Integration priority

Liu Guohong, director of the Finance and Modern Industry Research Center at the China Development Institute, believes the development of consortium blockchain in the Greater Bay Area is accelerating for takeoff.

"The integration of the Greater Bay Area requires frequent data exchanges across borders. Two systems and three jurisdictions concentrated in one area with a large economy, population, and complicated industry structures have created practical demand for an innovative solution to break down barriers," said Liu, noting that a consortium blockchain could provide such solutions.

The different legal, customs, and commercial regimes in the triangular structure of the Greater Bay Area could stymie cross-border projects. However, Liu sees this as an opportunity for blockchain applications to enable the seamless sharing of document data across different systems.

The CDI records that one-third of national patent-for-invention blockchain applications were generated in the Greater Bay Area, which also registered 756 blockchain research papers on the Web of Science from 2016 to 2021. That compares with about 100 for the San Francisco Bay Area, and under 100 for the New York Bay Area, during the same period.

Of the seven Chinese companies ranked in the Forbes Top 50 blockchain list in 2022, three are from the Greater Bay Area.