The new silk road passes through the blockchain. China continues the "blockchainization" of its public services and enterprises.
10,000 new blockchain companies have been created there this year.
However, this race from Xi Jinping to the blockchain is a cause for concern. Will his government be able to hijack a tool at the service of a "better" democracy, of accountability, for espionage purposes?
The blockade in Chinese companies and government institutions
According to a local newspaper, the Beijing government had published its first blueprint on the use of blockchain in public services on July 15, 2020.
The document indicates that 140 applications on government services are already on blockchain.
These applications are divided into 3 main categories:
- Data sharing and exchange ;
- Collaborative management of business processes;
- Storage and certificate issuance.
According to a Beijing News article of October 26, 2020, the Director of the Blockchain Research Center at Zhejiang University, Cai Liang, said Beijing has adopted about 100 applications from the blockchain so far.
He added that Chinese government institutions and enterprises have quickly found a concrete use for the blockchain.
In addition to the People's Bank of China, which is about to launch its digital yuan, China's Central Administration of Cyberspace - the authority in charge of Internet regulation and censorship in the country - would also be ready to deploy blockchain solutions, according to Liang.
The same would be true for the Ministry of Industry, Technology and Information Technology.
Liang also mentions the case of the State Grid Electric Vehicle Service, the branch of the State Grid Corporation of China, which is one of the largest energy suppliers in the world.
The organization manages 400 million kWh of green energy on a tracking platform powered by a block chain.
Blockchain - China: decentralize to better spy?
China's interest in the blockchain is ambiguous. The Beijing government is far from being known for its love of democracy and freedom of expression, whereas the blockchain advocates decentralizing processes.
China is concerned with the creation of its hub, the Blockchain-based service network (BSN). The latter could be a way to absorb all major blockchains such as Ethereum (ETH), EOS or Tezos (XTZ) in order to better spy on the activities of network users.
China is ahead of its western rivals in the race for CBDCs and blockchains. This decentralization tool would therefore have more difficulty finding its place in Western democracies?
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