People's Daily Science Popularization Blockchain: New Driving Force for Technological Innovation and Industrial Transformation

Original title: Popular Science "Blockchain" - New Driving Force for Technological Innovation and Industrial Transformation Source: People's Daily

Editor's note: The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held its 18th collective study on the current status and trends of blockchain technology development on October 24. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in presiding over the study that the integrated application of blockchain technology plays an important role in new technological innovation and industrial transformation. We must take blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies, clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on conquering a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the innovation and development of blockchain technology and industry.

This edition publishes an article by Academician Chen Chun, introducing the relevant knowledge and applications of blockchain technology, hoping to help readers understand the pulse of science and technology and acquire cutting-edge new knowledge.

The traditional Internet has gone through 50 years of development and has brought great changes to human society. What direction will the Internet go in the next 50 years? Many researchers believe that it is very likely to move from the information Internet to the value Internet and the trust Internet. The information Internet solves the problem of information transmission and information sharing, but it cannot guarantee the authenticity of information. Whether it is artificial intelligence technology or big data analysis technology, it only judges the authenticity of the other party communicating on the Internet from a probability perspective. The value Internet and the trust Internet are to solve the problem of information authenticity.

Blockchain is seen as an important support for the Internet of Value and the Internet of Trust

We can use the story of bookkeeping to explain blockchain. Fundamentally speaking, blockchain is a new way of recording information. In a village, Zhang San lent Li Si 100 yuan. He wanted to let everyone know about this account, so he broadcast it through the village radio station. All villagers heard the broadcast and received the information. They would verify the authenticity of the information in their own way, and then record the information in their own account books. In this way, all villagers' account books would say "Zhang San lent Li Si 100 yuan". There would be no disputes about the loan afterwards, and there would be no possibility of false accounting. This accounting system is distributed or multi-centralized. The account book data is assembled and arranged into blocks according to the chronological order. The blocks are connected to form what we call blockchain. It is connected head to tail in chronological order and can be traced back, but it cannot be tampered with because they are all encrypted. If it is tampered with, all villagers can verify it. This is the "consensus algorithm". This can also illustrate a core idea of ​​blockchain: single point initiation, full network broadcast, cross-verification, and joint accounting. A series of technologies including distributed architecture, consensus algorithm, and smart contracts have contributed to the realization of blockchain.

Because blockchain is open, transparent, traceable, and difficult to tamper with, it can directly prove and confirm all the behaviors of a subject through layer-by-layer message backtracking, thus deterministically solving the problem of information authenticity. A large number of "account reconciliation" behaviors made by different subjects in the traditional technology field due to distrust are no longer necessary under the distributed ledger consistency logic of blockchain. This is of great value to the integrity system of the entire Internet, and even extends to the integrity system in real society. Through blockchain, reliable trust transmission can be achieved, and blockchain is therefore regarded as the cornerstone of the next generation of value Internet and trust Internet. Although blockchain is currently a new type of network built on the existing Internet and connected by application software, as time goes by, it will gradually sink to the basic layer of the Internet and integrate with the existing Internet to jointly build the next generation of Internet infrastructure. In terms of technology, blockchain can be integrated with artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, quantum computing, etc.

Assist in the development of digital economy and the construction of social credit system

When talking about blockchain, we have to mention Bitcoin. Blockchain originated from Bitcoin, but its subsequent development far exceeded the scope of Bitcoin. When Bitcoin was born in 2009, blockchain, an integrated innovative technology, was introduced based on cryptography, distributed computing and other technologies. However, in the world of Bitcoin, the coin and the chain are one, that is, blockchain cannot be separated from the application of Bitcoin. In 2013, the launch of the Ethereum community realized the separation of chain and coin for the first time. On the underlying technology platform of blockchain, the possibility of supporting any application has been realized, which is a major technological leap. But whether it is Bitcoin or Ethereum, they are all public chains, anyone can participate, and it is difficult to regulate; it was not until 2015 that the world's first alliance blockchain appeared. Its biggest feature is access control, excellent privacy protection, and greatly improved performance.

Judging from the current trend, the development focus of blockchain technology in the West is public chains, and the application and industrial development focus is mainly on financial innovation based on public chains, while the development focus of blockchain technology in China is autonomous and controllable alliance chains, and the application and industrial development focus is on how blockchain can serve industrial economy, government services and social governance. Since the beginning of this year, alliance chains have been put into practical use in many fields in my country, including finance, law, medical care, energy, and public welfare.

Some time ago, blockchain technology helped the China Construction Bank (7.250, 0.04, 0.55%) head office and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to complete the interconnection of 491 city provident fund centers across the country, ensuring data synchronization while ensuring clear data rights and responsibilities, and effectively cooperating with the implementation of the State Council's new individual tax special deduction rules. In the context of frequent talent flow, people have a prominent demand for cross-regional provident fund business. In the past, to achieve "interconnection", it may be necessary to set up a department to centrally manage data and build a physical space for centralized data storage. However, blockchain technology can keep the ownership of data in each provident fund center. 491 provident fund centers join a consortium blockchain network as relatively equal nodes, and can share data only through smart contracts.

