An official with Beijingâs municipal government is calling for the country to adopt a âstandardâ approach to blockchain development.
According to a speech published by Sina Finance, Huo Xuewen, secretary of Beijingâs Municipal Bureau of Finance (a group that sets the cityâs economic strategy), invoked the need for âhealthyâ progress in the blockchain industry during a fintech event last week.
In his speech, Xuewen outlined popular use cases for blockchain (including payments, credit and trading), and called for blockchain standardization as a means to make development easier. This, he says, can solve problems and stymie any potential illegal financial activities.
While Xuewenâs remarks focused on the tech more broadly, he did identify risk areas including P2P loans denominated in digital currency and pyramid schemes.
The comments come months after Chinaâs central bank, the Peopleâs Bank of China, asserted itself more directly in the supervision of the domestic bitcoin exchange space. Those efforts led to a shift in policy at Chinaâs âBig Threeâ bitcoin exchanges, sparking a withdrawal freeze amid regulator-mandated updates to anti-money laundering processes.
And though Xuewen didnât address the PBoCâs bitcoin activities, he did highlight its work on a digital currency system, utilizing a distributed ledger. Initial trials, which occurred last year, are said to have involved Chinese financial institutions including WeBank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
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