China has announced plans to train 500,000 blockchain professionals through the newly launched National Blockchain Research Center. In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping identified blockchain as a growth sector, leading to a surge in blockchain salaries in the country. However, Chinese blockchain activities have since slowed down. To reinvigorate the sector, Beijing has established the National Blockchain Research Center to train professionals and ensure that blockchain technology plays a central role in the country’s digital economy.
Challenges and Solutions
Professor Zheng Zhi Ming of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has highlighted that various companies and sectors have constructed their own individual closed-chain blockchain networks, creating “blockchain islands.” This situation has hindered the development of the digital economy and has led to an uneven underlying technology network and a fragmented technology ecology. To address this issue, the newly established center will work with universities and research institutes nationwide and collaborate with IT companies. Beijing has also revealed plans to launch a national blockchain network solution that will connect existing blockchain protocols and provide support for other industries. The center will play a vital role in enhancing innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, and help China take the lead in global digital economy development.
Despite China’s nationwide crackdown on most forms of crypto-related activity in 2017 and 2021, the new National Blockchain Research Center will train professionals to work on private networks, excluding Chinese businesses from the crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) sectors.
Leave a Reply