Blockchain firms' efforts up to gain global lead

Chinese blockchain companies are beefing up their overseas presence with rising tech prowess, as the country accelerates blockchain development and application to gain a lead globally, company executives and industry experts said.

Zhang Chao, vice-president of OKLink, a blockchain company, said that globalization is a key strategy and one of the most important goals for the company to expand services and leading blockchain solutions overseas.

Blockchain technology can be used by clients to share data and no one can adjust or erase any exchanges. It is lauded for its safety, security and transparency, and has promising applications in facilitating trade.

"More efforts will also be made in better meeting the on-chain data needs from the global market to boost the richness of both data and function, and help more Chinese blockchain companies in going global," Zhang said.

Zhang's remarks were made after OKLink launched support for nine new languages－Russian, French, German, Japanese, Turkish, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Vietnamese－on its official website.

"The new move provides more opportunities for the company's international expansion, which is progressing steadily as it is serving more than 50 million blockchain participants around the world," he said.

The Beijing-based company has applied its blockchain products in several sectors, especially for helping crack down on crime. Chaintelligence, its blockchain security product, has helped police in more than 30 cities and provincial regions in dealing with blockchain-related cases.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Cyberspace Administration of China unveiled guidelines to accelerate the application and industrial development of blockchain technology.

The guideline said the country aims to nurture three to five backbone enterprises with international competitiveness and a group of innovative enterprises related to blockchain while also creating three to five blockchain clusters in the field by 2025.

"China has its first-mover advantages in blockchain technologies to some extent. Accelerated steps should be made from local companies in boosting the application of such technologies both in home market and abroad," said Yu Jianeng, deputy director of the blockchain specialized committee of the China Communications Industry Association.

"Only when blockchain technology is applied in various industries can it fully play its role and unleash its true value. It can also become an important driver of industrial innovation," Yu said.

According to the nation's blueprint for blockchain, the industry is expected to reach an advanced level globally by 2025, with related applications penetrating daily life. A number of well-known blockchain products, especially in product traceability, data circulation and supply chain management, are expected to be available by then.

"But there are still deficiencies in blockchain applications, especially for large-scale commercialization. There is an urgent need for selecting a suitable field and deepening the application in that sector," Yu said.