China first announced its plans to launch a nationwide Blockchain Service Network (BSN) by April 2020 this year, according to a report by Sina Finance published in January. This is after extensive testing from last October until March 2020, where 400 enterprises and 600 developers were invited to test the technology. However, it seems that pushing out the BSN nationwide will be put on the backburner for now in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the announcement on BSN’s progress in January, updates on further development on this network in China have been few and far between. The Global Times, a Chinese state-owned online news publication, briefly mentioned that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has managed to raise $4.7 million in funds to continue research and development for the BSN early this month, but no further details have officially been provided regarding its launch.
However, despite the slowdown, China’s BSN is certainly moving in the right direction, as more blockchain city nodes are built in cities across the country. On March 26, Gansu’s provincial government announced that all 14 cities in this north-central region of China have been equipped with blockchain nodes, and can now access the BSN. The efforts were led by Gansu Mobile, and the province will proceed with developing applications in e-government, commodity traceability, supply chain, finance and more.
As major industries take a hit from the effects of the pandemic, the blockchain industry in China has also been dealt a huge blow. Huobi China hosted a nationwide “2020 Opening Festival” online for more than 10,000 blockchain enthusiasts spanning think tanks, enterprises, research institutions and some industry leaders across 45 cities. The virtual meeting could be streamed from well-known Chinese crypto publication Jin Se Cai Jing, and it was a gathering for these individuals to discuss the future of blockchain as the world faces the crisis and an impending recession.
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