Talking about the history of blockchain development in China
Table of contents
bitcoin
Blockchain 1 originated from Bitcoin. On November 1, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the article "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", which marked the birth of Bitcoin. On January 3, 2009, the first genesis block with serial number 0 was born. A few days later, on January 9, 2009, a block with serial number 1 appeared and was connected with the genesis block with serial number 0 to form chain, marking the birth of blockchain.
When the time came to 2012, a laboratory in the United States called Butterfly announced on the Bitcoin forum that they would develop ASIC mining machines with more powerful computing power than FPGA mining machines, and they would not sell them to the public. This means that once Butterfly Labs is really successful, they will control most of Bitcoin's computing power and completely monopolize the entire network.
FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), Field Programmable Gate Array
ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an electronic circuit specially designed for a specific purpose
enter china
In 2013, many ASIC mining machines appeared in China, including but not limited to Avalon mining machines, roasted cat mining machines, etc. With the success of these mining machines, domestic capital predators have also been eyeing this piece of cake, followed by a rise in the price of domestic Bitcoin.
However, the country issued policies in a timely manner in the face of Bitcoin, and five ministries and commissions including the People's Bank of China issued the "Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks" 2 .
The content of the notice is roughly as follows:
· Bitcoin is not a currency;
· Bitcoin is a virtual commodity, and ordinary people can freely buy and sell it at their own risk;
· Financial institutions and payment institutions:
Bitcoin is not allowed to set prices for products or services;
It is not allowed to buy or sell bitcoins or act as a central counterparty;
it is not allowed to underwrite bitcoin-related insurance business or include bitcoins in the scope of insurance liability;
it is not allowed to directly or indirectly provide customers with other bitcoin-related services.
The notice clarifies the commodity attribute of Bitcoin, denies its currency attribute, and curbs the development of Bitcoin in China to a certain extent.
But the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin has ushered in new developments in China.
newborn
After the country curbs the disorderly development of Bitcoin, it also puts the development of digital currency that blockchain technology may bring on the agenda. The People's Bank of China took the lead in establishing a special research group for the issuance of legal digital currency in 2014 to demonstrate the feasibility of the central bank's issuance of legal digital currency. After a series of meetings and discussions by the central bank, closed development and a series of preparatory work. And the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "White Paper on China's Blockchain Technology and Application Development (2016)" in October 2016. The white paper summarizes the development status and trends of the blockchain, analyzes the core key technologies and typical application scenarios, and proposes my country's blockchain technology. Technical development roadmap and standardization roadmap and other relevant suggestions.
By the end of 2016, the central bank added blockchain to the 13th Five-Year Plan. So far, blockchain technology has reappeared in the public eye, and major companies have joined in the development of blockchain.
Rapid development
central bank
In February 2017, the People's Bank of China digital currency trial operation, the People's Bank of China may become the world's first central bank to issue digital currency and put it into real application.
Huawei
The first stage (2015-2018) is the exploratory period:
In 2015, research on the blockchain was initiated.
The second stage (2018-2020) is the forming period: In
February 2018, the Huawei Cloud blockchain service BCS (Blockchain Service) was launched for public testing. During the public testing period, more than 1,000 enterprises tried it out.
In October 2018, BCS was officially put into commercial use.
The third stage (2020-present) is the growth stage: In
2020, Huawei BCS will gather previous experience and release Huawei's self-developed blockchain core engine - Huawei Chain.
Ali
Ant Chain
In 2016, Ant Blockchain established a technical team to independently develop alliance blockchain technology.
As of May 2020, Alibaba (mainly Ant Blockchain) has 212 authorized patents worldwide; 126 of these 212 authorized patents are patents authorized by countries/regions outside China. More than 59%.
In addition, according to the official website of AntChain, since December 2018, the public beta of the Ant Blockchain BaaS platform and the release of client SDK v0.6.0 for commercial use, until August 2022, new functions have been continuously released.
Tencent
In 2015, Tencent began to self-develop the underlying technology of the blockchain, completed the complete accumulation of the underlying technology in 2017, and entered the stage of commercial application in 2018.
Since the commercial application of Tencent's blockchain in August 2018, there have been a total of 13 updates until August 2022, during which new features have been continuously released.
baidu
Superchain
Compared with the blockchain development of Ali and Tencent, the development of Baidu's superchain is obviously slow. In October 2018, Baidu launched its own blockchain service platform, Superchain. The official release of its own blockchain service platform on Baidu Cloud pushed the time to July 2019.
It can be expected that Baidu's blockchain road is not easy. In July 2019, within a year after Baidu officially released the Fabric alliance chain and the Quorum alliance chain, Baidu stopped updating the super chain. The Baidu Cloud official website shows that the last update time of the super chain is June 2020.
China Academy of Information and Communications Technology
The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the "Blockchain White Paper (2018)" in 2018, and released a blockchain white paper every year thereafter. Blockchain White Paper (2018), "Blockchain White Paper (2019)", "Blockchain White Paper (2020)", and "Blockchain White Paper (2021)".
2018 is not only the year when major domestic Internet manufacturers put their own blockchain technology platforms into commercial applications, but also the year when the country officially gives its development opinions. "Blockchain White Paper (2018)" mainly discusses the concept and characteristics of blockchain, the key technical architecture and development trend of blockchain, the development status of blockchain, the challenges faced by blockchain, development measures and suggestions.
In 2019, as more and more blockchains are put into commercial applications, while the development of blockchains in my country is thriving, there are also many problems. "Blockchain White Paper (2019)" not only analyzes the status quo of my country's blockchain industry and the application status of the blockchain industry, but also gives the current regulatory issues facing the blockchain and the factors that restrict the development of the blockchain.
In 2020, with the increasing maturity of blockchain technology, various parts of my country will begin to accelerate the deployment of applications, and the scale of enterprises developing blockchain will also stabilize, and they will begin to expand their application fields. Under the guidance of policies, the ecological governance of the blockchain alliance is also advancing steadily. These contents are included in the "Blockchain White Paper (2020)".
In 2021, after years of development and application of blockchain in our country, it will continue to expand the application field while also helping high-quality economic and social development. "Blockchain White Paper (2021)" discusses the technological evolution and development trend of blockchain in my country, and emphasizes the importance of blockchain industry ecological construction while promoting social development.