Study on the Path and Countermeasures of Blockchain Technology to Promote High-Quality Development of Digital Economy in Guangzhou ()
1. Introduction
Today’s world economic situation continues to be turbulent, and shocks from outside are affecting the healthy and stable development of China’s economy more and more frequently. The world’s major economies have experienced a persistent downturn since the global financial crisis, and the trend of counter-globalization has become more pronounced. At the same time, trade friction between China and the United States continues to escalate, facing the risk of decoupling, as well as the persistence of the new crown epidemic, the spread of globalization is further affecting Guangzhou to achieve stable economic development, greatly increasing the risk and uncertainty of Guangzhou’s economic development, tourism, catering, transportation and other service industries have been affected by the huge impact from the outside, while the manufacturing industry has also been affected to a certain extent, facing the problem of underemployment. All these situations have increased the pressure of economic growth in Guangzhou in the short term, and the pattern of science and technology, economy and industry is facing a major adjustment. In the afternoon of October 18, the 34th collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was held, and General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech on how to promote the healthy development of China’s digital economy. At this meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the Internet, big data, blockchain and other emerging technologies rise quickly, increasingly integrated into the whole field of China’s economic development process. In particular, the digital economy is developing rapidly and is becoming a key force in China’s economic development. Since the 18th National Congress was held, the Party Central Committee has shown a high degree of attention to the development of China’s digital economy and put forward the network power strategy and the national big data strategy, which has pointed out the direction for the development of China’s digital economy. The digital economy represented by “blockchain” technology has a broad prospect of development and abundant technical application fields, which is expected to become a new engine to support the stable growth of Guangzhou’s macro economy. Guangdong Province, as one of the regions with early layout of blockchain industry in China, takes the initiative to grasp the major strategic opportunities of blockchain development and actively encourages the integration of blockchain technology with economic construction and social governance. As a frontier of reform and opening up and a big manufacturing city, Guangzhou has also issued supportive policies for blockchain, for example, the Huangpu District of Guangzhou has issued the Measures for Promoting Blockchain Industry Development in Guangzhou Huangpu District Guangzhou Development Zone. In March 2020, Guangzhou was officially approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to create a Blockchain Development Advance Demonstration Zone, becoming the first city in China to be approved to create a Blockchain Development Advance Demonstration Zone, which marks Guangzhou. This marks another important step on the road of developing blockchain industry in Guangzhou. The digital economy has become an engine of global economic growth, and governments around the world are vigorously promoting the development of the digital economy. As a frontier of reform and opening up and a big manufacturing city, Guangzhou adheres to the requirements of high-quality development, continuously promotes the innovation and development of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, accelerates the improvement of the digital economy policy system, supports the construction of digital infrastructure, and provides strong leadership and support to promote Guangzhou to realize the new vitality of the old city and the four new outstanding colors. The Guangzhou Digital Economy Promotion Ordinance points out that the annual added value of Guangzhou’s digital economy has already exceeded one trillion yuan, belonging to the first echelon of the national digital economy. By 2022, Guangzhou will have built more than 8 major innovations in the circulation and governance of data elements, 15 major innovation experimental platforms, 30 major industrial transformation and upgrading projects, and 100 demonstration projects of quality application scenarios with leading technology. From the data, Guangzhou city has made certain achievements in digital economy development, but as a testing ground and frontier base for digital economy development, there are still some bottlenecks in the digital industrialization and industrial digitalization development of Guangzhou blockchain, which are mainly manifested as follows: firstly, it is not easy to land the digital business model of blockchain industry; secondly, the digital industrialization of blockchain is limited by the existing infrastructure and technology level. Therefore, by comparing and mastering the status of Guangzhou blockchain in the country and the world, it is important to study the path and countermeasures for Guangzhou blockchain to promote the high-quality development of digital economy, which is enlightening for responding to the network power strategy proposed by the Party Central Committee and the national big data strategy.