Another example is the difficulty of small and medium-sized enterprises in obtaining loans. In the past, if an enterprise wanted to obtain a loan, it had to provide asset guarantees or stock guarantees, or have other enterprises provide guarantees. All guarantees, contract signing, and coordination take time, which affects the efficiency of loans. Now, if small and medium-sized enterprises have orders or accounts receivable, they can turn the orders or accounts receivable into digital certificates on the blockchain, which the bank can see clearly and make a decision on whether to lend, greatly improving the efficiency of loan processing.

The product traceability solution based on blockchain allows the product manufacturer, distributor, overseas shipping customs, international transporter, import customs and domestic logistics to record the product flow information on the blockchain. Compared with the traditional code scanning traceability, the entire information is more open, transparent and credible, allowing consumers to determine whether the "overseas purchase" they ordered is really from a certain place. Blockchain technology is also very useful for the thorny issue of intellectual property protection in the judicial field. It can ensure that the intellectual property rights are confirmed at the moment of generation, and after confirmation, transactions can be carried out openly, transparently and credibly. Without blockchain technology, when a music platform website gives feedback to the creator that a song is well written and has been downloaded 1,000 times this month, the creator may wonder: maybe 10,000 times? With blockchain, all transaction records are authentic and credible, and the platform cannot falsify them.

It can be seen that as long as it involves characteristics such as evidence storage, trust, collaboration, and non-tamperability, blockchain has a large application space. We must fully recognize the core value of blockchain technology, actively explore and expand the application of blockchain technology in finance, people's livelihood, government affairs, industrial manufacturing and other fields, focus on analyzing the business pain points that blockchain technology can solve and its applicability in different scenarios, vigorously promote the development of blockchain application industry, and strive to make blockchain a new driving force for the development of the digital economy and an important support for the social credit system.

Emphasis on research, application and supervision, taking the initiative and reflecting distinctiveness

In the future, blockchain still has a long way to go in terms of technology research, industrial application, and regulatory services. We must strive for the initiative in the development of blockchain technology, especially to achieve breakthroughs in the core technology of alliance chains with high performance, security and privacy, high availability, and high scalability, vigorously develop domestically produced, independently controllable blockchain technology platforms, and fully reflect Chinese characteristics in the development and deployment of blockchain systems, rather than relying entirely on foreign open source platforms.

In order for blockchain to serve all walks of life and realize large-scale application of "blockchain +", the first thing to do is to solve the problems on and off the chain. At present, it is impossible for us to put all the data in the off-chain information system on the chain. In that case, there will be problems with storage capacity and processing performance. However, we can collect "data fingerprints" for the data that needs to be guaranteed to be authentic and reliable in the information system, put the "data fingerprints" on the chain, and link the on-chain and off-chain to ensure the data in the information system is credible. For different application scenarios, analyzing which data to put on the chain and how to link the on-chain data with the off-chain information system are all issues that need to be studied and solved in the application.

As an important information infrastructure, blockchain should attach great importance to security issues during its rapid development. Anyone can publish information at a very low cost on public chains such as Ethereum, and the immutability and decentralization of blockchain will greatly increase the difficulty of supervision. Using blockchain to spread harmful information and online rumors will have an adverse impact on the application and development of blockchain technology. Use the weapon wisely. It is like some people think that if there are no police and traffic lights on the road, cars can drive faster. In fact, it is difficult to move on a road without supervision. Only by improving the standardization of blockchain technology applications, improving blockchain regulatory technology, regulatory policies, regulatory capabilities and regulatory models, and ensuring that industrial development and supervision go hand in hand, can we create a good environment for the healthy development of blockchain technology.

Now everyone is interested in blockchain and has a need to understand it, which is a good thing. The introduction of relevant technologies and the popularization of knowledge are therefore particularly important. In this regard, professional books and popular science books should cooperate with each other to meet the reading needs of different levels. In terms of professionalism, I recommend the book "Advanced and Practical Blockchain Technology" published by People's Posts and Telecommunications Press. This book conducts a panoramic analysis of blockchain from the perspectives of technical principles, market development, government planning, application scenarios and platform comparison, and provides an in-depth introduction to the three mainstream blockchain platforms. It is equipped with a hands-on development guide, and provides actual project case descriptions and source code. It is suitable for relevant technical personnel to learn blockchain technology from the shallow to the deep. Blockchain popular science books are now being launched one after another. Some focus on the basic principles and applications of blockchain, some focus on predicting development prospects, and some focus on the field of financial technology. The quality of the books needs to be tested by readers. As blockchain is listed as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of my country's core technologies, it is very meaningful for the publishing industry to let more readers understand the ins and outs of blockchain, the development process of Internet technology, and rationally view the impact and changes brought about by technological progress on social life in an easy-to-understand way.

(The author is Chen Chun, professor at Zhejiang University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering)

Editor-in-charge: Tang Jing