Millions Spent on Public Blockchains Have Yielded Few Practical Uses, Chinese Scholar Says – Yicai Global

What happened: A Chinese academic has said that there are too many public blockchains in China with few useful practical applications after venture capitalists poured money into the development of the technology. Liu Xiaolei, dean of the finance department at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, believes public chains can be equated to the internet in the 90s.

Why it’s important: China is pushing for widespread use of blockchain technology including private blockchains owned by specific companies. The drive comes not only from the private sector but also from the government. The country’s “fapiaos”—tax invoices that are used by employees for reimbursement from their employers—have been added to the blockchain to mitigate fraud. Additionally, healthcare providers have begun using blockchain-based medicine prescriptions. Liu believes that despite China lagging behind the US technologically, the country could create more usage scenarios, including information sharing between public institutions, which traditionally hoard their data.

Christopher Udemans is TechNode's former Shanghai-based data and graphics reporter. He covered Chinese artificial intelligence, mobility, cleantech, and cybersecurity.

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