Summary of the report:
1. In 2020, the blockchain industry policy ushered in a blowout growth. As of December 31, 2020, the central government, various ministries, and local governments have issued at least 600 blockchain-related policies, an increase of nearly 8 times compared to 2019.
2. Under the call of the central government, various regions have actively responded to the introduction of blockchain-related policies to support the development of the blockchain industry. Provinces and cities such as Guangdong (53), Jiangsu (53), Zhejiang (51), and Beijing (44) issued the most blockchain policies.
3. In the blockchain policy released in 2020, the industries involved include economy, finance, supervision, logistics, government affairs, agriculture, etc. At the same time, a number of policies emphasize the interaction and linkage between blockchain and front-end technologies such as big data, AI, and cloud computing.
4. 20 provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have issued special policies. The types of policies at the local level mainly include: 23 special policies for blockchain, 61 policies related to new infrastructure and digital economy, more than 20 digital government policies, and local government work reports and local governments. The 14th Five-Year Plan, etc.
5. my country's relevant regulatory authorities have always had a unified approach to the supervision of blockchain and virtual currency: actively support and guide the application and innovation of blockchain technology, gradually strengthen the supervision of virtual currency and various tokens, and resolutely crack down on Various illegal activities such as virtual currency issuance, financing and transactions.
6. The basic framework of my country's blockchain supervision has been formed and remains relatively stable. The central bank, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have clearly defined powers and responsibilities and actively cooperate with each other. Public security and judicial departments perform their own duties, and cooperate with major regulatory authorities to carry out various law enforcement and normative acts.
7. The current blockchain policy field still faces challenges such as serious policy homogeneity, poor implementation, unclear industry goals, and limited policy appeal.
8. We believe that in the next 2-3 years, the frequency of blockchain industry policy releases will be reduced, but virtual currency supervision will be further strengthened; enabling new infrastructure and the digital economy will become the main goal of blockchain policies; digital The landing of the renminbi promotes the improvement of the relevant legal system; "governing the chain with the chain and comprehensive supervision" will be the basic principle of blockchain governance, and sandbox supervision is becoming an important option for blockchain governance.
Author | Lin Zeling, Jiang Zhaosheng, Zhao Yutong
Editor | Yu Baicheng
Typesetting | Huang Haoyi
This article is the second part of the "China Blockchain Policy Census and Regulatory Trend Analysis Report", and the first part of the reportTable of contents。
Table of contents
4. Supervision Status of Blockchain and Virtual Currency Industry in China
(1) Regulatory thinking and basic regulatory framework of blockchain and virtual currency
(2) The central bank: increase the crackdown on virtual currency and focus on blockchain financial applications
(3) Cyberspace Administration of China: Over 1,000 companies have obtained information service filings
(4) Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Accelerate the formulation of blockchain standards and promote the construction of blockchain infrastructure
5. Challenges and trends faced by blockchain policy and supervision
(1) Challenges faced by blockchain policy
1. Homogenization is serious, and the fineness of industrial policies needs to be improved
2. The industrial goals in some areas are not clear, and the attractiveness of policies is limited
(2) Challenges faced by blockchain supervision
1. The mismatch between the existing regulatory system and blockchain technology
2. The formulation of targeted blockchain laws and institutional norms is relatively lagging behind
(3) Judgment on the trend of the blockchain industry policy and regulatory system
1. The frequency of policy release will be reduced, and the supervision will be further strengthened
2. Enabling new infrastructure and digital economy will become the main goal of blockchain policy
3. The landing of the digital renminbi promotes the improvement of the relevant legal system
4. "Governing the chain with the chain and comprehensive supervision" will be the basic governance principle 5. The regulatory sandbox has become an important option for blockchain governance
Supervision Status of Blockchain and Virtual Currency Industry in China
(1) Regulatory thinking and basic regulatory framework of blockchain and virtual currency
my country's relevant regulatory authorities have always had the same regulatory thinking on blockchain and virtual currency: actively support and guide the application and innovation of blockchain technology, gradually strengthen the supervision of virtual currency and various tokens, and resolutely crack down on virtual currency Illegal activities such as issuing financing and trading.
