In October 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that “blockchain plays a core role in the next round of technological innovation and industrial transformation”, and pledged to increase investments in basic research and advancements in the technology. While this statement sparked a flurry of attention, in reality, China has been deeply engaged, across the public and private sector, in developing systems and applications based on blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies for a number of years.
In this webinar, we were joined by Ran Zhao, Innovation Officer at the Innovation Centre Denmark in Shanghai and author of a recent report on China’s Blockchain Ecosystem, alongside key practitioners and experts. Discussions covered China’s proposed Central Bank Digital Currency (DC/EP), its new Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), some of the interesting commercial applications being developed, from insurance to supply chains, as well as the role the government is playing in fostering blockchain innovation and the policy and regulatory environment.
Blockchain in the coronavirus crisis - Supporting responses, building resilience
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a series of new and pressing challenges across sectors, from the unprecedented policies required to slow infection and support the economy by governments, to the impacts on business operations right through the supply chain.
As institutions have raced to adapt, questions of privacy, data security, and veracity of information have come to the fore. Governments and corporations have already turned to decentralised systems to address some of these concerns, while distributed ledger technologies (DLT) like blockchain have attracted attention as a useful means of addressing specific fragilities and building future resilience.
Leading industry experts explored how governments and business are leveraging DLT in the current crisis, what more these technologies could do now, and where DLT could take post-crisis adaptation.
Speakers
Caroline Malcolm, Head, Global Blockchain Policy Centre, OECD (Moderator)
Jessica Douglas, Blockchain Services Leader, UK and Ireland, IBM
Riho Laast-Laas, Lead, Estonian Track-and-Trace Consortium
