The Chinese Government Approved 224 Blockchain Projects

China has been on a blockchain approval spree, as the government announced that 224 more companies received the “thumbs up” to the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (OCCAC)’s register.

OCCAC’s announcement was made on April 27^th, but the news first appeared on Twitter by @AliceolaCrypto, who posted a screenshot of OCCAC’s press release. From the list of 224 companies, 40% are settled in Beijing. A quarter of all approved companies aimed at the fintech sector.

The companies, included in the list feature DLT ventures from several big players. The list includes China Mobile, Walmart China, Baidu, Suning, JD, Alibaba and China Merchants bank. The companies are also actively participating in China’s governmental blockchain development plans.

It seems that the Chinese government is going “all in” on blockchain technology, as officials resumed operations on technological improvements, as well as blockchain research and development. The end goal for China is to develop a “sovereign blockchain” which would substitute the traditional yuan and transfer it to a blockchain environment.

Also, China launched its National Blockchain Committee to come up with standards for the blockchain industry nationwide. Technology giants like Huawei and Tencent also joined the committee.

Meanwhile, China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is now live for global commercial usage, after going through a six-month beta testing. The public launch was announced on April 25, 2020.

The BSN networks resembles a global infrastructure for helping blockchain developers and blockchain-oriented businesses create, deploy and troubleshoot new projects, but with a lower cost for deployment. BSN is also focused towards accelerating the creation of digital economy and smart cities.

BSN reported over 2,000 developers tested the network during the six-month trial phase, which started on October 15, 2019. Shan Zhiguang, BSN’s Develoment Alliance chairman, noted that the network now operates with 128 public nodes. Over 50% of the nodes are located in China, with 44 currently under construction. Eight of the nodes are located overseas, covering six continents. Zhiguang commented that he expects at least 200 operational nodes by the end of 2020.

With the network now public, the BSN team removed the applications development and deployment restrictions.

The massive blockchain-oriented leap, especially when China declared that they handled the COVID-19 virus outbreak, puts the Chinese government on the top of the mass adoption list. Furthermore, consumer giants like Starbucks and McDonalds reportedly started testing the central bank digital currency (CBDC) that China is developing.