In terms of regulatory framework, 01 Blockchain and Zero One Think Tank have summarized the basic regulatory framework system related to my country's blockchain industry in the "China Blockchain Policy Census Report 2019". Based on a series of regulatory policies and regulations issued by governments at all levels in the past year, the basic framework of blockchain regulation in my country has been formed and remains relatively stable.
Specifically, the People's Bank of China, the Office of the Leading Group for the Special Rectification of Internet Financial Risks, the Internet Finance Association of China and its affiliates are mainly responsible for the supervision of activities related to financial attributes such as virtual currency transactions and token financing. Cooperate; led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology") and its affiliated organizations, through the joint industry, academia and other institutions and scholars, responsible for the standardization and unification of blockchain technology, accelerating Build a blockchain standard system, promote the development and application of key blockchain standards; the National Internet Information Office (hereinafter referred to as: CAC) is mainly responsible for the security of blockchain network information services, standardize and promote blockchain technology and Healthy development of related services avoids security risks of blockchain information services. On the whole, in the supervision of blockchain and virtual currency related industries, the central bank, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have clearly defined responsibilities and actively cooperate with each other. Public security and justice perform their duties, and cooperate with major regulatory authorities to carry out various law enforcement and normative behaviors.
Figure: Basic regulatory framework of China's blockchain industry
Source: 01 Blockchain, "China Blockchain Policy Census Report 2019"
(2) The central bank: increase the crackdown on virtual currency and focus on blockchain financial applications
The central bank will take many initiatives in the field of blockchain and digital currency in 2020.
In the field of virtual currency, in 2020, the central bank and its affiliated institutions will gradually intensify the crackdown on illegal activities such as virtual currency transactions and ICOs, and carry out special rectification on the most common domestic virtual currency over-the-counter transactions (OTC transactions). It is the first time to warn the public about the risks associated with virtual currency. On August 5, 2020, at the work conference for the second half of 2020 held at the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China, it was clearly proposed to continue to monitor and deal with Internet financial risks such as ICO and virtual currency transactions, and P2P online loans.
On the other hand, in 2020, the central bank will also gradually accelerate the research and development and pilot process of the legal digital currency, that is, the digital renminbi. Under the overall guidance of the central bank, since Shenzhen Luohu kicked off the digital renminbi red envelope pilot project, the territory of digital renminbi has been expanding. Shenzhen, Suzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and many other places have carried out one or more rounds of digital RMB red envelope pilot projects, and the pilot scenarios have also expanded from the initial purely offline scenarios such as supermarkets and gas stations to the "offline + online" phase. Combined synthetic scenes. At the same time, the central bank is also actively establishing strategic partnerships with commercial institutions such as JD Digits, Didi Chuxing, and Lakala to jointly promote the construction of a digital RMB ecosystem. Under the leadership of the central bank, China's digital renminbi project is accelerating and steadily advancing, and its true colors are gradually being revealed to the Chinese people.
At the same time, the central bank will focus on the application of blockchain technology in the financial field in 2020, and actively promote the standardization and compliance of blockchain finance. On February 5, 2020, the central bank officially released the "Financial Distributed Ledger Technology Security Specification" (JR/T 0184-2020), which stipulates the security system of financial distributed ledgers and is the first blockchain standard in my country's financial industry. On July 13, the central bank once again issued the "Notice on Promoting the Application of Blockchain Technical Specifications" and the "Rules for Evaluation of Financial Application of Blockchain Technology" (JR/T 0193-2020) financial industry standards. This standard stipulates the implementation requirements, evaluation methods and judgment criteria for the application of blockchain technology in the financial field. This standard is also the first relatively complete technical standard and evaluation method for blockchain systems and products issued by an authoritative organization in China.