2. Analysis of the Current Situation of the Development of Blockchain Industry in Guangzhou
2.1. The Concept and Characteristics of Blockchain and Digital Economy
2.1.1. The Concept of Blockchain Concept and Characteristics
The concept of blockchain was first mentioned by Sstoshi Nskamoto (Satoshi Nakamoto) in 2008 in the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. Blockchain is a distributed ledger (database) technology that connects blocks of data in an orderly manner and cryptographically guarantees that they cannot be tampered with or falsified. Broadly speaking, blockchain technology is a new distributed infrastructure and computing method that uses blockchain data structure to verify and store data, distributed node consensus algorithm to generate and update data, cryptography to secure data transmission and access, and smart contracts composed of automated scripting code to program and manipulate data.
Blockchain is transparent, secure and efficient, so it is particularly suitable for businesses that are inefficient and for empowering new business models based on distributed markets and technologies.
2.1.2. The Concept and Characteristics of the Digital Economy
The digital economy refers to an economic system in which digital technologies are widely used and as a result bring about fundamental changes in the overall economic environment and economic activity. The digital economy is also a new socio-political and economic system in which information and commerce are digitized, and transactions between businesses, consumers and governments are growing rapidly via the Internet.
The digital economy focuses on the production, distribution and sale of goods and services that all rely on digital technology. The business model of the digital economy itself works well because it creates a win-win environment for both businesses and consumers. The growth of the digital economy has brought about a dramatic impact on management practices including competitive strategy, organizational structure and culture. As advanced web-based technologies are put into practice, our old ideas about time and space are being challenged head-on as business organizations struggle to figure out how to integrate business with customers, suppliers, and partners in terms of data information systems, workflows, and work practices, all of which have their own different standards, protocols, traditions, needs, incentives, and workflows.
2.2. Analysis of the Current Situation of the Development of Blockchain Industry in Guangzhou
The performance of blockchain to boost the high-quality development of Guangzhou’s digital economy is mainly reflected in: first, digital industrialization, using emerging technologies to collaboratively drive the high-speed and high-quality development of digital industry. Blockchain technology plus information and communication industry then forms blockchain information and communication industry. These industries cover new industries such as blockchain information technology facilities, cloud computing, Internet of Things, data centers, and databases formed by blockchain (Chen, Zhang, Ye, & Xu, 2021). Second, the digitization of industries and the deep integration of blockchain technology with the three industries in China promote the realization of efficient development of digital economy industry empowerment. This is mainly reflected in the combination of blockchain core technology and real industries, digitizing China’s existing industries, helping traditional industries to successfully realize transformation and upgrading, reshaping industrial chains and improving industrial levels, as well as helping to improve the quality and efficiency of industrial development (Lin & Shao, 2019). As for the current situation, the development of digital industrialization and industrial digitization in terms of blockchain in Guangzhou is shown as follows.
2.2.1. Blockchain Industry Digital Business Model Is Not Easy to Land
General Secretary Xi pointed out at the 34th collective study session that the development of digital economy is a strategic choice to grasp the new round of technological revolution and new opportunities for industrial change. Blockchain industry digitization is an important initiative to improve China’s international comprehensive competitiveness as well as effectively promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Based on modern information technology, industrial digitization allows the deep integration of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchain with China’s traditional three industries through the transmission mechanism of incremental quantity driving stock and innovation leading tradition, which in turn improves China’s total factor productivity and taps new potential for China’s economic growth. The process of digital development of blockchain industry is the process of following the development direction of the trend of the times, using emerging technologies to upgrade and transform traditional industries in line with the future development direction of our country, and further promoting the realization of sustainable and high-quality development of Guangzhou’s economy (Gong, Ban & Zhang, 2021). In terms of the current mode of blockchain in Guangzhou city in practical application, it is difficult to realize the landing application of pure business model, which requires clear project planning and policy support from the government, reliance on the scenario of technology application, and the need to let enterprises see the convenience, safety and efficiency and profitability of blockchain technology applied in the real field. Practical experience tells us that this is often a long process of multi-party collaboration and joint efforts, not overnight.
