The country’s blockchain industry organises distributed ledger-based coalition in Beijing supported by Chinese National Assembly and aiming to standardise the application of blockchain.

The announcement has been made by Mr Bai Shuo, former chief engineer at Shanghai Stock Exchange, during the Third Internet Global Financial Summit held on 19 April in Beijing. Mr Shuo is appointed a director of the newly formed alliance. The names of 11 sponsor units that agreed on establishing the coalition are only quoted in Chinese sources, however, it is mentioned that a number of prominent figures in bitcoin and blockchain world were invited to join the alliance in the capacity of advisors. The list includes the founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin, one of bitcoin core developers Jeff Garzik, UBS UK Senior Innovation Manager Alex Baltin and Chief Digital Officer of Toronto Stock Exchange Anthony Di Iorio. The newly formed alliance is reportedly backed by Chinese General Assembly.

The mission of the new group is to study the potential of the blockchain technology and explore its use cases taking into consideration China’s regulations, policies and traditions as well as the unique Chinese financial industry’s business logic – that is, to standardise blockchain technology application, Blockchain News reports.

Mr Shuo explained:

“We cannot think clearly in the absence of Blockchain integration in the hastily organised international financial sector in China. We need to unite China and find consensus and find solutions in China for Blockchain technology.”

Chinese authorities’ attitude towards bitcoin cryptocurrency is best characterised as ambiguous. On the one hand, the cryptocurrency is not recognised as a means of payment by the official structures. On the other hand, bitcoin is not directly forbidden and Chinese citizens can pay with the digital currency for goods and services whenever it is accepted. Besides, China is a backbone of bitcoin mining, concentrating the highest hashing power in the world. In October 2015, the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper published an article declaring it is no longer possible “to ignore the revolutionary changes” in the finance brought about by bitcoin and blockchain. Bitcoin community worldwide considered this step as an unofficial approval of bitcoin by Chinese authorities.

Anna Lavinskaya