From the release of a series of standardized documents such as the "Financial Distributed Ledger Technology Security Specification" to the "Blockchain Technology Financial Application Evaluation Rules", it can be seen that the central bank attaches great importance to blockchain technology and the role of blockchain in finance. Affirmation of field application value. The promulgation of these standards is expected to accelerate the implementation of blockchain applications in the financial field, and will also provide more standardized technical standard references for the blockchain industry, improve the application efficiency of blockchain technology, and provide more theoretical support for blockchain supervision .
(3) Cyberspace Administration of China: Over 1,000 companies have obtained information service filings
Since the official implementation of the "Blockchain Information Service Management Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Regulations") on February 15, 2019, the CAC has issued 4 batches of 1015 domestic blockchain information service names and filings serial number. Although according to the "Management Regulations", the filing is only a registration of the relevant information services of the subject's blockchain, and does not represent the recognition of its institutions, products and services. The filing registration is only for the convenience of the Cyberspace Administration of China and other relevant departments to supervise and inspect the filing entities in accordance with the "Administrative Regulations", and to urge the non-filing entities to fulfill their filing obligations as soon as possible. However, information service filing can still promote the healthy and orderly development of the blockchain industry to a certain extent, and strengthen the standardization and compliance of the blockchain industry.
From the perspective of the regional distribution of information service filings, the number of filings in five first-tier cities, including Beijing (309), Shenzhen (139), Shanghai (121), Hangzhou (104), and Guangzhou (60), is far ahead. than more than 72%.
Figure 8: Top 10 cities with the number of blockchain information filings
Source: Cyberspace Administration of China, 01 Blockchain
In addition, judging from the four batches of 1,015 filing information, a total of 814 companies were involved (multiple companies had applied for multiple filing information), including 46 listed companies; and at least 89 other companies were related to 182 listed companies.
Judging from the scene distribution of filing projects, financial-related scenes are the most popular track for enterprise layout, among which supply chain finance is the most important. According to the 01 blockchain statistics, among the 1015 filing information, at least 126 are related to the financial field, accounting for more than 12.4% of the total. It specifically covers scenarios such as supply chain finance, digital assets, ABS, payment, SME financing services, financial supervision, forfaiting transactions, cross-border trade, insurance claims, bulk commodity trading services, and financial asset trading services. Among them, there are at least 32 projects related to supply chain finance, accounting for more than 25.4% of the financial filing projects.
(4) Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Accelerate the formulation of blockchain standards and promote the construction of blockchain infrastructure
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued the "White Paper on China's Blockchain Technology and Application Development" since 2016, which first proposed a roadmap for the standardization of my country's blockchain, summed up the development status and typical application scenarios of blockchain at home and abroad, and became an important reference for guiding the development of the industry . Since then, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released blockchain white papers for many years, and has continued to pay attention to the development of the blockchain industry at home and abroad.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is also vigorously promoting the establishment of blockchain technology standards. In March 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began to propose the National Standardization Technical Committee for Informatization and Industrialization Integration Management, and the National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee. In order to promote the formation of a complete blockchain standard system as soon as possible, and to better connect with the international standard system, the Department of Information and Software Services of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology instructed the China Electronics Standardization Institute to propose the National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee Establish a plan to accelerate the establishment of the Standardization Committee.
In December 2017, the first national standard in the field of blockchain led by the China Electronics Standardization Institute, "Information Technology Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology Reference Architecture" (plan number: 20173824-T-469) was officially established, marking With the beginning of the formulation of national blockchain standards, it is basically synchronized with the progress of international blockchain standard formulation.
In addition, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a scientific research institution directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, launched the Trusted Blockchain Promotion Plan in 2018, becoming a very representative industry-university-research cooperation institution in China. As of July 2020, the trusted blockchain promotion plan has gathered more than 400 blockchain enterprises, institutions, and scientific research institutions, and set up 21 working groups in the fields of technical standards, industry applications, policies and regulations, and international cooperation. It has formed a greater influence in the development and standardization of the international blockchain industry.