There are currently three major obstacles to achieving the goal of digital industrialization of blockchain in Guangzhou. One is that a large number of suitable blockchain technology application scenarios cannot be found yet. The Guangzhou Digital Economy Promotion Regulations state that as far as industrial enterprises themselves are concerned, they do not have a deep understanding of digital technology, so on this basis, based on information asymmetry, they will be subjectively reluctant to undergo digital transformation. For some enterprises in Huangpu District, Guangzhou, blockchain technology has not yet been able to significantly reduce their business production costs and improve operational efficiency, or the ratio of input to output has not yet shown a significant ratio, so some enterprises do not have the expectation of vigorously implementing blockchain technology in actual production. Secondly, there is a certain problem of multi-party cooperation. Therefore, it is crucial to coordinate the interests of multiple parties and make concerted efforts to promote blockchain projects. Field research found that there is still a shortage of blockchain in Guangzhou in this regard. Thirdly, it is difficult to implement some innovative solutions. This is mainly because innovative solutions must bring sustainable benefits to all parties involved, and at the same time, the solution can be replicated and applied on a large scale, as well as meeting the requirements of the existing regulatory system in the market. Although Guangzhou has introduced several policies to promote the development of blockchain industry, there are fewer regulatory policies on blockchain. It is difficult to provide a suitable solution that satisfies all three conditions at the same time under the existing conditions, and it is also difficult to implement.
2.2.2. Blockchain Digital Industrialization Is Limited by the Existing Infrastructure and Technology Level
Blockchain digital industrialization refers to the deep integration of blockchain and three industries. As emphasized by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the meeting, it is necessary to promote the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy, to promote the digitization of the service, agricultural and manufacturing industries, and to improve the total factor productivity of our society. The traditional communication industry can be digitally industrialized through information and communication technology, and then form a modern and efficient digital communication industry through the path of industrial upgrading. Digital communication industry mainly includes the Internet, telecommunications communications, software and information technology services, artificial intelligence and other industries (Luo, 2019). However, nowadays, if Guangzhou wants blockchain to be applied on a large scale, it needs to solve the problems such as the existing infrastructure construction of the society is not yet perfect enough, the resource consumption to output ratio is too large, and the arithmetic power is insufficient (Wen & Hu, 2020). If the new blockchain technology is to become a new engine and support for Guangzhou’s economic growth, it is inevitable that it cannot be supported by a solid physical infrastructure. It should also be noted that the information infrastructure required for the large-scale application of blockchain technology is of a higher standard, which requires the support of new information network facilities and digital infrastructure that are secure, high-speed and ubiquitous. Therefore, we should respond to the call of the Party Central Committee, accelerate the construction of new infrastructure, strengthen the strategic layout, accelerate the investment in research and development of key core technologies and the process of conquering them, and firmly hold the “bull’s nose” of independent innovation. At present, it is difficult for Guangzhou to effectively realize the deep integration of blockchain technology industry and its application on the ground, so the government needs to make more efforts jointly with all sectors. On the one hand, in the current research stage of blockchain technology development in China, the research results have not yet enabled the Guangzhou society to realize the interconnection and interoperability of cross-chain systems, and there are still obstacles in the practical application of blockchain technology. On the other hand, blockchain digital industrialization is still at the stage of small-scale pilot, and has not explored a path that can be applied on a large scale in the society, with high replication efficiency and obvious commercial significance, and lacks typical demonstration cases.
3. Favorable Conditions for the Development of Blockchain in Guangzhou during the “14th Five-Year Plan” Period
Of course, in addition to some restrictive factors, there are also some favorable conditions for blockchain development in Guangzhou, specifically the following.
