Zhang Zhiguang from the National Information Center: The metaverse will become an important carrier and comprehensive scenario for the future development of the digital economy

Chain New
2022-03-31 12:14:30
Collection
The core concept of blockchain is value transfer and credit mechanism, which is a new type of data storage and transmission method based on the internet, capable of addressing the credibility shortcomings of the internet.

Source: Chain New

Author: Wang Shengyu

On March 5, Li Keqiang, on behalf of the State Council, delivered the "Government Work Report" at the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress, reiterating the requirements and goals for the development of the digital economy.

The report pointed out, "Promote the development of the digital economy," "Improve digital economy governance, cultivate a data factor market, unleash the potential of data factors, enhance application capabilities, and better empower economic development and enrich people's lives." Blockchain is also considered an important part of the digital economy. The latest "14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development" mentions, "Build a trusted service network and application support platform based on blockchain."

How should we understand the impact of blockchain industry development on the digital economy? What trends are currently emerging in the development of the industrial blockchain? Shan Zhiguang, Director of the Informationization and Industrial Development Department of the National Information Center, believes: "The core concept of blockchain is value transmission and credit mechanism. Blockchain is a new type of data storage and transmission method based on the internet, which can make up for the credibility shortcomings of the internet."

The National Information Center is a public institution directly under the National Development and Reform Commission. It is a national-level decision-making consulting agency characterized by economic analysis and forecasting, information construction, and big data applications, as well as a national electronic government public service platform.

Shan Zhiguang holds a doctorate degree and currently serves as the Director of the Informationization and Industrial Development Department of the National Information Center (equivalent to a bureau-level position) and the Director of the Smart City Development Research Center. He also serves as the Secretary-General of the National Big Data Development Expert Advisory Committee and the Chairman of the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) Development Alliance.

1. Blockchain Can Make Up for the Credibility Deficiencies of the Internet

Chain New: From the "14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development" issued by the State Council to the Government Work Report, both mention the need to promote the development of the digital economy. How do you define the digital economy?

Shan Zhiguang: The digital economy is a more advanced stage of economic development following the agricultural economy and industrial economy. It takes digitized information and knowledge as key production factors, uses modern information networks as the main carrier, and relies on the integration and application of information and communication technology and the digital transformation of all factors as important driving forces to promote a new economic form characterized by inclusiveness, innovation, efficiency, and sustainability.

The digital economy can be roughly divided into two major parts: digital industrialization and industrial digitization.

Digital industrialization refers to the industrial application of digital and related technologies, mainly including electronic information manufacturing, software and information technology services, telecommunications, and data services. Digital industrialization is the leading force in the development of the digital economy.

Industrial digitization refers to the output growth and efficiency improvement brought about by the application of digital technology in various industries, including digital agriculture, digital manufacturing, digital services, and the integration of digital and traditional industries. Industrial digitization is the main battlefield of the digital economy. In terms of proportion, digital industrialization and industrial digitization account for about one-fifth and four-fifths of the digital economy, respectively.

Chain New: Why will the digital economy be a key direction for China's economic development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period?

Shan Zhiguang: During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the digital economy has become a key direction, driving force, and development engine for China's economic development. The main reasons are: First, the digital economy can promote smooth economic circulation, activate development momentum, and enhance economic resilience.

Currently, data has become a key production factor and means of production, deeply penetrating all aspects of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption, leading to the networked sharing, intensive integration, collaborative development, and efficient utilization of factors such as labor, capital, land, technology, and management, which can greatly improve the efficiency of resource allocation in various fields of the economy and society.

Second, the digital economy can strongly lead to the construction of a modern economic system. The construction of a modern economic system cannot be separated from the development and application of big data. The digital economy is characterized by high innovation, strong penetration, and wide coverage, which can promote high-quality economic development. The innovation of a new generation of information technology is active, with strong innovation capabilities, great growth potential, and good comprehensive benefits in core industries of the digital economy such as big data, the Internet of Things, 5G, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, shifting the driving force of economic development from relying mainly on resource and low-cost labor inputs to innovation-driven.

Chain New: The "14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development" proposes to "build a trusted service network and application support platform based on blockchain." What role will blockchain play in the development of the digital economy?

Shan Zhiguang: The core concept of blockchain is value transmission and credit mechanism.

Blockchain is a new type of data storage and transmission method based on the internet, which can make up for the credibility deficiencies of the internet. Blockchain technology establishes reliable trust between peers in the network, removes intermediary interference in the value transmission process, makes information public while protecting privacy, enables joint decision-making while safeguarding personal rights, improves the efficiency of value interaction, and reduces costs.

Blockchain changes the way connections are made through a new trust mechanism, bringing about changes in production relations, and providing effective technical means for trusted data interaction between different participants and industries, achieving a transition from "information internet" to "value internet." For the value internet, value can be transmitted as conveniently, quickly, and cost-effectively as information, especially funds.

