- Over half a million distributed ledger technology experts would be educated at the center.
- The Beijing Academy of Blockchain and Edge Computing is in charge of the new center.
Beijing’s National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center, which has been in the works since its February announcement, began operations on May 10.
In order to advance blockchain technology in China. The center will work with Chinese educational institutions, think tanks, and blockchain companies. More than half a million distributed ledger technology (DLT) experts would purportedly be educated at the center.
Banking on Blockchain Despite Crypto Ban
The Beijing Academy of Blockchain and Edge Computing is in charge of the new center. And it is this academy’s homegrown blockchain, ChainMaker, that will serve as a model for future innovations at the center.
There are already fifty companies behind ChainMaker, many of them state-owned behemoths like China Construction Bank and China Unicom. It has been stated in the local press that the center would hasten the development of “ultra-large-scale” blockchain processing power clusters.
The goal of the center, as explained by Beihang University professor Zheng Zhiming of the School of Mathematics and Systems Science, is to integrate the many different applications of blockchain technology already in use throughout China (the “blockchain islands”) into a unified whole.
The Chinese government is still exploring the potential of the digital economy, despite the ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrencies. To reduce their dependence on a single kind of high-tech hardware imported mostly from the United States, Chinese businesses are investigating ways to generate artificial intelligence using weaker semiconductors and combinations of chips.
The country’s central bank’s initiative to create a digital currency is also making progress. For its “Belt and Road” plan and international transactions, it stated in April that the digital yuan would be accepted.