Shanghai wants to establish a leading Chinese blockchain ecosystem boasting talent and innovations, industry officials told a forum on Wednesday, part of the ongoing Pujiang Innovation Forum.
A blockchain is a decentralized and digital ledger consisting of records called blocks that is used to record transactions and services.
Blockchain development is a city-level strategy. Shanghai is home to 400 firms involved in blockchain business or services, covering the fintech, air transport, supply chain and e-governance sectors, said Wang Ye, vice chairman of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission.
Shanghai has built blockchain industrial bases in Xuhui, Jingan and Yangpu districts, to push development of security algorithms and general platforms for blockchain. In the long term, Shanghai aims to be a blockchain “highland” in applications and talent, Wang told the Future Connect – The Blockchain Development Summit forum.
Blockchain is going to the next-generation era from a “business or service to a platform,” which can deal with various demands, said Long Fan, head of the Tree Graph Blockchain Research Institute.
As a Shanghai-based blockchain service platform, Tree Graph is testing the water for blockchain services in finance, art and eSports, Long added.
The new technology still needs time to develop, especially in regulation and cybersecurity, said a senior official at the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Speakers at the forum also introduced blockchain applications in architecture and digital currency.