The Chinese government has published a “whitepaper” (link in Chinese) that sets out key milestones for the development of blockchain technology in the country, in the strongest signal yet that it’s encouraging the growth of the technology there. The move will give further impetus to firms pushing for blockchain applications in sectors ranging from payments to smart contracts on the mainland, which is already a central force for bitcoin mining (paywall).
The 70-page report (pdf, link in Chinese) was published Oct. 18 by the software services division of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and was written by a working group of financial firms and nonprofits including mobile payments giant Ant Financial (an Alibaba affiliate) and Ping An Insurance.
http://kuaixun.stcn.com/2016/1018/12911479.shtmlhttp://qz.com/813248/chinas-tech-giants-will-shape-international-blockchain-standards-with-beijings-backing/