Specifically, in 2020, a total of 1,257 domestic companies participated in about 8,200 patent applications, covering 26 fields such as finance, payment, and digital assets. Among them, the attention paid to patent applications in 12 industries such as medical care, electric power and energy, agriculture, and government affairs has shown an upward trend. Some industry insiders believe that this reflects the development trend of my country's blockchain technology from "virtual to real", and the focus of attention and development is gradually returning to the fields related to the real economy.

"The development of the blockchain industry has entered the stage of 'industrial blockchain 2.0'." Yu Jianing believes that the implementation of industrial blockchain is progressing steadily, and its value in empowering the industry has been fully verified. At the same time, "blockchain +" has become the main battlefield for innovation and entrepreneurship, and will lead a new wave of global innovation.

“Policy dividends” boost enterprise growth

"The release of the Guiding Opinions indicates that the benefits of industrial policies will be released at an accelerated pace." Industry analysts said that this will bring new development opportunities to my country's blockchain companies.

Recently, the Blockchain Application Branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing released the "China Industrial Blockchain Development Status and Trend Report". The report shows that in 2020, there were 222 industrial blockchain policies issued, 12,059 new patent applications, and 776 newly established blockchain companies.

The overall positioning of the "Guiding Opinions" is mainly based on three considerations: first, focusing on coordination with the country's overall development strategy; second, accurately grasping the opportunities and challenges of blockchain development; and third, emphasizing the promotion of high-quality economic and social development.

In terms of deepening the application of blockchain, on the one hand, blockchain technology is not yet mature and is still rapidly developing and evolving; on the other hand, the characteristics of blockchain determine that it is only suitable for specific scenarios and needs to be further deeply integrated with application scenarios.

To this end, the Guiding Opinions proposes to cultivate a number of famous blockchain products, enterprises and parks, build an open source ecosystem, adhere to both strengthening shortcomings and strengthening strengths, and accelerate the creation of a complete blockchain industry chain. Specific measures include: building an industry-level alliance chain, creating a number of blockchain "famous products" with advanced technology and strong driving effects; cultivating a number of blockchain "famous enterprises" with international competitiveness, cultivating and incubating blockchain start-ups, and encouraging the creation of unicorn companies; combining the concept of "regulatory sandbox" to create a blockchain development pilot zone, and supporting parks with good basic conditions to build blockchain industry "famous parks".

Its development goal is that by 2025, the comprehensive strength of the blockchain industry will reach the world's advanced level and the industry will take shape. Blockchain applications will penetrate into multiple fields of the economy and society, and a number of well-known products will be cultivated in the fields of product traceability, data circulation, supply chain management, etc., forming scenario-based demonstration applications. Cultivate 3 to 5 backbone enterprises with international competitiveness and a number of innovative leading enterprises, and create 3 to 5 blockchain industry development clusters. The blockchain standard system is initially established. A professional talent team supporting industrial development is formed, and the blockchain industry ecology is basically complete. Blockchain effectively supports the strategies of manufacturing power, network power, and digital China, and plays an important role in promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.

By 2030, the comprehensive strength of the blockchain industry will continue to improve, and the scale of the industry will further expand. Blockchain will be deeply integrated with new-generation information technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence, and will be widely used in various fields. A number of internationally leading enterprises and industrial clusters will be cultivated and formed, and the industrial ecosystem will be improved. Blockchain will become an important support for building a strong manufacturing and network power, developing a digital economy, and realizing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.