Interpretation of the white paper series "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application" - Blockchain and Digital Economy

Editor's note: On December 31, 2016, the Guiyang Municipal People's Government Information Office officially released the white paper "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application". On February 10, 2017, the Guiyang Municipal Government held a press conference on "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application", and once again emphasized the application of blockchain technology. The direct participation of government departments is the most obvious feature of Guiyang's blockchain application. As the editor of this "White Paper", Saizhi Blockchain has made twelve special interpretations of the "White Paper" for readers. This article is the third series of analysis of the white paper "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application".

The White Paper specifically elaborates on the economic and social significance of blockchain from three perspectives: digital economy, Internet governance, and big data development. The White Paper points out that blockchain, as a supporting technology for the digital economy, will help build a trusted, secure, open and shared digital economy, and the digital economy is becoming a new engine for economic growth.

1. Digital economy: bringing new vitality to the world economy

The White Paper first introduces the concept and attributes of the digital economy. The White Paper points out that the digital economy refers to a series of economic activities that use digital knowledge and information as key production factors, modern information networks as important carriers, and the effective use of information and communication technologies as an important driving force for improving efficiency and optimizing economic structure. The digital economy has three attributes: open innovation is its natural attribute, inclusive sharing is its inclusive attribute, and security and controllability are its basic attributes. At present, the world economy is in a period of transformation from old to new drivers, and the development of the digital economy is becoming a new engine for global economic growth.

Figure 1 Three major characteristics of digital economic development

2. Blockchain: Supporting Technology for Digital Currency and Digital Assets

As the real economy transforms into a digital economy, paper money will gradually be replaced by digital money, and all kinds of assets will be digitized. In the future, the network may carry all financial activities in the economic society, so a reliable underlying support technology that allows value information to be transmitted in the network is needed. The White Paper believes that blockchain can shoulder this important task.

Blockchain is a strategic supporting technology for digital currency. As a supporting technology, blockchain has been successfully applied to digital tokens represented by Bitcoin. The encrypted digital currency technology system constructed with blockchain as the core solves the problems of value mutual recognition and repeated payment on the Internet, and forms value tokens on the Internet, gradually supporting an industrial system with digital tokens as the value circulation medium, including payment, settlement, exchange, finance and asset transfer functions. In the future, it will further promote the establishment of legal digital currency.

Blockchain is a strategic supporting technology for digital assets. Blockchain technology has been applied to the field of digital financial assets because it can make financial asset transactions more trustworthy, efficient and low-cost. As humans enter the digital age, blockchain technology can establish a distributed ledger that can share assets between multiple nodes, multiple institutions and different regions. The assets recorded in this ledger can be financial or non-financial, physical or virtual assets, and any changes in the ledger will be reflected in a timely manner among all participants. The development and application of blockchain will further promote the digitization of various assets and the securitization of digital assets, and become an important technical support for the efficient circulation of digital assets.

3. Blockchain: Building a Trustworthy, Secure, Open and Shared Digital Economy

In addition to being an important technical support, the White Paper emphasizes that blockchain will build a "trust machine" on the Internet, which will also help to bring out the basic attributes of the digital economy: it will make the digital economy more trustworthy, secure, open and shared.

Figure 2 Blockchain: A machine of trust

The White Paper believes that blockchain will promote the establishment of a credible and secure digital economy. Blockchain uses encryption and consensus algorithms to establish a trust mechanism, making denial, tampering and fraudulent behavior costly, ensuring that data cannot be tampered with or forged, and achieving data integrity, authenticity and consistency. Relying on blockchain will help establish credible and secure digital economic rules and order, create a more credible and secure environment for sovereign economies to participate in the global digital economy, and promote closer digital economic cooperation between different countries, regions, business units and individuals.

At the same time, the White Paper believes that blockchain will promote the establishment of an open and shared digital economy. The digital economic system built on blockchain technology is a peer-to-peer collaboration system that is open to all participants. Each participant has the right to know, can share economic value, and can verify transaction behavior. This will realize an equal and open economic collaboration system across institutions, organizations, individuals, and intelligent entities, and promote the development of a shared economy. Blockchain will further establish an equal and open network economic space, and different countries and regions will cooperate on an equal basis to form a close partnership and better share the fruits of digital technology and digital economic development.

Saizhi Blockchain, as the editor of this White Paper, believes that the White Paper accurately analyzes the role of blockchain in promoting the development of the digital economy. The digital economy will greatly benefit from the consensus and peer-to-peer collaboration mechanism of blockchain and become more reliable, secure, open and shared. Different countries and regions can carry out closer and equal economic cooperation. As a pathfinder in exploring the relationship between the digital economy and blockchain, Guiyang was the first to realize the huge potential of blockchain in the digital economy and has begun to actively promote the process of the blockchain industry, which will accumulate valuable industry experience for the formation and development of the national blockchain industry.