While promoting the blockchain standard system, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is also increasing the construction of blockchain technology facilities. In 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially named "Xinghuo" as a new brand of China's independent network identification system, and "Xinghuo Chain Network" as a new type of infrastructure for national blockchain and industrial Internet collaborative innovation, will further promote the in-depth development of the industrial Internet. It is of great significance to promote the construction layout of the new infrastructure implementation of the national blockchain.
Challenges and trends in blockchain policy and regulation
(1) Challenges faced by blockchain policy
In 2020, with the attention and support of the central and local governments, the blockchain industry is developing in full swing, and its policy framework is also becoming more and more perfect in the process of development. However, the blockchain industry is still in the early stages of development, and there are also the following challenges in terms of blockchain policy:
1. Homogenization is serious, and the fineness of industrial policies needs to be improved
In 2020, the spring breeze of the blockchain industry policy will almost blow all over the country, but after in-depth comparison, it is found that the homogenization of blockchain policies or plans in various places is very serious. The measures to encourage the development of the blockchain industry are different from the previous support for big data and artificial intelligence. There is no difference when it comes to other industries, and policy terms that can truly fit the local reality and the status quo of the blockchain industry are rare. However, if the preferential policies are determined based on the previous experience in supporting other industries and based on the company's paid registered capital and tax payment, it is of little practical significance to blockchain companies, especially blockchain start-ups, and it is difficult Rapidly promote the development of the blockchain industry.
2. The industrial goals in some areas are not clear, and the attractiveness of policies is limited
As far as the special blockchain policies issued by various provinces and cities are concerned, my country's current blockchain policy goals mainly focus on the application of multi-technology integration and the development of blockchain industry applications, while insufficient attention is paid to the policy objectives of theoretical and technological breakthroughs. Although our country is at the forefront of the world in the application of blockchain technology, there is still a certain gap with some major countries in terms of the underlying core technology of the blockchain. The core technology of the blockchain is the cornerstone of the development of the blockchain industry. The government needs to pay more attention to the growth and innovation of blockchain technology to lay a more solid technical foundation for the development of the blockchain industry.
(2) Challenges faced by blockchain supervision
1. The mismatch between the existing regulatory system and blockchain technology
The weak centralization of blockchain technology makes the applicability of existing laws begin to emerge. First of all, it is difficult to clarify the main body of responsibility in the blockchain system. Many blockchain projects, especially project entities in public chain systems, do not exist in the form of traditional corporate organizations, but in the form of a new type of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) based on the governance mechanism on the chain. Compared with traditional corporate forms, DAO does not need to be registered in a certain jurisdiction, operates through a distributed organizational structure, and the entry and exit threshold of projects is almost zero. This organizational form is dominated by "self-government" and has a certain rejection of "heteronomy" from government departments. Many regulatory measures cannot be effectively implemented on the chain, which poses a huge challenge to blockchain governance. In addition, smart contracts are a key element of the current application of blockchain technology. However, since the contract is coded in advance, if there is a problem in the application process, it is difficult to clarify the relevant responsible person and change the content of the relevant contract. The current "Contract Law" emphasizes the autonomy of the parties, and the existing contract can be withdrawn or modified under certain conditions. The extensive use of smart contracts will have a certain impact on the autonomy of the parties and the withdrawal of the contract.
2. The formulation of targeted blockchain laws and institutional norms is relatively lagging behind
In 2020, policies to encourage the development of the blockchain industry have sprung up, the establishment of the blockchain technology standard system is also accelerating, and the application of blockchain in various fields is also expanding rapidly, and its market size and influence are increasing day by day. Blockchain industry regulation is the general trend. But the reality is that the formulation of professional laws and institutional norms in the blockchain field is still relatively lagging behind. On the one hand, due to the rapid development of blockchain technology, supervision still needs a certain amount of time to understand and observe various potential risks brought about by technological innovation, so there will be a lag to a certain extent; on the other hand, the blockchain Features such as decentralization, self-management, and collective maintenance are also diluting the impact of supervision and have an impact on the current supervision model. How to formulate regulations that can effectively supervise illegal activities on the blockchain without hindering blockchain technology innovation? The legal and institutional norms have become a concern of all walks of life.