3.1. The Support of National Strategic Guidelines Provides Broad Prospects for the Development of Blockchain in Guangzhou
Blockchain is becoming a global hot issue. At present, China is urgently implementing the national big data strategy and vigorously promoting the formation of a digital economy system with innovative power as the main support and key leading factor (Kuang & Peng, 2020). Guangzhou attaches great importance to the development of blockchain, focusing on supporting the development of a new generation of information technology fields, and has made a comprehensive plan to promote blockchain as a new driving force to promote the high-quality development of Guangzhou’s economy. Guangzhou has delineated Huangpu District and Development Zone as the frontrunners of blockchain technology research, development and development, fully taking into account the advantages of the solid manufacturing cornerstones that these two areas have, to continuously promote the landing application of new blockchain technologies and the clustering of digital industries, and to continuously and deeply promote the development process of Guangzhou’s digital industry. Currently, Tencent, Alibaba, Vipshop and other giants of China’s Internet industry are located in the core area of Guangzhou Pazhou, which is a pilot area of Guangzhou’s digital economy and artificial intelligence.1 Today blockchain technology is increasingly becoming a key factor in leading a new round of global industrial and technological change. Guangzhou also smells the new trend of future economic development, is trying to seize the new opportunities brought by this technology, intends to take advantage of this “east wind” to promote the transformation and upgrading of Guangzhou’s traditional industries to complete, and actively introduce blockchain-related policies, catalyze the application of excellent products to land, and accelerate the industrial layout.
3.2. Good Business Environment and Strong Strength Provide Quality Soil for Blockchain Industry
For a long time, Guangzhou’s economic development has maintained a steady upward trend. 2020 Guangzhou achieved an annual GDP of 2,501.911 billion yuan, an increase of 2.73% over the 2019 GDP. Meanwhile the three major industries also achieved economic growth in different degrees, with growth rates of 9.8%, 3.3% and 2.3% for primary, secondary and tertiary industries respectively. According to the Economic Operation Report for the first eight months of 2021 released by Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, from January to August 2021, Guangzhou’s overall industrial production was stable, investment was growing well, export structure was somewhat optimized compared to the past, and the overall economic operation was stable. From January to August, the city’s fixed asset investment grew by 21.1% compared to the same period of the previous year. Guangzhou’s strong economic development capability and vibrant investment and financing atmosphere create a favorable environment for the industrial development of blockchain.
3.3. The International Business Capital Provides a Broad Application Scenario for the Development of Blockchain
In 2021, the “Implementation Plan for the Construction of National Digital Economy Innovation and Development Pilot Zone in Guangzhou” was considered and adopted. The implementation plan mentions two goals, namely that the gross value of Guangzhou’s electronic information manufacturing industry will exceed RMB 280 billion in 2022, while the revenue of the software and information service industry will exceed RMB 600 billion, making corresponding plans for the development of some of Guangzhou’s digital industries in the short term. Compared with Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou’s blockchain technology research and development and development started late, but in the past two years, Guangzhou has seized the opportunity of blockchain development, grasped the launch of various beneficial policies, increased the investment in research and development in this area, and achieved a bend. Guangzhou City has divided Huangpu District and Development Zone as the frontrunners of blockchain technology R&D and development, fully taking into account the advantages of the solid manufacturing base of these two areas, and continues topromote the application of new blockchain technology on the ground and the development of Guangzhou’s digital industry clusters. Currently, Guangzhou City leads the country in the number of blockchain industrial parks. Guangzhou has also applied blockchain technology to multiple scenarios such as smart city, taxation and government affairs. All signs show that the construction of blockchain industrialization in Guangzhou is in full swing and has achieved certain results. On the one hand, this dazzling result is certainly due to the region’s ability to cultivate talents and invest in research and development, its superior geographical location and economic environment, as well as the government’s timely support with appropriate policies. On the other hand, it is also related to the establishment of various alliances in the city and the optimization of the business environment brought by them. The establishment of industrial funds, blockchain alliances and industry associations has injected living water into the development of blockchain technology and provided a strong platform to support and guarantee the further development of blockchain industry clustering in Guangzhou.
4. International and Domestic Comparison of Guangzhou Blockchain Industry
In order to further grasp the actual level of development of blockchain industry in Guangzhou, the article compares the blockchain industry in Guangzhou with the representative cities of blockchain in international and domestic.
