The prototype of "government chain" under the concept of sovereignty is emerging

On the last day of 2016, Guizhou Province released the white paper "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application", which elaborated on the government's understanding, attitude and development ideas of blockchain. In the past two years, Guizhou has always played the role of pioneering and leading the charge in the development of national informatization, so the release of this white paper by Guizhou is very representative. Not long ago, blockchain technology was included in the "13th Five-Year National Informatization Plan" for the first time. A series of policy signals and actions have undoubtedly marked a milestone for the blockchain in 2016, which is still turbulent, and also reserved great imagination space for the development of blockchain in 2017.

1. Necessary supplement to the blockchain ecosystem: sovereign blockchain

The white paper "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application" mainly introduces the concept, development foundation, application scenarios and other aspects of blockchain. It is worth noting that the white paper first proposed the concept of sovereign blockchain. Like other blockchains, sovereign blockchain has the characteristics of peer-to-peer, non-tamperable, trustworthy and value transfer. But the difference is that sovereign blockchain adds national sovereignty, government supervision, technical intervention, non-complete decentralization and other characteristics that inject sovereign will. The white paper compares sovereign blockchain with existing fully decentralized blockchain products:

Table 1. Comparison between sovereign blockchain and other blockchains (cited from "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application")

Regarding the concept of sovereign blockchain, some people believe that adding elements of national sovereignty to a distributed autonomous system is a serious deviation from the idea of ​​blockchain decentralization. However, for a considerable number of government application scenarios, such as government data sharing and opening, targeted poverty alleviation, medical health, small and micro enterprise credit, financial supervision, etc., it is indeed necessary for the government or third-party institutions to initiate and participate. Considering factors such as data ownership, data security, and limited scope of application, it is obviously not appropriate to use a completely decentralized blockchain to handle these scenarios. Based on this sovereign chain, it is very likely that application forms such as "government chain" and "financial chain" under the background of sovereignty will emerge in the future. How to introduce the privilege mechanism of these alliance chains or private chains that introduce certain game mechanisms without destroying the original integrity and effectiveness of the blockchain system is a problem that needs to be jointly thought about and solved by the government, blockchain companies and community forces.

2. “Government Affairs Chain”: Another Fertile Ground for Blockchain Application

The imagination space of blockchain is extremely huge. Combining the existing business model with government applications, using blockchain to drive business scenarios such as public services, social governance, and government supervision, and building a "government chain" suitable for government departments is another important manifestation of the value of blockchain. This is a comparison table of business models and application scenarios listed in the white paper:

Table 2. Comparison of blockchain business models and application scenarios (cited from the white paper "Guiyang Blockchain Development and Application")

The cryptocurrency market is booming, but there is an extreme lack of truly mature and influential applications in the blockchain field. From a government perspective, if breakthroughs can be made in applications in the fields of public services, economic operations, and financial supervision, it will be a great boon to the development of the blockchain ecosystem.

Looking back, the Chinese government has formed a relatively mature and accurate understanding of blockchain, recognizes the huge role that blockchain can play in improving the national economy, social governance and other fields, and has begun to invest in top-down blockchain practices.

The "government chain" can be considered a powerful supplement to the entire blockchain ecosystem, and will exist and develop as a specific form to promote the continuous progress and improvement of the blockchain ecosystem. Whether in terms of technical support or model innovation, it is inseparable from the learning, reference, and even migration and reuse of existing blockchain products. Whether this non-completely decentralized chain form can truly promote a smoother and more stable connection between blockchain and the national economy, social activities and other fields, and stimulate the potential value of blockchain, we will wait and see.

3. The future is here, seize the opportunity

Blockchain still has a long way to go from its rise to its real application, but it is encouraging that the government has begun to guide and promote the development of blockchain from top to bottom, various community forces are growing and strengthening, business models and application scenarios are constantly being explored and innovated, and all parties have reached a consensus on promoting the development of blockchain and are working hard to build a free, open, orderly and healthy blockchain ecosystem. With the gradual subdivision of various blockchain modes such as Bitcoin, exchanges, mining pools, ICOs, etc. in the vertical dimension, and the continuous expansion of blockchain in government affairs, finance, Internet of Things, smart cities and other application fields in the horizontal dimension, the value of blockchain will become increasingly prominent. The future is here, are you ready?