On October 25, 2019, President Xi emphasized during the 18th collective study session of the Politburo that blockchain should be treated as a breakthrough in core technology and independent innovation, and efforts should be accelerated to promote the development of blockchain technology and related industries. Shortly after, China's digital currency DC/EP made its official debut.
On November 28 of the same year, Fan Yifei, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, explained the technical principles and application scenarios of DC/EP at a forum. Huang Qifan, Vice Chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, also stated that the PBoC had been researching DC/EP for five to six years and was about to enter the application stage. The PBoC would become the first central bank in the world to launch a digital currency.
From this point on, China’s long-established "coin-less blockchain" began to take off. Tencent-led blockchain e-invoices reached over 9.8 million issued within one year, with a total value exceeding 7 billion yuan. The coverage expanded from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Fujian, Yunnan, and other regions.
Alibaba's blockchain also transformed supply chains, addressing issues like counterfeiting, information asymmetry, and logistics traceability. This helped the Double 11 shopping festival reach a record-breaking 498.2 billion yuan in sales. Beyond these cases, blockchain also saw mature applications in supply chain management, intellectual property, law, and education, becoming one of China’s core directions for tech development.
Meanwhile, existing blockchain forces also grew significantly in this environment. On November 21, 2019, former “dragon-slaying youth” Zhang Nangeng led Canaan Creative to be officially listed on NASDAQ, becoming the world’s first blockchain stock, thus concluding a decade-long journey in crypto mining.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance), the successor to Dapps, also began to emerge in 2019, with platforms like MakerDao and Uniswap gaining traction. The total DeFi asset value tripled by year-end to $670 million. By 2020, DeFi had become a trendsetter in finance, revolutionizing traditional models of trading, insurance, and funds, and birthing new business models. At its peak, the total value locked (TVL) exceeded $15 billion. Technologies such as sharding, cross-chain, and sidechains broke past old limitations, gradually forming a more promising public chain ecosystem.
On January 21, 2020, the "Grayscale Bitcoin Trust" successfully registered with the U.S. SEC, becoming the first crypto investment product to report to the SEC. Grayscale brought Bitcoin into the U.S. stock market, and many listed companies began using it as a value store and hedge against inflation. Bitcoin finally lived up to its decade-old reputation as “digital gold.”
From Bitcoin’s birth to Wall Street’s full-scale entry, the blockchain industry has grown for over ten years. During this time, it faced skepticism, doubt, hype, and belief. Fortunately, we live in this era and can witness the birth and growth of an entirely new industry.
Perhaps one day in the future, when tracing blockchain’s origins, we will think back to that night in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin white paper—what is blockchain? A decentralized peer-to-peer network. A better Internet era.