4.1. Comparison of Major Domestic Cities
Industrial Policy
We compare the blockchain industry of Guangzhou with that of domestic cities, and the results are shown in Table 1-4. In a word, since the opening of the domestic blockchain industry, the below five cities have followed the pace of the Party Central Committee and introduced relevant measures and policies to accelerate the implementation of the research and development, application and development process of the new blockchain technology. However, due to the geographical differences, resource endowment limitations and different development situations among regions, all five cities have combined their own development situations and introduced different degrees of policy documents to promote the incubation and development of blockchain industry, encourage blockchain technology to empower the real economy and boost the landing of several blockchain application scenarios.
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Table 1. Comparative analysis of industrial policies.
Source: Compiled by the author.
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Table 2. Comparative analysis of development scale.
Source: Compiled by the author.
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Table 3. Comparative analysis of talent development.
Source: Compiled by the author.
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Table 4. Comparative analysis of application scenarios.
Source: Compiled by the author.
Regarding the industrial policy, Beijing is one step ahead and occupies the first-mover advantage, followed by Shenzhen. Guangzhou is the latest city among the five cities to introduce relevant policies, but in general, the time difference between the enactment of each city is not too far. Among them, Guangzhou has divided Huangpu District and Development Zone as the early zone, trying to develop blockchain from a local perspective. Hangzhou, on the other hand, focused on promoting the construction of blockchain industrial parks. Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai choose to take the financial industry as the entrance of “blockchain+” and gradually promote the layout of blockchain. As the top five cities in the country in terms of comprehensive strength of blockchain, all five cities have set up relevant blockchain industry funds. Among them, the fund established in Hangzhou is the first blockchain fund with a scale of 10 billion yuan in China, followed by Shanghai with 5 billion yuan. The fund scale of Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou is 1 billion yuan in the first period, 500 million yuan in the first period and 1 billion yuan respectively. Compared with the remaining four cities, Guangzhou’s fund size is smaller.
However, in terms of subsidies and incentives, Guangzhou’s support is greater than other cities. The “Guangzhou Huangpu District, Guangzhou Development Zone to promote the development of blockchain industry” is currently recognized as the strongest and most supportive policy for blockchain technology model breakthroughs in China. Although Guangzhou City is not the first city to fire a blockchain policy, it has made a strong move in terms of top-level design. Meanwhile, among the five cities, only Guangzhou and Beijing have promulgated the “three-year blockchain development plan” at this stage. From the plan, it can be seen that Beijing’s policy support is weaker than Guangzhou’s, while Guangzhou’s provisions include a more comprehensive and specific range of support. Among the five cities, Guangzhou and Beijing have issued special action plans for the development of blockchain industry, and have made a top-down overall layout for blockchain. Compared with Guangzhou, the development goals and plans proposed by Beijing for blockchain applications are more detailed. Although the other three cities have not issued special action plans, they have released district-level blockchain development policies, but they still lack top-level design at the municipal level.
Regarding the scale of development, Guangzhou has a great advantage in both the number of blockchain enterprises and the construction of blockchain industrial parks, both of which hold a dominant position among the five cities. The next two cities are Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Hangzhou has more industrial parks but fewer enterprises, while Shenzhen has the opposite, with more enterprises but fewer industrial parks, and even no relevant blockchain industrial parks. Therefore, it can be seen that the blockchain industrialization construction in Guangzhou and Hangzhou is more rapidly developed and the infrastructure is more perfect. Hangzhou’s industrial park is strong, occupying three positions in the list of top 10 industrial parks in 2020, among which Hangzhou Blockchain Industrial Park is ranked first; Guangzhou has one industrial park (Antmie Blockchain Crowd Space) on the list, ranking fourth in the country, and its strength should not be underestimated. Regarding talent cultivation, universities in many places aim to cultivate compound blockchain talents, and focus on building blockchain course content and system, or actively explore the cooperation mode between schools and enterprises to set up blockchain laboratory research platform. From the perspective of the number of universities offering relevant professional courses, Beijing and Shanghai have the advantage, as these two regions have richer higher education resources and have the prerequisite advantage of investing heavily in talent cultivation. Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Guangzhou are a bit weaker in this regard, and they still need to continue to work hard in the cultivation of talents in blockchain technology, in order to win later. Among them, CUHK, Huagong and the majority, as the leading universities in Guangzhou for blockchain talent cultivation, should increase cultivation efforts, optimize cultivation programs and cultivate more new blockchain technical talents.
