China's ruling Communist Party and the State Council, the country's cabinet, called for building a national blockchain network in an Oct. 9 policy document aimed at developing advanced technologies and modernizing the economy.
The government said the initiative was part of efforts to "promote deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy," improve national data infrastructure and "fully unlock the potential of data as a factor of production."
- The proposal describes a nationwide integrated computing-power network, but doesn't identify which blockchain technology would be used, who would operate the infrastructure or when it would be completed.
- The announcement follows years of investment in government-backed blockchain projects, including several that were originally promoted as national infrastructure.
- China's 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted in March, had already called for implementing a national blockchain network construction project.
China has been building national blockchains for years
One of the earliest initiatives was the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), an infrastructure project developed beginning in 2018 by China's State Information Center, a government-affiliated research institution, alongside telecom giant China Mobile, payment network China UnionPay and tech company Red Date.
- BSN was unveiled in 2019 and commercially launched in 2020. But rather than operating as a single blockchain like Ethereum, it provides infrastructure for deploying and connecting different blockchain applications.
- Another project, Spark Chain (also known as Xinghuo), was launched in 2020 under the leadership of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a research institution affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Designed for industrial data sharing, digital identities and cross-network communication, Spark Chain had expanded to more than 60 backbone nodes by March 2025, according to authorities in Suzhou.
- Beijing has also backed ChainMaker, a domestically developed blockchain used in government data systems. In November 2023, municipal authorities announced plans for a national blockchain network hub drawing on ChainMaker technology.
Shanghai, meanwhile, already operates infrastructure explicitly described as a national blockchain network hub.
Shanghai Data Group, a state-owned data infrastructure operator, said in September 2025 that its hub had connected 1,200 specialized hardware devices and recorded more than 5.2 million pieces of on-chain data.
What happens to the existing networks?
China's latest directive doesn't really explain whether the planned nationwide infrastructure will connect existing projects, expand one of them or introduce a separate system.
There are indications that interoperability, the ability of different blockchains to exchange information, is part of the government's approach.
In March, Shanghai's municipal data authority invited existing blockchain infrastructure operators to connect to its national hub and develop cross-chain services.
But the October directive provides no separate funding figure, technical architecture or timetable for the national network.