Beijing earmarks $37M funding for blockchain platform, computing center

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Earlier this year, the National People’s Congress of China published a new 14th five-year plan. The document is a blueprint of the country’s future social development and economic growth.

Interestingly, for the first time, blockchain and digital currency were included in China’s five-year plan, which covers 2021 to 2025. This is seen as a whole chapter on digital transformation in every sector of Chinese society, cutting across governmental administration and real industries.

In a chapter titled “Accelerating digitalization development and building a digital China,” the government plans to strengthen and encourage emerging digital industries like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, big data, and cloud computing.

With a focus on digital transformation, China is expected to invest more in technology research and development, including blockchain, with municipal and provincial governments following the national playbook and customizing it for their own local five-year plans.

Government affairs with blockchain

Beijing, the capital city of China, has announced a call for public tenders on a project to build a blockchain platform and computing center for government affairs with a total bidding price of 242 million yuan (about US$37.8 million).

The project is called “Beijing Municipal Experimental Blockchain Platform.” It aims to store information of residents and city facilities and manage government affairs using blockchain.

The project is a part of China’s massive home-grown blockchain Chang’an chain. The platform would foster an ultra-large-scale blockchain network with more than one million nodes and a peak speed of one million transactions per second, a state-owned news agency claimed.

The platform’s functions include recording company registration information, and residents’ personal information, including household registration, identities, and driver’s licenses. It also codes and records roads and city buildings, and allows a multi-departmental collaboration system for review and approve government-affairs applications.

According to publicly available documents, some government and judiciary sectors began to invite bidding for buying blockchain platforms this year.

In October, Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, posted a bid to purchase a blockchain platform with 6.6 million yuan (US$1,032,974) budget. However, the winning bidder is not yet announced. While in September, the Shanghai People’s Court purchased a 91 million yuan (US$142,993) blockchain platform as part of the national judicial blockchain system.

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