This Monday September 10, the Chinese government announced plans to track all charity donations using blockchain technology. The document released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs outlines a four-year plan that will implement advanced technology to innovate and revamp government social services. By the end of 2018, the ministry will be moving their charity tracking system to the blockchain. It is estimated that this project will be completed by 2020.
Government-based blockchain support continues at a consistent and relentless pace. From making blockchain evidence admissible in courtrooms to government-issued educational blockchain literature for officials, China is inarguably the most eager to adopt.
While this does not extend to cryptocurrency, they have most blockchain patents in the world. Recently the Chinese social network WeChat blocked the sales channel of the Bitcoin mining behemoth Bitmain. This just demonstrates how the stigma against cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency promotion remains in Beijing.
The Ministry of Civil Affair’s decision to use blockchain to track charitable donations is just one of the many ways China has planned to integrate distributed ledger technology to make for a more efficient and secure government data systems. Creating transparency in the charitable donation sector, you can prevent fraud and increase the incentive to give. The tamper-proof ledger will work to increase public trust (which has recently been under fire in the People’s Republic). It isn’t just the government who is interested in making donations transparent, large companies like Alibaba and Tencent have designed their own charity services. They are using mobile applications to revolutionize and streamline the donation process.
It is expected that China will continue along these behavioral patterns with rampant blockchain integration and more patents, while cryptocurrency remains largely ignored and in many cases banned. Companies like Alibaba also remain skeptical about cryptocurrency and only use blockchain technology without even posturing towards digital currency adoption.
