From Pigs to Party Fealty, China Harnesses Block-chain Power
Bloomberg Lulu Yilun Chen,Bloomberg 14 hours ago
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(Bloomberg) -- Verifying pigs, tracking shares of liquor
maker Kweichow Moutai Co., and pledging loyalty to the Communist Party. These
are just some of the block-chain projects getting a boost amid a frenzy spurred
by comments from President Xi Jinping.
Companies and government officials
alike are embracing the technology underpinning Bitcoin after Xi urged faster
development of block-chain ahead of a recent key policy meeting by high-ranking
Chinese officials.
Call it block-chain with Chinese characteristics. Many of the
applications have little reason to be decentralized -- a key merit, if not
requisite for a block-chain to be tamper-proof. A flurry of gimmicks could just
be the first-rush response to Xi’s call to no longer play second fiddle to the
U.S., as Beijing stakes a claim on the technology -- but doing so in a way
that’s a far cry from the vision of the technology’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
“I can’t
see them doing much decentralization at this point, without the block-chain
players being under the watchful eye of the government,” said Martin Chorzempa,
research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “If we
have block-chain with these Chinese characteristics, we eschew the central ethos
of cryptocurrency and block-chain and the technology that underlines it.”
A startup in Chengdu that aims to use block-chain to raise
pigs and provide safe pork became buzzy on Chinese social media. Shares of
Shenzhen-listed MYS Group Co., known for its quick embrace of artificial meat
and industrial cannabis, jumped 22% when it announced a foray into blockchain.
A news publication operated by the People’s Daily asked Party members to stamp
their declarations of loyalty to the organization on a block-chain, so that “it
can never be tampered with.”
A burst of activity also ensued in the stock market, with
more than 70 tech-company stocks surging by the daily limits in Shanghai and
Shenzhen. Regulators stepped in to ask companies like MYS Group to explain
their involvement in the technology.
“I think
in the short term investors are so thirsty about any signal about mainstream
adoption, and I think this is one of them,” said James Wo, founder of Digital
Finance Group, which focuses on investment in the field.
Some think they’ve cracked the code for more practical
financial applications. Players including billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial
have been quietly experimenting with adapted versions of the technology for
cross-border micro-transaction payments and medical reimbursement. The PBOC’s
Shenzhen branch said its blockchain-based trade finance platform has processed
75 billion yuan ($10.7 billion) of transactions in the year since its
introduction, applying it to accounts-receivable financing and supervision of
cross-border trade.
Traditionally, blockchain-technology
transactions are recorded and verified by so-called miners who use powerful
computers to solve complex math problems. For the network to be inviolable, a
significant number of miners need to be involved, with no one controlling more
than half of the mining power.
As the value of cryptocurrencies grew, companies and
government entities began looking at the underlying technology, proposing use
it for other purposes. Many of those projects are built on private blockchains,
where people need to be invited to become a node to document the ledger. Some
Bitcoin fundamentalists argue these private blockchains are not tamper-proof
due to their pre-screened nature and limited parties involved.
Even though Xi’s speech was an endorsement of blockchain,
not cryptocurrencies, it still helped fuel a rise of about 30% in the price of
Bitcoin within days. But there’s no reason to think the country will open the
floodgates for crypto trading or regulations for foreign players.
Last year, China cracked down on
cryptocurrency activity, halting trading on domestic exchanges, discouraging
Bitcoin mining, and banning initial coin offerings, the equivalent of an
initial public offering for new virtual currencies.
“I’d be
very careful if I were a foreign blockchain company contemplating entry into
China,” said Chorzempa. The line between “encouraged blockchain” and
“discouraged Bitcoin” is constantly moving, he said, and navigating
it requires deep knowledge of China.
Translation
（彭博社）- 從驗證豬隻，跟踪白酒生產商貴州茅台公司的股份，以至保證對共產黨的忠誠 -- 這些只是在習近平主席的評論下引起激發的瘋狂中，一些得到了推動的區塊鏈項目。
在最近召開關鍵政策會議之前,
習近平敦促中國高層官員更快發展區塊鏈之後，公司和政府官員都在擁護這支撐比特幣的技術。
它被稱之為具有中國特色的區塊鏈。許多應用程序幾乎沒有理由作出分散 --- 作出分散是區塊鏈一個關鍵優點條件,
即使不是必要條件,
區塊鏈是用作出防篡改。一連串的花招可能只是對習近平不再幫美國扮演從屬角色的號召的第一個反應，因為北京對這項技術有利害關係，但這樣做的方式與這科技的創造者中本聪的願景相去甚遠。。
彼得森國際經濟研究所（Peterson
Institute for International Economics）研究員馬丁·喬澤姆帕（Martin
Chorzempa）表示：“區塊鏈參與者沒在有政府監督下，我現時看不到他們進行太多的權力下放。”
“如果我們有具有中國特色的區塊鏈，我們就會遠離加密貨幣和區塊鏈和它的技術核心思想。”
成都一家旨在使用區塊鏈飼養豬並提供安全豬肉的初創公司在中國社交媒體上風靡一時。在深圳上市的MYS
Group Co. 的股票以快速擁抱人造肉和工業大麻而聞名，當它宣布進軍區塊鏈時，股價上漲了22％。 《人民日報》（People's
Daily）運營的新聞出版物要求黨員在區塊鏈上標記對組織的忠誠聲明，以便“永遠不能對其進行篡改”。
股市也隨之爆發，上海和深圳的70多家科技公司股票漲停。監管機構介入，要求像MYS
Group這樣的公司解釋他們對這項技術的參與。
專注於該領域投資的Digital
Finance Group的創始人詹姆斯·禾（James
Wo）表示： “我認為短期內投資者對於主流採用的任何信號都非常渴望，這就是其中之一。”
有些人認為他們已經破解了更實際的金融應用程序的代碼。包括億萬富翁馬雲（Jack
Ma）的螞蟻金服（Ant
Financial）在內的玩家一直在悄悄嘗試該技術的改版，以進行跨境微交易支付和醫療報銷。中國人民銀行深圳分行表示，自推出以來，其基於區塊鏈的貿易融資平台已處理了750億元人民幣（合107億美元）的交易，將其應用於應收賬款融資和跨境貿易監管。
傳統上，區塊鏈技術交易由所謂礦工記錄和驗證，這些礦工使用功能強大的計算機來解決複雜的數學問題。為了使網絡不可入侵，需要大量的礦工參與，而沒有人控制採礦功率的一半以上。
隨著加密貨幣的價值增長，公司和政府實體開始研究背後技術论理，並提議將其用於其他目的。這些項目中有許多是建立在私有區塊鏈上的，需要邀請人們成為記錄分類賬的節點。一些比特幣原教旨主義者認為，由於這些私有區塊鏈具有預先篩選的性質和涉及有限参与者，因此它們不是防篡改的。
儘管習近平的講話是對區塊鏈的認可，而不是對加密貨幣的認可，但它仍然幫助推動了比特幣價格在幾天之內上漲了約30％。但是沒有理由認為該國將為加密貨幣交易或外國參與者的監管打開閘門。
去年，中國打擊了加密貨幣活動，停止了在國內交易所的交易，阻止了比特幣的開採，並禁止首次代幣發行
-- 這相當於新虛擬貨幣的首次公開發行。
“如果我是一家打算進入中國的外國區塊鏈公司，我會非常小心，”
Chorzempa說。他又說，“鼓勵區塊鏈”和“比特幣不受歡迎”之間的界線一直在變化，要在期中航行，需要對中國有深入的了解。
Block-chain is a new name
and a new concept. It takes time to understand and make the best use of it.
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