China announces the Launch of a Blockchain Service Network

In China, an alliance of government agencies, banks, and tech companies want to launch a Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) in April 2020. The network which will be directly maintained by the Chinese government will allow companies and individuals to build blockchain projects based on its templates.

China to Introduce a Blockchain Business Technology Platform

Last year the Chinese government announced it is working on developing a Blockchain-based service platform to act as an incubation hub for blockchain businesses in China. This announcement followed the country’s president’s directive for more investment on Blockchain technology in China.

Recently China revealed that work on the blockchain service platform is almost complete and the country is ready to launch the platform next month. According to government sources, the BSN will become a hub for blockchain apps development and marketing, development of smart cities and digital economy for all its citizens.

In its a whitepaper, the BSN development team revealed that it is more expensive to maintain a blockchain company by a single company. In the whitepaper, the developers estimated that it cost at least $14,000 for a single company to maintain it’s blockchain network yet the BSN would charge just $300 for the same service.

The nature of the BSN blockchain would be different from that of another open blockchain such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. The BSN would deploy a permissioned blockchain where data is only shared with nodes who are allowed to view them. This way the government believes that confidential company data can be kept private only to the transacting parties.

Among some of the government service agencies already signed up with the BSN include; Chinese National Information Center, China UnionPay, China Mobile, Payroll services companies and many more. With most of the biggest government service agencies incorporated the government is optimistic that the project will be a success.

Not Everyone Likes the Idea of a Government Controlled Public Blockchain

Although the government is marketing the BSN platform as a way of cutting down the cost of running a blockchain business by more than 80%, some critics are skeptical about the platform. One of the blockchain experts skeptical about the latest Chinese government effort to put in place a government-controlled blockchain.

Among the critical issues surrounding the development of the BSN, Hong Wan, a blockchain enterprise expert based in the US, said that the platform’s technical specifications are not fully explained. However, the BSN alliance said it had put in place a group of freelance developers and companies to test the platform. Meanwhile, some other blockchain and cryptocurrency forums expressed concerns that the government control on the platform could limit the full extent of the platform.