The 2021 Smart China Expo Blockchain Summit Forum, themed Linking New Industries and Building New Ecosystems, was concluded on 16th September in Chongqing. The event was a good primer on the latest developments of blockchain and its applications, the significant challenges facing the data element market development, and how the integration of industry and innovation chains is progressing.

The 2021 Smart China Expo Blockchain Summit Forum was held on September 16 in Chongqing. (Photo/ the 2021 Smart China Expo Blockchain Summit Forum)

Focusing on these questions, experts have shared their insights during the online group interview with Smart Roadshow.

Latest developments

According to Chen Zhong, Director of the Peking University Blockchain Research Center, both the Big Data Engineering Laboratory and the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science of the Peking University have participated in the projects of consultancy and research related to data elements.

At the moment, blockchain is growing by leaps and bounds. As stated in the plan for blockchain by the Ministry of Science and Technology during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, relevant demonstration and planning have been made from the five parts, including basic theory, key technologies, supervision requirements, technology platforms, and application demonstration.

"Around the globe, there are only a handful of organizations that are able to design programming languages and running environments to build smart contracts on the blockchain," said Chen. "Last year, we've launched the Fintech Pilot Project for the People's Bank of China, and conducted accuracy verification in data fields such as finance, accounting firms, auditing firms, and listed companies, and used smart contracts on blockchain to provide support."

Chen thinks this can serve as one of the essential standards for blockchain.

Enterprises' exploring 

According to Wang Dong, head of State Grid Blockchain Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., State Grid Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. serves as the most significant energy e-commerce platform company in China. So far, it has successfully built the "state grid chain," the currently largest energy blockchain public service in China.

State Grid Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Grid. In August 2019, it took the lead in establishing the first central state-owned enterprises of China in blockchain technology—State Grid Blockchain Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

By adhering to the strategy of emphasizing technology development and industrial development, the company aims to promote the innovation-driven development of the blockchain industry in China.

Wang thinks, focusing on the realization of the goals of "blockchain plus carbon peak and neutrality," the company has promoted the typical application of blockchain technologies in green electricity trade, renewable energy consumption, supplies purchase, energy consumption monitoring, and other aspects, in a bid to build a new electricity system in China.

Multi-pronged efforts

What are the major challenges facing the data element market development?

According to Tang Ke, Director of the Institute of Economics, School of Social Science, Tsinghua University, massive isolated islands still exist in the data trade market and the circulation field.

Although China's digital economy grows rapidly overall, many hard nuts remain to be cracked in the data element field, for example, risk in data replicability, non-excludability in the application, and risk arising in the data trade process.

Tang insists that government departments, market players, and market service providers need to cooperate to cultivate market entities to develop the data element market.

"So far, China's digital economy has achieved a quantum leap," said Tang. "Looking ahead, circulation and development of data elements will come to the fore of the digital economy in the coming."

The 2021 Smart China Expo Blockchain Summit Forum was successfully concluded on Linking New Industries and Building New Ecosystems. (iChongqing/ Vivian Yan)