China took its first step towards blockchain in 2016 when its Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a whitepaper on the blockchain technology and application development of China. The whitepaper entails the benefits of blockchain and how to regulate its applications in various sectors of the economy. The whitepaper mentioned several industries where the technology can be applied, but they paid more attention to the financial sector.
Since China took its first step, both private firms and the Chinese authorities have been working on where and how to apply the technology. The implementation of blockchain-based solutions over the past years is very few. However, in 2019, things have begun to change as many blockchain projects have emerged, especially in identification systems.
According to a report, even the Chinese army is now thinking of using blockchain technology to aid its military, possibly using it to manage personal data and to stimulate the workforce.
Paul Sin – a consulting partner with Deloitte China – said that he believes China is welcoming blockchain just to facilitate data transfer and its uniqueness between participants in various fields:
“China is very supportive of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), just not crypto. Digital identity is not crypto, hence very welcome.”