Regarding application scenarios, since 2019, all five cities have attached great importance to this, and have successively introduced policy documents to further promote the research and development of blockchain technology and landing application-related aspects, among which Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou have performed more prominently. According to incomplete statistics, Guangzhou is the first in the field of industrial and commercial registration and justice; Shenzhen has made a major breakthrough in electronic bills; Hangzhou’s advantage is in the field of judicial deposit; the first blockchain notary certificate issued in Beijing marks a brand new stage in the development of notary certificates in China and opens the era of blockchain notary services. In addition, Shenzhen and Shanghai occupy the high ground in the field of “blockchain + finance”. Shenzhen is the highest city to launch digital currency, and Shanghai is a well-known financial center in China and internationally, both of them have unique achievements in “blockchain + finance”. Compared with the two, the remaining three cities in the five cities are slightly weaker in this regard. In terms of the application of blockchain technology on the ground, each of the five cities has shown its own strengths and played well in their respective areas of expertise, enriching the application ecology of blockchain technology in China.
4.2. Comparison of Major International Cities
Government Policy
We further compare the blockchain industry of Guangzhou with that of international cities, and the results are shown in Table 5-7. All in all, the development of blockchain technology varies more between countries than between cities in China due to the vast differences in institutional systems, cultural customs and resource endowments at home and abroad. For example, for various reasons, the existing blockchain systems in the United States and China are far from the future direction of the new systems of next-generation blockchain technology. However, in general, each country today attaches importance to the development and application of new “blockchain” technologies. In terms of governmental decisions, from the perspective of policy support, Seoul has invested more funds in blockchain technology, but Guangzhou has a wider range of financial support and more types of subsidies and incentives; from the perspective of governmental blockchain action planning and management, Hamburg, Germany has set up a special department to deal with blockchain-related matters, while Seoul has established a blockchain governance group. Both of them have special control over blockchain from top-down perspective. Guangzhou, on the other hand, currently does not have a special department for the integrated management of blockchain, but mainly starts from the policy level by issuing a series of policy documents related to blockchain and combining with the actual situation, calling for multi-departmental linkage and enforcement to jointly lead blockchain to the right path of development. Regarding talent cultivation and education, same as Seoul, New York and Melbourne, most famous universities in Guangzhou have added blockchain courses and have related research institutions.
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Table 5. Comparative analysis of government policy.
Source: Compiled by the author.
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Table 6. Comparative analysis of personnel training and education.
Source: Compiled by the author.
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Table 7. Comparative analysis of application scenarios.
Source: Compiled by the author.
In terms of school-enterprise cooperation, they also basically follow the same pattern. However, in comparison, Guangzhou started late in the planning of blockchain talents training in universities, so it lacks systematization yet. In addition, the three foreign cities mentioned above have more diversified forms of blockchain talent cultivation, especially New York, where in addition to the basic courses, there are also extracurricular activities and clubs for blockchain. Regarding application scenarios, like Seoul, South Korea, Guangzhou is currently putting part of its blockchain technology application efforts in public services and government services. The common purpose of both municipal governments in promoting blockchain applications for government services is to “facilitate the people and benefit the people”. Under the subdivision scenarios of this field, the two cities’ explorations have their own characteristics and meet the actual local development needs. Compared with Hamburg, Guangzhou started its exploration in the field of “blockchain + energy economy” later and is still in the stage of continuous exploration. Hamburg, on the other hand, has a lot of experience to learn from, as it has been focusing on this field earlier and has developed relatively faster and has better technical strength.
5. Ideas and Policy Focus of Blockchain Development in Guangzhou during the 14th Five-Year Plan
Based on the above research, this paper further puts forward the idea of blockchain development in Guangzhou city and the direction of future policy focus and effort, mainly.
