China gives green light to state-backed blockchain company as it expands abroad

The BSN (Blockchain-based Service Network), with links to the Chinese government, is planning to expand internationally and will make its product open-sourced so that potential users can inspect the code to make sure there are no “backdoors” that could be accessed by the Chinese.

The BSN international product has been named the “Spartan Network”, and bills itself as a “one stop shop” according to an article published today by CNBC.

It allows potential users to set up their applications in the cloud, and to use a combination of blockchains in order to deploy their technology. The all-round service is aimed at helping businesses reduce the time taken to deploy, and is thought to result in cost savings.

China has obviously taken a very firm line with cryptocurrencies, and these assets are not allowed to be transacted in the country. However, the Chinese government line on blockchain is very different, and even President Xi Jinping has given his personal endorsement of the technology.

Therefore the BSN will not make use of any cryptocurrencies. Around 6 different blockchains are envisaged to make up the BSN Network, and one of which will be a version of the Ethereum blockchain. 

CEO Yifan He’s Hong Kong-based Red Date Technology, is one of the founding members of BSN and he stated that the ethereum blockchain version will not use crypto for transactions. He said that transactions will instead be paid in U.S. dollars.

“The purpose of this is to drop the cost to use public chains to very minimal so that more traditional IT [information technology] systems and business systems can use public chains as part of their systems,”

Yifan He acknowledged the headwinds that the BSN Spartan Network would have to go up against, stating:

“People will say BSN is from China, it is dangerous. Let me emphasise, BSN Spartan will be open source … we will not access anything from our end.”

He also thought that there would be initial issues with the non-use of cryptocurrencies, saying that the BSN Spartan Network will be:

“difficult to push in the first or second year because most people in the blockchain industry only understand crypto.”

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.