China wants to introduce national blockchain standards as soon as possible to propel the development and implementation of blockchian technology in the country.

Xie Shaofeng,director of the Information and Software Services Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said at a forum in late April that China should speed up the formation of a blockchain standard system with a focus on the top-level design, in order to foster new forms of business in the digital economy.

Blockchain Standardization tops the Chinese IT Ministry’s 2018 agenda. MIIT’s Information and Software Services Division announced its seven major areas of focus in its 2018 agenda on March 23, four of which are related with standardizing Blockchain technology. The new announcement came two weeks after the bureau formally announced the formation of a national technical standardization committee for blockchain and distributed ledger technology(DLT).

As previously reported, China presses forward to standardize blockchain industry in an orderly manner. It has participated in the TC 307 committee under International Organization for Standardization, which is working on standards of blockchain framework, identity authentication and smart contracts, to develop international blockchain standards. Beside, China released the first Blockchain Reference Architecture(BRA) last May, providing a reference guideline for various businesses when picking blockchain service.

Despite Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading, the country does not want to lag behind other countries on the development of blockchain industry. China looks to widen cooperation with International Standards Organization and open source communities to achieve a greater say in setting up international blockchain standards.

In addition to accelerate the formation of a blockchain standard system, MIIT will continue to strengthen the communication and coordination with relevant departments, create a good environment for blockchain development ,facilitate the rollout of blockchain applications and introduce industrial blockchain solutions as soon as possible.