China's Cyberspace Regulators Approve 224 Blockchain Ventures

China’s Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (OCCAC) has announced its third round of blockchain projects to receive approval from the country's regulators.

224 distributed ledger technology (DLT) ventures have been added to the commission’s registry, which includes major tech firms Alibaba, Baidu and China Mobile.

The news appears to have been broken by Twitter user ‘AliceolaCrypto’, who posted a screenshot of the OCCAC’s announcement on April 27.

She wrote that of the 224 approved projects, approximately 40% hail from Beijing. Roughly one-quarter of projects will target the fintech sector.

The list of approved projects includes ventures from several major corporations, including Walmart China — whose food safety tracking initiative has been green-lit, and firms involved with the roll-out of China’s state-backed blockchain network such as China Mobile, China Merchants Bank, and Alibaba.

Some of the entities have been permitted to proceed with multiple DLT projects, with five blockchain ventures from China Merchants Bank receiving approval.

China launches Blockchain Service Network

On April 25, China announced the commercial launch of its long-awaited Blockchain Service Network (BSN).

The central government claims that more than 2,000 developers built on top of the BSN during the six months prior to its beta release in October 2019, including applications designed to aid public welfare distribution, commodity tracing, and digital invoicing.

On April 20, the Sichuan city of Ya’an issued a statement in support of local hydropower being directed to cryptocurrency mining operations, announcing plans to build a “hydropower consumption demonstration zone.”