Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Application of Blockchain Technology and Industrial Development (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Jianxi Fa [2021] No. 62, hereinafter referred to as the Guiding Opinions). The relevant contents of the Guiding Opinions are hereby interpreted as follows:
What is Blockchain? Why to issue the “guidance”?
Blockchain is an important part of the new generation of information technology. It is a new database software integrated with distributed network, encryption technology, smart contract and other technologies. In recent years, blockchain technology and industry have developed rapidly on a global scale, and its application has been extended to digital finance, Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management, digital asset trading and other fields, showing a broad application prospect.
The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of blockchain technology and industry. On October 24, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in the 18th collective learning session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that “we should take blockchain as an important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technology, clarify the main direction of attack, increase investment, strive to tackle a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the innovation and development of blockchain technology and industry”. The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan of the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Outline of the 2035 Vision Goal regard blockchain as one of the emerging digital industries, and put forward the requirements of “focusing on the alliance chain to develop blockchain service platform and application programs in the fields of financial technology, supply chain finance, government services and so on”.
At present, China’s block chain technology application and industry have a good foundation for development, and a number of representative block chain applications have emerged in the fields of anti-counterfeiting traceability, supply chain management, judicial certification, government data sharing, people’s livelihood services and other fields. Blockchain’s role in supporting China’s economic and social development has initially emerged. However, at the same time, China’s blockchain also faces problems such as the urgent need for breakthroughs in core technology, the immature integration application, the industrial ecology to be improved, and the obvious shortage of talent reserve.
“Difference” period, with the deepening of the global digital process, block chain industry will be more competitive, “guidance”, will help further consolidate foundation block chain development in our country, speeding up technology application, construction has the world’s advanced level of block of ecology system of the industry chain, to realize spanning development.
II. What is the overall positioning of the Guiding Opinions?
The overall idea of the Guiding Opinions is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, based on the new development stage, implementing the new development concept, building a new development pattern, and promoting the construction of an advanced blockchain industrial system. The overall positioning is mainly based on three considerations:
First, pay attention to the coordination with the country’s overall development strategy. Strengthen and manufacturing power, network power, digital China and other countries of major development strategy synergy, to cultivate internationally competitive products and enterprises as the goal, to deepen the real economy and the public service domain fusion applied for path, proactive planning, early movers, modernization of high-level industrial base and the industrial chain, promote industry competitiveness overall jumped and development by leaps and bounds.
The second is to accurately grasp the opportunities and challenges in the development of blockchain. At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change is further deepened, and major countries in the world are accelerating the layout of blockchain technology development. China has a strong domestic market and rich application scenarios, and has a good foundation in the field of blockchain, especially the rapid development of alliance chain. However, it still faces challenges such as industrial application needs to be deepened, industrial foundation needs to be consolidated, and ecological cultivation needs to be strengthened. We need to work together to solve the key problems restricting the development of the industry, and strive to promote China to gain new industrial advantages in the field of blockchain.
Third, we focused on promoting high-quality economic and social development. Catch block chain technology integration, function expansion, industry segmentation, select the supply chain management, product traceability, data sharing and integration scenarios and e-government services, witness evidence, wisdom, urban public services, such as encourage block chain technology application, make a batch of typical model case, form demonstration effect in driving, achieve scale development.
3. What measures did the Guiding Opinions put forward in deepening industrial application?
At present, there are still insufficient application cases of blockchain for large-scale commercial promotion. On the one hand, blockchain technology has not yet matured and is still developing and evolving rapidly. On the other hand, the characteristics of blockchain determine that it is suitable for specific scenarios, and it needs to be further integrated with application scenarios. Therefore, it is urgent to select suitable application fields based on the technical characteristics of block chain, drive the acceleration of the maturity of block chain technology, promote the iterative upgrading of technical products, and form the source of promoting industrial development.
“Guidance” deployed two key tasks, one is to play to block chain in the optimization of business processes, reduce operating costs, the role of the construction of trusted system, focus on supply chain management, product traceability, data sharing, and other areas of the real economy, pushing block chain integration application, support industry digital transformation and high quality development; Second, promote the application of blockchain technology in government services, evidence storage and collection, smart cities and other public services, accelerate application innovation, and support the transparency, equality and precision of public services.
Four, about consolidating the foundation of the blockchain industry, which aspects will be started from the “Guidelines”?
The Guidance Opinions focus on improving the industrial basic capacity from the standard system, technology platform, quality brand, network security, intellectual property rights and other aspects. Including promoting the construction of blockchain standardization organization and establishing the blockchain standard system; Strengthen the key areas of technological breakthroughs, build blockchain underlying platform, build blockchain infrastructure; Encourage enterprises to strengthen quality management and build a quality assurance system for blockchain products and services; Strengthen the security and protection capacity of blockchain infrastructure and services; We will foster a number of high-value patents, trademarks and software Copyrights.
5. How to lay out the Guiding Opinions in the cultivation of blockchain industry chain?
The Guiding Opinions put forward the cultivation of a number of famous blockchain products, enterprises and parks, the construction of open source ecology, the equal emphasis on strengthening the weak board and forging the long board, and the acceleration of building a complete blockchain industrial chain. Specific measures include: the construction of industry-level alliance chain, to create a batch of advanced technology, strong driving effect of blockchain “famous products”; Cultivate a group of internationally competitive blockchain “famous enterprises”, foster and incubate blockchain start-ups, and encourage the creation of unicorns; Combine the concept of “regulatory sandbox” to create the blockchain development pilot area, and support the construction of the “famous park” of the blockchain industry in the park with good basic conditions.
VI. What is the current situation of the integration of blockchain and other new generation information technologies? What are the guidelines for this?
To play an effect in the real economy and other fields, blockchain needs to be integrated with other new-generation information technologies to achieve complementary advantages and functions. At present, the integration of blockchain and industrial Internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other development is still in the early stage, and the application effect of integration needs to be further activated.
The Guiding Opinions proposed to apply the blockchain technology to the identification analysis, edge computing, collaborative manufacturing and other links of the industrial Internet to cultivate new models and new forms of business. Building a blockchain-based big data service platform to promote the confirmation, sharing and circulation of data in a compliant and orderly manner; Using cloud computing to build an environment for blockchain application development, testing and verification, and operation and maintenance; We will develop new technologies such as smart contracts based on artificial intelligence, and explore the use of artificial intelligence technology to improve the operational efficiency and value creation of blockchain.
VII. What safeguard measures are proposed in the Guiding Opinions? How to promote the implementation of the next step?
The Guidance Opinions put forward six safeguard measures to actively promote application trials, increase policy support, guide local governments to speed up exploration, build a public service system, strengthen industrial personnel training, and deepen international exchanges and cooperation, providing work tools and starting points for local authorities.
In the next step, we will mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties and accelerate the implementation of the Guidelines.
(1) Organize publicity and implementation training. Detailed interpretation and implementation of the Guiding Opinions will be held for local industrial and information authorities, blockchain technology and service providers, and user enterprises, and related training courses and forums will be held.
(2) Establishing a working mechanism. We will establish a collaborative working mechanism, make good contact with local industrial and IT authorities, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and ensure the implementation of key tasks.
(3) Task decomposition and implementation. We will formulate a schedule and time map for the division of major tasks that can be implemented and implemented, and define responsibilities for advancing them. Strengthen communication and exchange with local competent authorities, summarize and form experience in a timely manner, and form demonstration and drive.