At the Hangzhou Summit 2023 in China's Hangzhou city, government officials introduced a novel data exchange platform backed by blockchain technology. The inaugural launch of the exchange saw participation from over 300 companies, including prominent names like Alibaba Cloud and Huawei.
Named the Hangzhou Data Exchange, this newly established platform will leverage distributed ledger technology to facilitate the trading of enterprise information technology data. By utilizing blockchain, the platform aims to ensure the transparency and traceability of transactions. Chen Chun, the d director of the Blockchain and Data Security National Laboratory, highlighted that the exchange employs advanced technologies like scientific research blockchain and privacy computing to enable secure and privacy-protected data sharing across departments and regions.
In 2022, Hangzhou's digital economy sector is projected to surpass 500 billion yuan ($69 billion), making up approximately 27% of the city's gross domestic product. Despite stringent actions taken against private blockchain initiatives for a significant part of the year, China remains committed to support government-led blockchain projects.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the opening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in 2023, emphasized the potential of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in increasing the utilization of local currency settlements in SCO countries. Recently, China conducted an airdrop of a digital yuan CBDC worth over 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) to its citizens as a measure to stimulate domestic consumption.
However, China's efforts in certain areas have encountered challenges. Despite initial reports of China working on a national non-fungible token exchange named CDEX, as of now, the platform is still in the development stages, according to information available up to this point.
