“ASAP”: China is Working Toward National Blockchain Standards

China’s industry & IT ministry is working toward creating domestic standards to propel development and implementation of blockchain technology in the country.In an announcement on an official government website yesterday, China’s ministry of industry and information technology revealed it has already conducted a ‘special study’ exploring a framework for standardizing blockchain technology domestically. The process has seen the Ministry’s information and software services division and the China Electronics Standardization Institute propose a new technical committee to be established.As things stand, China is a part of the technical committee TC 307 under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) alongside 30 other participating countries working toward international standards for blockchain technology. As reported previously, the ISO appointed Australia to lead the international effort which now sees 7 ISO blockchain standards under development.Acknowledging China’s participation in the ISO endeavor, the IT ministry claimed “positive progress” in researching standards for core blockchain facets including identity authentication and smart contracts. The need for a “complete blockchain standard system” domestically, China’s IT ministry explains, means it is necessary to work and develop the country’s own effort to introduce standards “as soon as possible.”The Ministry also said its IT and software services division will look to promote blockchain technology, fast-track the establishment of the blockchain standardization committee and back the development of the sector in the country overall.The embracive stance toward blockchain technology is in stark contrast to China’s crippling curbs against local cryptocurrency markets which has seen initial coin offerings (ICOs) outlawed and crypto exchanges phased out to effectively shutter domestic trading markets. Blockchain technology has also been under the spotlight on China’s biggest political stage, the Two Sessions, in recent days. One politician even called for a national digital asset trading platform over a blockchain that would be overseen by the central bank and other authorities. Another official from major Chinese regulatory agency called for a “decentralized [blockchain] system based on a centralized structure.”China joins the likes of Russia in publicly revealing an effort toward developing standards for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies [DLT]. 

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