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China to Establish National Blockchain Standards by 2019: Govt. Official

Last Updated May 5, 2023 8:39 AM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated May 5, 2023 8:39 AM

China’s government has reportedly begun working on national standards for blockchain technology in the country.

In an interview  with Chinese press agency Xinxua’s Economic Information Daily, an official from the Electronic Industry Standards Research Institute under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology confirmed that the authority is working toward establishing national standards for blockchain tech. The standards will reportedly be developed for implementations of blockchain technology in multiple sectors encompassing various decentralized designs.

Li Ming, who is the director of the Blockchain Research Office at the standards institute under the IT Ministry, also revealed that a broader national plan for blockchain standards is also underway with a number of relevant government departments working toward establishing a nationwide ‘Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Committee’.

The sweeping rollout of these standards, expected to occur before the end of 2019, will include basic standards, business and application standards, process and method standards, credible and interoperable standards and information security standards, according to the director.

The official also emphasized the importance of security in blockchain technology, insisting that it would be a key aspect while developing the standards. Further, he stressed that the formulation of national blockchain standards was a governmental effort to guide the industry first and foremost, rather than hastening the advance of blockchain development.

Li Ming’s remarks confirm previous reports of China’s IT ministry stressing the importance of introducing national blockchain standards “as soon as possible”. China is notably a part of technical committee (TC) 307  under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) alongside 30 participating nations led by Australia.

While China’s IT ministry point to “positive progress” in the grouped ISO effort that sees 7 standards covering core blockchain facets including smart contracts, the ministry stressed the importance of developing a “complete blockchain standard system” domestically.

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