China’s Blockchain-Based Service Network Expands
Neither this post nor any other on cryptofal.com should be taken as financial advice. It is not.
Since April 2020, the Chinese government has been working in partnership with a host of private companies on a blockchain-based service network (BSN) that would effectively become a blockchain-run internet. According to its website, it is a cross-cloud service, cross-portal, cross-underlying framework that will be used to develop a global infrastructure for blockchain distributed applications (DApps), cloud services, and data centers. The founding members of the network are the State Information Center (SIC), which is a policy think-tank under the National Development and Reform Commission and the Chinese government, the state-owned China Mobile Communications Corporation, China UnionPay, and the start-up company Beijing Red Date Technology.
While Red Date Technology serves as the overall technical architect, a host of companies, both foreign and domestic, work and consult on the project. The most recent news revealed Tuesday that South Korea’s Klatyn Foundation, will be building an open permissioned blockchain (OPB) called the Chongqing Chain for the BSN. Aside from Klatyn, the list of partnerships spans between 5 permissioned and 17 permissionless blockchains, 5 cloud service providers, and 4 technical partners. The primary objective of the BSN is to achieve cross-chain interoperability but also to combat the high cost of blockchains application development and deployment.
In order to connect the network worldwide, the BSN will use public city nodes (PCN). The beginnings of the BSN have been installed throughout the provinces of China, with eight in international cities. The target for the near future is to have PCN in 50 cities throughout all the major developed nations. Based on the partnerships it currently has, this project is undoubtedly gaining momentum however there is a concern over the BSN due to its inexorable links with the Chinese government.
Some may see that the founding members, and by default the Chinese government, are trying to achieve a privately controlled internet. Of course, to think that the Chinese government would not exert control over or manipulate the network due to its global connectivity would be naive, but it should not suggest that the concept and amount of cooperative innovation backing the project is not worth notice. Even if the project fails to garner the international welcome, on a domestic level it spells out a large advantage for the government and its people.
Watching governments incorporate blockchain technology to streamline services and innovation is becoming increasingly common and spells out one way the future for blockchain technology may develop. Despite the current misgivings on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, there remains a high valuation on innovation for Web3 and blockchain technology. Moreover, the outlook is positive if countries like China, which have banned cryptocurrencies, are able to separate the coins from their backbone blockchain technology. Though this may be alarming for some in the community, it is merely another way that elements of the crypto space continue onward.
In a similar way, there are both centralized and decentralized platforms in cryptocurrency, decentralized and centralized service networks can also simultaneously exist. BSN may be the first of its kind on this scale, but it will not be the last.