Text/Ma Chaoliang Postdoctoral Workstation of China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, China Tongzheng Digital Economy Research Center
The outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan" mentioned in Chapter 15 that the emerging digital industries such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, cloud computing and network security should be cultivated and expanded. In terms of blockchain technology, the outline pointed out that blockchain technology innovations such as smart contracts, consensus algorithms, encryption algorithms, and distributed systems should be promoted, and blockchain service platforms and financial technology, supply chain management, and government services should be developed with the focus on alliance chains, and the regulatory mechanism should be improved. During the 14 th Five-Year Plan period, the digital economy will become an important engine and power source for China’s high-quality development, and blockchain technology and industry will usher in a golden opportunity.
First, the proposal and development of blockchain strategy
In October 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the White Paper on Blockchain Technology and Application Development in China (2016). In December, the State Council released the "Thirteenth Five-Year National Informatization Plan" and pointed out that the basic research and development and frontier layout of new technologies such as blockchain should be strengthened. Since then, the state has issued a large number of policies to support the development of blockchain, and highlighted the blockchain strategy in several plans. In October 2019, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee conducted a collective study on the development status and trend of blockchain technology. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that blockchain should be regarded as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies, and the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation should be accelerated. In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission officially included the blockchain in the "new infrastructure" as one of the key points of information infrastructure. According to statistics, the central government and ministries and commissions issued more than 60 policies related to blockchain in 2020, involving blockchain supervision, industrial application and other aspects.
Local governments have issued a large number of policies to support the development of blockchain industry from the implementation level, involving logistics, economy, finance, agriculture, government affairs and other fields. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 600 blockchain policies have been introduced in various places. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Beijing and other places have introduced relatively many blockchain policies, and the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have also become the fastest growing areas of blockchain in China. Summarizing the filing information of domestic blockchain information services released by the Network Information Office, the total number of filings in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou accounted for more than 70%. The main goal of Beijing Blockchain Innovation and Development Action Plan (2020-2022) is to initially build Beijing into an influential blockchain technology innovation highland, an application demonstration highland, an industrial development highland and an innovative talent highland, and take the lead in forming a "Beijing Plan" for blockchain to empower economic and social development. The "Three-year Action Plan for New Infrastructure Construction in Zhejiang Province" emphasizes to build "the blockchain capital of Hangzhou".
The key project of "blockchain" has been included in the "14 th Five-Year Plan" national key R&D plan, and the blockchain industry has become an emerging digital industry competing for development in various places. Under the guidance of national policies, all localities are accelerating the deployment of blockchain industry development plans during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period, and actively grasping the major window period and opportunity period.
Second, why does the alliance chain become the key direction?
Compared with public chain and private chain, alliance chain is a better choice for the application of blockchain in China. The "14 th Five-Year Plan" also explicitly mentioned that the application of blockchain should be developed with the focus on alliance chain.
First of all, the alliance chain is more in line with China’s national conditions.Compared with the public chain, the alliance chain is located in the blockchain access system established by limited participants, and each node can join or quit the network only after authorization, which ensures the decentralization in the system and is more in line with China’s national conditions. The number of participants in the alliance chain is controllable, and the access rights may be public, which ensures the openness and transparency of the information of public nodes; It may also be limited to some nodes, and privacy protection is achieved by encrypting partitions.
Secondly, the alliance chain is easy to supervise.The "Regulations on the Management of Blockchain Information Services" stipulates that blockchain information service providers should file in the blockchain information service filing management system of the National Internet Information Office, but many public chain service providers do not exist, such as Bitcoin, which makes it difficult to implement public chain supervision. In particular, many ICO(Initial Coin Offering) behaviors based on public chains are explicitly prohibited by China. Alliance chain does not need Token as the main incentive mechanism, and has the characteristics of high security and high concurrency, which is more in line with the needs of China’s industry and regulatory authorities.