Therefore, we should leverage the role of blockchain in promoting data sharing, optimizing business processes, reducing operational costs, enhancing collaborative efficiency, and building a trusted system. Utilizing blockchain technology can explore innovative digital economy models, providing momentum for creating a convenient, efficient, fair, competitive, stable, and transparent business environment, serving the advancement of supply-side structural reform, and facilitating effective matching of supply and demand across industries, as well as supporting the acceleration of the transition from old to new driving forces and promoting high-quality economic development. The transition from information internet, consumer internet to industrial internet, value internet is an inevitable path for the deepening development of informatization.

2. In the Era of Blockchain, China Faces Opportunities to Lead Global Development

Chain New: Many blockchain policies were introduced in 2021. What are the current effects of these policies?

Shan Zhiguang: Currently, both the national level and various provincial and municipal governments have introduced many blockchain policies, which play an important role in promoting technological innovation, platform innovation, application innovation, and regulatory innovation in blockchain. However, given that the relevant policies have been introduced for a relatively short time, they are still in the process of implementation, and the effects of the policies are gradually becoming apparent. For example, the relevant policies regarding virtual currency "mining" in various regions have already yielded significant results.

Chain New: What stage is the blockchain industry currently in? What trends can we expect in the future?

Shan Zhiguang: The blockchain industry is currently in a stage where various underlying technologies are competing and application scenarios are flourishing. In the future, it will transition towards interoperability of underlying technologies, interconnected infrastructure, ubiquitous technology, and prominent application effectiveness.

The construction of blockchain infrastructure is the foundation and prerequisite for application and industrial development. Building a universal global blockchain infrastructure has significant strategic value and is crucial for the healthy development of blockchain applications and industries. In the past information and internet eras, China was a follower and runner-up in infrastructure, but in the blockchain era, China is facing a rare historical opportunity to lead the world in blockchain development—creating a Chinese version of "the internet" in the blockchain infrastructure field, a Chinese version of "TCP/IP." This is the development positioning and core purpose of the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) that we are initiating.

Chain New: Is the recently popular metaverse also part of the digital economy? Will the metaverse become an important engine for the digital economy?

Shan Zhiguang: According to the most widely accepted definition, the metaverse is a shared digital virtual world established using various technologies. The metaverse is not outside the scope of the internet and should be regarded as a more advanced manifestation of internet applications.

The essence of the metaverse is to use digital technology to connect people more conveniently to virtual network spaces, achieving transformations in production methods, leaps in living patterns, and innovations in governance concepts.

The metaverse is an upgraded version of information network space. The popularization of the Internet of Things and cloud computing accelerates the realization of "everything connected." The metaverse speeds up the digitalization process of humans, and as people enter virtual spaces more conveniently, it promotes the transformation of information network space from a "cyberspace" centered on "things" to an "intelligent digital space" centered on "people."

The metaverse is an extension of human social space. The network breaks the sense of distance in time, while the metaverse shortens the sense of spatial distance, allowing people to communicate across time and space. However, the metaverse is not a lawless land; it needs to adhere to the order and rules of human society. It is essential to ensure the safety of individuals in the network space and the safety of their virtual avatars in the "metaverse." The rules and regulations of digital governance also need to be adjusted and improved as the metaverse develops.

Therefore, I believe the metaverse will become an important carrier and comprehensive scenario for the future development of the digital economy.

3. BSN, Weaving the "Internet of Blockchain"

Chain New: You also serve as the Chairman of the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) Development Alliance. Please introduce the BSN blockchain service network. What are the differences and advantages of BSN compared to other consortium chains?

Shan Zhiguang: The core design philosophy of BSN is to build the internet of blockchain based on the development concept of the internet, positioning itself as an open and cooperative global blockchain infrastructure.

BSN is not a chain, nor is it a specific blockchain application; it is a public infrastructure for the underlying blockchain, providing a global public infrastructure environment for blockchain developers to deploy and run blockchain applications across cloud services, portals, and underlying frameworks.

It does not build new hardware but effectively activates existing resources such as telecommunications operators, cloud service providers, and data centers. Any data center or cloud computing center that meets BSN's security and configuration requirements can apply to join the network. The goal of BSN is to allow blockchain applications from any industry to connect to BSN, making blockchain services as convenient, low-cost, and easy to use as the internet. As BSN continues to expand its global deployment, it will weave an "internet of blockchain."

Chain New: What is the current development status of BSN?

Shan Zhiguang: After several years of rapid development, by the end of 2021, BSN had achieved compatibility with mainstream open-source consortium chains such as HyperLedger Fabric, FISCO BCOS, XuperChain, and CITA, enabling data interoperability between homogeneous and heterogeneous underlying frameworks as well as between on-chain and off-chain business systems. BSN has 141 public data centers covering six continents (8 overseas and 133 domestically) and has become the world's largest "internet of public blockchain services."

In terms of operation, BSN is divided into BSN China and BSN International, operating separately within and outside China according to the policy requirements for blockchain development. BSN deploys consortium chains domestically and can deploy public chains internationally, supporting various application scenario developments through rich functional modules.

Chain New: What role can BSN play in empowering the development of the digital economy?

