{"id":1804,"date":"2018-03-06T18:32:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T18:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atozcrypto.org\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2018-03-06T18:33:30","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T18:33:30","slug":"blockchains-must-have-centralized-foundation-chinese-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atozcrypto.org\/blockchains-must-have-centralized-foundation-chinese-regulator\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchains Must Have Centralized Foundation: Chinese Regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"
An official from one of China\u2019s top financial regulatory agencies said that he believes blockchains function more effectively when they are built on a centralized system.<\/p>\n
Zhang Ye, director of the China Securities Regulatory Commission\u2019s (CSRC) information center, said on Sunday that the government should devote \u201cgreat attention\u201d to the development of blockchain technology.<\/p>\n
However, Zhang \u2014 who made these comments at the \u201cTwo Sessions\u201d conference in Beijing during an interview with state media outlet\u00a0Securities Times\u00a0\u2014 tempered his enthusiasm for this nascent technology by stating that more research needs to be devoted to building a decentralized blockchain on top of a centralized foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a technical point of view, the absolute decentralization of the blockchain is not valid because the blockchain itself is a software and the software must be centralized,\u201d he said, according to a rough translation. \u201cTherefore, how to build a decentralized system based on a centralized structure needs further study.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The regulatory official did acknowledge that some blockchain applications may require decentralization, but he said that these scenarios should be limited and he did not go into detail about what applications should and should not be centralized.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdmittedly, some application scenarios need to be decentralized, but whether all scenarios need to be decentralized requires careful consideration,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Zhang\u2019s comments are the latest evidence that China is grappling with whether and how it can reap the benefits of blockchain technology while retaining complete control of the system\u2019s underlying infrastructure.<\/p>\n