Almost All Chinese Provinces Have Blockchain-Boosting Policies
Crypto in China might be under unprecedented government pressure, but the opposite is true of blockchain technology.
Jul 14, 2021 at 11:10 a.m. UTCUpdated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:25 p.m. UTC
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/XLVZSN4RNBFCJLZWQDTBWUGBJ4.jpg)
/arc-photo-coindesk/arc2-prod/public/LXF2COBSKBCNHNRE3WTK2BZ7GE.png)
While many Chinese provinces and cities are cracking down on crypto mining, most are trying to boost their local blockchain industries.
- Out of China's 34 provinces and province-level cities, 33 have enacted policies to accelerate blockchain innovation, local media reported, citing research from Chinese blockchain news site ChainNews.
- The newest issue of China's most important economic-planning document, the Five-Year Plan, named blockchain a nationally strategic technology for the first time, calling on local governments to spur innovation in the field.
- Fourteen governments are offering financial rewards to companies that excel in blockchain innovation.
- Ganzhou, a city in one of China's poorest provinces, Jiangxi, is promising 17.5 million yuan ($2.7 million) to companies that become unicorns, according to the report. A unicorn company is commonly defined as a startup whose valuation reaches $1 billion.
- Shanghai is offering permanent residency to highly skilled workers who move there to work on blockchain, the report said. Permanent residency in Shanghai is a lifetime aspiration for many Chinese citizens because it allows them to live, buy property and access public services in the country's most international city.
- At the same time, several provincial and city governments have moved to shut down or curtail crypto mining, following signals from China's top leadership.
:format(webp)/downloads.coindesk.com/arc/failsafe/user/1x1.png)