Xi Jinping: Blockchain is a 'Breakthrough' Technology

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Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech this week that blockchain is a technology that underlies bitcoin and has a "breakthrough" application.

"The generation of new technologies represented by artificial intelligence, quantum information, communication media, the Internet and blockchain is a 'breakthrough' application," he said.

Xi also stressed China's need to focus on technology development and become a global center of science and innovation.

Bitcoin is the first and most famous blockchain application. This technology eliminates the need for third-party intermediaries, such as banks, and quickly creates secure and permanent transaction records between two parties. Speculation over a large blockchain potential has not been proven to help send bitcoin prices soaring last year.

Beijing effectively halted bitcoin trade in the country, and in September formally banned the sale of new digital tokens through the process of "initial coin offer".

However, the country remains a center of activity for the development of blockchain. Some new companies are partnering with the Chinese government to research or apply the technology.

"In China, blockchain is still developing greatly," said Albert Xuan, project manager at Liaoyuan, a consulting and incubator company for startups.

He said about 100 to 200 people flew from China to New York earlier this month to attend the Liaoyuan "Blockchain Without Borders" conference, which drew about 650 people and held at least two panels in Mandarin.

Blockchain is also mentioned twice in China's 13th China State Council's five-year economic plan released in 2016.

"Since entering the 21st century, global science and technological innovation have entered an unprecedented period of intensive activity," Xi said in a speech. "The new round of scientific and industrial revolutions are reconstructing global innovation maps and reshaping the structure of the global economy."

Xi was speaking at a meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Engineering Academy.