Thirdly, the application of alliance chain is very mature in China.With BAT as the representative, many leading domestic science and technology enterprises have developed their own alliance chains and can provide customized services of BaaS. FISCO BCOS, the financial blockchain bottom platform launched by Shenzhen Financial Blockchain Development Promotion Association (Golden Chain Alliance), has been selected as the first domestic alliance chain bottom platform in the national blockchain service network (BSN), and has been applied in more than 80 fields such as government affairs, finance, public welfare, copyright, supply chain and education.
Fourth, the alliance chain has obvious advantages in reducing costs and increasing efficiency.Transaction speed is one of the important indicators of blockchain performance. There are many public chain nodes, low throughput, bottlenecks in transaction speed and relatively high transaction costs. Compared with the public chain, the number of alliance chain nodes is limited, and the verification efficiency is significantly higher than that of the public chain, which can not only realize fast transaction and reduce transaction cost, but also reduce the maintenance cost of blockchain.
Third, countermeasures and suggestions for developing blockchain and alliance chain
1. Guide the construction of relevant standards and laws
Strengthen the research on blockchain standardization, accelerate the construction of blockchain standard system, connect with international standards organizations, and enhance the right to make rules; Improve the laws and regulations in the field of blockchain technology, and clarify the rights, obligations and responsibilities of blockchain technology development, use and management.
2. Improve the technological innovation capability of blockchain.
Strengthen the infrastructure construction of blockchain and promote the technological innovation of blockchain; Build a blockchain innovation laboratory, build a new blockchain scientific research institution, cultivate blockchain innovation industrial clusters, and promote the evolution of core technologies such as smart contracts, consensus algorithms, encryption algorithms, and distributed systems; Accelerate breakthroughs in technologies such as high-performance passwords, improve node data processing capabilities, and help improve blockchain operation efficiency.
3. Explore the integration of blockchain and other "new infrastructure"
Promote the integration, innovation and mutual empowerment of blockchain technology and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G and big data; Introduce blockchain technology in intelligent manufacturing, smart cities, smart medical care, intelligent customer service and other fields to achieve collaborative governance and promote the transformation of "invisible hands" into "smart brains" that can think.
4. Create an industrial ecosystem of alliance chain
Improve the blockchain industry ecosystem with the focus on alliance chain and build an alliance chain industry ecosystem; Improve the construction of upstream platform, develop blockchain service platform with the focus on alliance chain, and promote the commercialization of "alliance chain" blockchain service network; Carry out alliance chain application training to promote downstream industries such as "blockchain+finance" and "blockchain+traceability"; Strengthen the upstream and downstream integration of alliance chain industries, set up alliance chain industry development funds, and support the development of blockchain service industries.
5. Support alliance chain application landing
Encourage the establishment of blockchain alliances in the field of financial technology, support the development of the underlying platforms of financial technology alliance chains such as FISCO BCOS, and promote the application of alliance chain platforms in more fields; Promote the application of alliance chains such as security traceability in supply chain management, speed up the operation of supply chain logistics and reduce the trust cost of supply chain; Build a multi-level "blockchain+government service" platform, promote the innovation and development of government services, promote the sharing of public affairs data, implement government supervision of public affairs, and realize the accuracy of public management.
6. Encourage social organizations to build alliance chains.
Encourage industry associations, industry alliances, chambers of commerce and other organizations to study and build alliance chains, integrate related resources, and promote the docking of industry supply and demand; Create a multi-party co-construction and sharing alliance chain construction mode, and improve the use efficiency of shared data on the alliance chain.
7. Strengthen blockchain supervision
Combine prudential supervision with encouraging innovation, actively explore the "sandbox" system of supervision, crack down on illegal fund-raising in the name of blockchain, and actively introduce policies to promote blockchain technology application innovation and industry development; Improve the supervision technology of alliance chain, promote the data collaboration between the chain and the chain, and explore the supervision mode of "managing the chain by chain".