The Chinese Government is Looking to Create National Blockchain Standards
The Chinese IT ministry is working towards official national standards for blockchain technology to fast-track its development and implementation within China.
Announcing Future Plans
According to an announcement released on March 12, 2018, by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Chinese government hosted a seminar to discuss the creation of official national standards for blockchain technology for the country.
The China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI) along with the Ministry’s Information and software services division will also establish a new technical committee to lead China’s official blockchain standards.
China is currently a part of the technical committee TC 307 commission under the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) alongside 30 other nations that are also working towards developing international standards for blockchain technology.
There are currently seven ISO blockchain standards under development with Australia presently leading the international efforts.
According to the Australian Financial Review, top-level Chinese executives in the fintech sector are in Australia for their first international blockchain standards meeting.
Introducing Blockchain Standards as Soon as Possible
Before the announcement, China held the biggest political event known as the “Two Sessions” where Chinese policy advisers commented on the development of blockchain technology during the first few days of the event.
A politician mentioned a national digital asset trading platform over a blockchain that the Central Bank would oversee, while other authorities called for a decentralized blockchain system based on a centralized structure.
During the event policy advisors also proposed the formation of a set of official regulations to develop and implement blockchain technology within the country.
Despite the government’s abrupt ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency trading since September 2017, the government is relatively optimistic, aggressive and dedicated to keeping ahead of the curve when it comes to the development of blockchain technology.
According to the announcement, the Chinese government would like to introduce these standards “as soon as possible.”
As a result “The Department of Information Technology and Software Services Division will actively promote related work, accelerate the establishment of the standardization committee, and better serve the development of blockchain technology industry.”
China and Australia to Deploy Blockchain Technology
Ming Li, the director of the China Electronics Standardisation Institute, is currently leading a delegation of the top Chinese technology executives in Australia.
The delegation includes fintech top-level executives from Ant Financial, WeBank, JD, ZhongAn, Wanxiang, and OnChain. Li is also responsible for setting China’s official blockchain standards under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information technology.
Since the ISO appointed Australia to lead international efforts, the Chinese executives will be present during the first international blockchain standards meeting for the “ISO/TC 307” group in April in Australia, chaired by Craig Dunn, director of Westpac Corporation.
The Australian blockchain standards meeting will explore future implications and current standards required for blockchain technology.
Although China has an extreme dislike for cryptocurrencies, China is aggressively pursuing research and development in blockchain technology.
Like Russia, China has openly announced its efforts to develop standards for the innovation. China has over 150 blockchain companies and continues to assert their dominance on a global scale when it comes to the development of the nascent technology.