Shan Zhiguang: BSN proposed in its top-level design to focus on supporting the integration and innovative applications in the fields of digital economy and smart society as its core goal and development mission. BSN can facilitate data flow and business interaction between different systems, which is conducive to reconstructing the entire industrial process of production, circulation, and transaction, promoting innovative application models in public resource trading, cross-border payments, securities trading, logistics management, supply chain finance, electronic invoices, electronic contracts, financing leasing, product traceability, property protection, and credit systems, and driving the transformation and upgrading of the "production-centered" industrial economy to a "transaction-centered" digital economy.

Chain New: What achievements has BSN made so far?

Shan Zhiguang: In September of last year, based on BSN technology and facilities, China's first "Shenzhen-Singapore Cross-Border Trade Blockchain Dedicated Network," built on independent blockchain infrastructure, was officially completed and put into operation.

This dedicated network was led by the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Government Services Data Management, the Bureau of Commerce, and Singapore's IMDA. Based on the single-window service of the Southern Electronic Port in Shenzhen and utilizing BSN technology, it constructed a foundational network for encrypted cross-border data, storage, transmission, invocation, and mutual recognition between Shenzhen and Singapore, achieving secure circulation of cross-border trade data between the two places.

Chain New: What are BSN's future plans in supporting the digital economy?

Shan Zhiguang: First, improve the technical ecosystem, continue to build a global network for BSN and adapt underlying blockchain frameworks, create a blockchain underlying communication protocol (BSNP), and conduct research on relevant standards such as "General Requirements for Blockchain Dedicated Service Network Basic Environment" and intellectual property applications to enhance autonomous controllability.

Second, accelerate the promotion of applications, combining the BSN backbone network with the construction of dedicated networks in various regions, and promote the "cloud-network-chain" integrated new infrastructure to empower the high-quality development of the digital economy through the "Five, Ten, Hundred" project (five ministries, ten industries, 100 cities), truly making BSN the most influential public service platform for blockchain in China's digital economy and social governance.

Third, create "killer" products, combining the demand for Distributed Digital Certificates (DDC), relying on BSN to build a fair, open, technologically integrated, secure, reasonably priced, and permanently operational BSN-DDC public service network and smart contracts to provide application programming interface services for enterprises or individuals.

4. Digital Collectibles Urgently Need "Clarification"

Chain New: NFTs are extremely popular in the blockchain industry. What is your view on NFTs?

Shan Zhiguang: Throughout 2021, one of the hottest concepts was NFTs, which have already formed a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the field of digital art and collectibles. Technically speaking, NFTs are essentially a type of underlying data management technology that can be widely applied in ticketing, identity management, account management, intellectual property certificates, and any field that requires the circulation of data and documents, holding enormous value for both the digital economy and even the real economy.

Chain New: As a new phenomenon, what challenges does NFT face?

Shan Zhiguang: First, the issue of legality; currently, NFTs internationally are mostly generated on public chains and traded around virtual currencies, which is not feasible domestically.

Second, the issue of security; some blockchain companies in China have already tested NFT business through consortium chains, but how can we ensure the permanent existence of these consortium chains to guarantee the safety of users' data/rights? On the other hand, NFTs generated and stored on a separate consortium chain will also suffer from reduced liquidity and interoperability.

Third, the regulatory issue; how to prevent NFTs from being used by speculators for financial speculation and for illegal purposes such as money laundering.

Chain New: Can BSN help NFTs address these challenges?

Shan Zhiguang: To solve these problems and promote the development of NFT technology domestically, realizing its due value, BSN has collaborated with several mainstream cloud service providers, dozens of blockchain underlying technology companies, and various platform parties to build an NFT public infrastructure on the existing BSN public network. With the aim of "clarification," we have unified the naming of blockchain-based rights and certificate technologies in China as Distributed Digital Certificates (DDC), which is the BSN-DDC foundational network.

The BSN-DDC foundational network consists of at least 10 open consortium chains with different technical systems on the BSN public network. By deploying BSN official DDC smart contracts with cross-chain mechanisms, we provide rapid access services to platform parties with DDC/NFT business needs, allowing these platform parties to flexibly offer DDC/NFT services to end users and effectively manage the generation, updating, transfer, and destruction of DDC/NFT.

Chain New: What advantages does BSN-DDC have in comparison?

Shan Zhiguang: Relying on BSN's technology, resources, and ecosystem, the BSN-DDC foundational network has significant inherent advantages, providing a neutral stance, low cost, diverse technology, security and reliability, permanence, and ease of regulation as a public infrastructure for the development of DDC/NFT technology in China.

DDC/NFT is one of the most widely applicable foundational capabilities in the field of blockchain technology, applicable across various industries. Through the BSN-DDC foundational network, we can start exploring the ecological construction, technical system, business model, and regulatory methods of this technology now, which is conducive to better promoting the healthy and rapid development of this technology. As this technology develops and matures, its integration with the digital economy and even the real economy will deepen, and the BSN-DDC foundational network will fully unleash its due value, providing momentum for the development of new business formats and models in China's digital economy.

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