China’s dominance in cryptocurrency has been shown over the last few months as the country set out to create a completely new framework for decentralized applications and blockchain networks. The main focus of the country was to create its native blockchain network, which came to fruition last weekend.
On April 25, the country launched the Blockchain Services Network [BSN] for commercial purposes, both locally and globally. The blockchain network will be called ‘ChinaChain,’ a not so subtle way to indicate the presence of the country in the ecosystem.
The BSN will work as a cross-portal, cross-framework, cross-cloud global network primarily used to launch a myriad of blockchain applications. News about the BSN has been circulating for more than a year now, with rigorous testing having started 6 months ago.
The government revealed the complete system at a virtual press conference, taking precautions to avoid the spread of a highly contagious coronavirus. Official releases confirm that the launch and internal functioning of the BSN were all mandated by the authoritarian Chinese government.
Zhiguang Shan, Chairman of the BSN Development Association, claimed that the new system would act as a centerpiece for a variety of blockchain platforms. There are plans to integrate popular blockchain platforms like WeBank’s FISCO BCOS, Baidu’s Xuperchain, EOS, Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. The technical paper of the BSN stated:
“The main goal of the BSN has always been to create a public infrastructure similar to that of the internet and to provide a one-stop-shop style blockchain-based service that integrates cloud resources, underlying frameworks, operating environments, key management, development SDK and gateway API. Just like building a simple website on the internet, developers can deploy and operate blockchain and distributed ledger applications conveniently and at an extremely low-cost.”
The BSN also aims to solve the problem of interoperability within a complex system, something that many other companies have tried to address in the past. This time around, many officials in the space were confident that the BSN would be able to handle the situations. One of the officials who were positive about the launch was Hoggang Chen, VP of PeerSafe, a blockchain startup based in Beijing. He claimed that the efforts of BSN would crack the interoperability code with plans to launch Peersafe products on the latest network.
Members of the BSN team stated that not all network protocols will be allowed in the latest blockchain framework. Zhiguan Shan said that foreign protocols such as HyperLedger will have to be tweaked in order to fit into the workings of the BSN. The BSN Network Operations Platform is currently managed by its founding members, including China UnionPay, Red Date Tech and China Mobile.
Small and medium-sized enterprises within the country are expected to benefit from the latest launch as it provides a faster and more interconnected trading ecosystem. BSN will host data from multiple cloud providers to ensure a free flow of information between all parties involved. A cursory analysis has shown that BSN is ready to host thousands of applications on its network, just like the Internet.
According to earlier releases, we know that the network is backed by large Chinese corporations and banks. Interconnectivity was the need for an hour with multiple nodes set to be placed outside the mainland of China. Seven location cities have been selected: Sydney, Paris, California, Singapore, Tokyo, San Paulo, California, and Johannesburg.