Almost All Chinese Provinces Have Blockchain-Boosting Policies

Crypto in China might be under unprecedented government pressure, but the opposite is true of blockchain technology.

Jul 14, 2021 at 11:10 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:25 p.m. UTC

While many Chinese provinces and cities are cracking down on crypto mining, most are trying to boost their local blockchain industries.

Out of China's 34 provinces and province-level cities, 33 have enacted policies to accelerate blockchain innovation, local media reported, citing research from Chinese blockchain news site ChainNews.
The newest issue of China's most important economic-planning document, the Five-Year Plan, named blockchain a nationally strategic technology for the first time, calling on local governments to spur innovation in the field.
Fourteen governments are offering financial rewards to companies that excel in blockchain innovation.
Ganzhou, a city in one of China's poorest provinces, Jiangxi, is promising 17.5 million yuan ($2.7 million) to companies that become unicorns, according to the report. A unicorn company is commonly defined as a startup whose valuation reaches $1 billion.
Shanghai is offering permanent residency to highly skilled workers who move there to work on blockchain, the report said. Permanent residency in Shanghai is a lifetime aspiration for many Chinese citizens because it allows them to live, buy property and access public services in the country's most international city.
At the same time, several provincial and city governments have moved to shut down or curtail crypto mining, following signals from China's top leadership.

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