According to a report by China News Service on July 3, the General Office of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government issued a notice on June 30 promulgating the “Beijing Blockchain Innovation and Development Action Plan (2020–2022)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”), which sets out the goal of initially establishing Beijing as a leading hub for blockchain-related technological innovation, application demonstration, industrial development, and talent cultivation, and of taking the lead in formulating a “Beijing Model” for leveraging blockchain technology to drive economic and social development.

Earlier this month, Beijing issued the “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Expansion of New Business Forms and Models to Promote High-Quality Economic Development in Beijing,” which cited blockchain as a key area of focus 24 times.

“Beijing’s blockchain policies signal that a period of policy-driven benefits for blockchain development has arrived. Over the next two months, blockchain-promotion policies will spring up across provinces and cities nationwide at an unprecedented pace. Driven by these local initiatives, investment in and innovation resources related to blockchain will rapidly converge, ushering in a new wave of blockchain adoption and real-world implementation,” said Dr. Yu Jianing, President of Huobi University and a leading blockchain expert.

Yu Jianing believes that the capital’s pioneering proposal of a blockchain innovation and development plan is of extraordinary significance. On the one hand, Beijing has explicitly committed to building itself into “four major hubs” for blockchain, which will serve as a leading and exemplary model for national blockchain industrial policy. On the other hand, the four key tasks outlined by Beijing for advancing blockchain development have become the critical leverage for promoting the innovative and integrated growth of the blockchain sector.

Four Key Tasks to Foster a Healthy Ecosystem for Blockchain Innovation and Development

The Action Plan explicitly states that Beijing will accomplish four key tasks—building a theoretical and technological platform, implementing blockchain applications across multiple sectors, fostering the blockchain industry, and developing a talent pipeline—along with 20 specific initiatives, in order to create a favorable ecosystem for innovative blockchain development.

Yu Jianing believes that Beijing’s policies have meticulously defined and clarified the key elements for blockchain development, adopting a systematic and comprehensive approach that covers foundational blockchain theory, core technologies, industrial development, and supporting infrastructure, thereby underscoring the city’s unwavering commitment and thorough deliberation on advancing blockchain technology.

The Action Plan also sets out specific measures, such as Beijing’s initiative to build an integrated blockchain industry chain and foster a cohort of unicorn companies and high-growth, specialized enterprises. Priority will be given to establishing distinctive, advantage-driven blockchain innovation and development hubs in Haidian District, Chaoyang District, Tongzhou District, and other areas, with robust support in the form of subsidies for office-space rents, R&D funding grants, and talent recruitment incentives. In addition, a dedicated sub-fund for blockchain industry investment will be established under the city’s Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund.

Yu Jianing stated that a wave of policy benefits is “on the horizon,” heralding a spring for blockchain enterprises and professionals in Beijing. Innovation clusters such as Haidian District, Chaoyang District, and Tongzhou District will serve as ideal incubators for blockchain firms, presenting new entrepreneurial opportunities for blockchain practitioners. The key to blockchain entrepreneurship, however, lies in adopting a “mindset shift” and mastering “blockchain thinking,” while actively promoting the practical application and commercialization of the blockchain industry.

Clearly Define Seven Major Blockchain Application Scenarios

According to the Action Plan, Beijing is focusing on deploying blockchain applications across seven key scenarios: e-government, financial services, digital identity, urban management, public safety, evidence preservation and traceability, and commerce and logistics.

Yu Jianing emphasized that the selection of the seven key application scenarios is highly strategic. It reflects Beijing’s deliberate approach in leveraging blockchain’s inherent attributes—trustworthiness, interoperability, and traceability—while aligning with the city’s strategic positioning and taking into account both the overarching principles governing blockchain development and the specific needs of each stage. By adopting a balanced mix of short-term and long-term use cases, the city has identified targeted application scenarios that address pressing priorities. This also signals that the “systematization” of blockchain applications is emerging as a prevailing trend: only by integrating blockchain with other technological innovations and jointly empowering the real economy can its full value be realized.

Specifically, in the area of blockchain-plus-government data sharing, efforts will be made to advance the development of common blockchain-based infrastructure for government services, with initial pilot applications focused on scenarios such as real estate registration, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei “One-Network Integrated Services” initiative, and the standardized electronic invoicing system in the fiscal and tax domains. In the blockchain-plus-finance domain, a number of application scenarios will be implemented in areas including supply-chain finance, asset securitization, cross-border payments, trade finance, and smart regulatory oversight, while supporting the submission of relevant projects for inclusion in fintech innovation regulatory pilots (regulatory sandboxes). In the blockchain-plus-public-security sector, applications will be promoted in areas such as administrative law enforcement, data notarization, and traceability management. In the blockchain-plus-commerce domain, applications will be developed to enhance the trustworthiness of trading entities and transaction content across integrated online–offline business models, including digital trade, cross-border trade, and online retail.

Focus on building a leading blockchain talent pipeline.

The Action Plan also places particular emphasis on strengthening the development of a talent pipeline for blockchain. Specifically, it calls for implementing targeted talent recruitment initiatives to attract world-class blockchain experts; cultivating high-caliber, innovative blockchain professionals; and encouraging blockchain enterprises to establish corporate universities and build comprehensive blockchain talent-training systems, with the aim of fostering a cohort of highly skilled, multidisciplinary innovators.

“This underscores the critical importance of talent for the development of the blockchain industry and highlights the acute shortage of specialized professionals in the field,” Yu Jianing analyzed. He believes that talent development in the blockchain sector currently faces several significant challenges, primarily threefold: first, the overall professional competence of practitioners is inadequate, resulting in poor job-fit and low job stability; second, a large number of IT professionals aspire to transition into the blockchain space but lack formal training and sufficient domain expertise, making such career shifts difficult; and third, the integration of industry and education remains relatively weak, leading to a disconnect between the practical knowledge base of university students and the actual needs of the blockchain industry, thereby underscoring the urgent need to strengthen hands-on, skills-based training.

Therefore, it has become an urgent priority to proactively cultivate and deploy specialized blockchain talent through a range of initiatives, thereby addressing the critical talent gap in the new infrastructure for blockchain. As a specialized education institution focused on blockchain applications and the digital economy, Huobi University has achieved rapid business transformation and upgrading this year. On the one hand, while continuing to nurture top-tier entrepreneurs in the blockchain industry, the university has launched the “Blockchain Excellence Talent Education Initiative,” actively providing blockchain education resources to stakeholders across various sectors. On the other hand, Huobi University is forging close partnerships with higher education institutions and collaborating with leading blockchain industry and service providers such as Zhilian Technology and Lianren International to roll out public-benefit blockchain awareness courses tailored for universities, thereby supporting students’ market-oriented and socially integrated employment.

“Overall, Beijing was quick to respond to the central government’s call by issuing a systematic set of policies to promote blockchain development, which fully demonstrates the Beijing municipal government’s deep reflection on and meticulous planning for the underlying principles governing the evolution of the blockchain industry,” said Yu Jianing. He added that, driven by the “Beijing Plan” for blockchain development, Beijing will lead the global pace of blockchain innovation and usher in a new chapter in the field’s innovative growth. (China News Service–Jingwei App)