Is There A New ”Mythologizing” Blockchain In China?

BTC Wires: The 5th Fintech Bund Summit recently took place in Shanghai on July 8. Few very interesting statements were made in the Summit by Fan Wenzhong, head of the international department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

According to local news source South China Morning Post, Wenzhong has warned people against “mythologizing” blockchain technology. He further clarified that blockchain is “an innovation with significant meaning,” it is disfavorable to “mythologize” the technology.

Fan claimed that the idea of multi-entry bookkeeping is not a novel idea, explaining that “decentralization is not a new trend but a loop, because the earliest human transactions were without central authorities.”

His remarks were in tandem with China’s severe stance on crypto. He said that “Blockchain is a useful innovation but that doesn’t mean cryptocurrencies, which blockchain has given rise to, are necessarily useful.” He also issued a warning against illegal initial coin offerings (ICOs) posing as “blockchain projects.”

Last year, China came down hard on ICOs and crypto exchanges and tried to get them to leave the country. However, large numbers of crypto projects are still functioning under the disguise of working on “blockchain technology” rather than “cryptocurrency”.

China’s harsh stance against cryptos can be judged by the fact that there is a ban on 110 crypto exchanges in China. According to a Chinese government analysis, the average lifespan of a blockchain project is just over 1 year and only 8% of blockchain projects are still alive today. Despite this, blockchain is widely appreciated in China.

China’s president Xi Jinping praised blockchain, calling it “part of technological revolution”. Xi said: “Since the 21st century began, global scientific and technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of intensive activity. A new round of scientific and technological revolutions and industrial changes is reconstructing the global innovation map and reshaping the global economic structure.”