(3) Judgment on the trend of the blockchain industry policy and regulatory system
1. The frequency of policy release will be reduced, and the supervision will be further strengthened
After the climax of the release of blockchain industry policies in 2020, most provinces and cities across the country have issued blockchain policies/special plans, and the special plans are mostly three-year. This also means that these provinces and cities that have issued three-year plans will not release special plans again in the next 2-3 years, and other provinces and cities that have issued blockchain policies will not repeatedly formulate or modify relevant policies in the short term. Therefore, it can be expected that the frequency of policy releases related to the blockchain industry may be reduced, but this does not mean that the enthusiasm for the industry will weaken.
On the other hand, with the rise of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, and the recognition and participation of more and more mainstream international institutions and investors in virtual currency transactions, the popularity of virtual currencies in China is being raised again. The enthusiasm for virtual currency is increasing day by day, and various related transaction marketing activities may also be revived. Therefore, in the short term, my country's regulatory authorities will maintain a high-pressure situation on virtual currency and continue to strengthen the supervision of illegal activities such as virtual currency transactions and ICOs.
2. Enabling new infrastructure and digital economy will become the main goal of blockchain policy
2020 is the starting year of the "Dual Cycle" and the "14th Five-Year Plan", and the development of new infrastructure and digital economy will surely make great strides. As an important part of the new infrastructure and digital economy, the blockchain industry will also be driven by two major development priorities, making new progress in technology and application, and entering a new stage of development. The policy will accelerate the layout of the blockchain in two key areas, providing reliable guarantee and strong support for the blockchain to fully empower the new infrastructure and the digital economy.
3. The landing of the digital renminbi promotes the improvement of the relevant legal system
2020 is a year of extremely rapid research and development and pilot applications of digital renminbi, and the outline of digital renminbi has basically been presented to the world. The international competition for digital currency is also becoming increasingly fierce, and all countries are accelerating the process of digital currency research and development. my country's digital renminbi project is now in a leading position in the world, but in order to maintain this advantage, in addition to continuing to increase efforts in the implementation of technology and applications, the supporting legal framework and a more complete regulatory system are equally important. With the current digital renminbi technology and applications progressing smoothly, formulating relevant legal norms and industry standards for digital renminbi and related industries will become an important task for the central bank and its relevant regulatory authorities. At the same time, in order to ensure the orderly issuance and circulation of digital renminbi, it is imminent to strengthen the crackdown on illegal and criminal activities related to digital renminbi.
4. "Governing the chain with the chain and comprehensive supervision" will be the basic governance principle
The supervision of the blockchain should adhere to the basic principle of "governing the chain with the chain and comprehensive supervision", with the help of mechanism design such as the real-name system and the filing system, and through the establishment of supervision nodes on the chain, the coordinated supervision and penetration of activities on the chain should be accelerated Supervise the initiative and timeliness of supervision while reducing the cost of supervision. This is because the blockchain is not only the subject of supervision, but also has the ability to empower regulatory technology, and is expected to become the technical basis of regulatory technology. The application of blockchain in the regulatory system can enhance the efficiency of collaboration among multiple subjects, and the massive data accumulated on the chain can also be used to provide operational and optimization support for the regulatory rule model, and more effectively adapt to the needs of forward-looking regulation and regulatory coordination.
On the other hand, regulatory authorities will also focus more on the application layer and business layer in the blockchain supervision of the financial sector. As far as the technology itself is concerned, there is no need to distinguish the blockchain from other financial technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, and it can be regulated according to the normal technical supervision model.
5. Regulatory sandbox has become an important option for blockchain governance
references
references
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