5.1. Accelerate the Digital Transformation and Upgrading of Traditional Industries
Give full play to the advantages of Guangzhou blockchain to accelerate the digital transformation and upgrading of agriculture, manufacturing processing industry, service industry and other industries. First, we should step up the implementation of the strategy of promoting blockchain innovation and development. Invest more to incubate several cross-industry and cross-discipline modern industrial Internet platforms based on new blockchain technologies, and implement the action of “chain” for 100 industrial enterprises. Carry out pilot demonstrations on the integration of manufacturing and blockchain development, and cultivate and grow new models and new business models for blockchain development. Second, to promote agricultural intensification, modernization, intelligent development (Qu, 2020). Let the new technology of blockchain be deeply integrated in the agricultural production industry to improve the modernization of agricultural production, the added value of agricultural products and the level of integration of the agricultural industry chain, and thus improve the overall production efficiency of agriculture. Through the combination of blockchain technology and the agricultural digital economy, promote the construction of a standard system for the sales process of agricultural products electric network and promote the development process of rural electric business. Third, we should continue to vigorously and deeply promote blockchain technology innovation in the service industry. In the digital penetration process is slower in productive services and other fields such as technology, logistics services and other industries, the government should accelerate the promotion of blockchain technology in the actual production of applications (Yu, 2017). Strengthen the innovative application of blockchain technology in the life service industry, improve the production efficiency of products in this field, and improve the overall industry refinement and personalization level.
5.2. Explore New Models Such as Blockchain Application Demonstration Unveiling Project and Sandbox Supervision
In order to accelerate the landing of blockchain applications, and drawing on the experience of Hainan Free Trade Port, Guangzhou can announce a number of blockchain application demonstration projects covering various areas such as electronic evidence, digital identity, financial management, etc. A global-oriented unveiling campaign will be conducted toobtain the title of outstanding enterprise through selection, and the enterprise will be promised the opportunity to be recommended to Guangdong Industrial and Information Industry Investment Fund if it chooses to register and settle in Guangzhou. Based on foreign experience, Guangzhou can also explore the potential of blockchain applications in the financial sector, and explore the establishment of a feasible “blockchain + finance” sandbox regulatory mechanism that is in line with the actual development of Guangzhou, so as to improve the error correction rate and fault tolerance rate of the market environment and stimulate the vitality of financial innovation. In addition, Guangzhou should actively develop new blockchain industries by establishing blockchain industry gathering areas, supporting Internet information parks to cultivate projects, establishing blockchain technology public service platforms, introducing high-quality teams and excellent enterprises, strengthening international cooperation in blockchain and conducting technology entrepreneurship activities, etc., and gradually forming special industry gathering areas.
5.3. Actively Help Blockchain Enterprises to Raise Funds through Various Channels
From the perspective of chain value development, Guangzhou blockchain technology has not yet found a breakthrough large-scale application scenario, the business model is mostly in the exploration and trial stage, and it is difficult for the relevant enterprises to rely on blockchain technology and application value realisation to obtain substantial profits in the short term. However, from the perspective of the future development of blockchain technology, the ultimate value must be realized through various application scenarios to land (Yan, 2020). Therefore, it is necessary to support and help those enterprises that master the core of technology, practically solve problems and can bring the economic effect of blockchain technology deployment to the industry from the policy, provide them with policy support and financial support, and help them obtain financing through various channels.
5.4. Establishment of Blockchain Incubation Fund to Support Industrial Application Projects
In order to support the development of blockchain, Guangzhou should join hands with domestic and foreign universities and colleges with strong scientific research strength and rich achievements, as well as well-known enterprises in the society, and invite them to cooperate to jointly build a global blockchain innovation technology research laboratory and a joint innovation platform for digital economy based on blockchain technology. We will organize the “Guangzhou Blockchain Industry Expert Committee” with the participation of domestic and foreign famous academicians, experts and entrepreneurs in blockchain technology research, increase the attention and importance of all sectors of society to the new blockchain technology, build a joint blockchain training university with famous universities and establish a blockchain innovation alliance. At the same time, a special fund for blockchain is set up to stimulate enterprises to invest in blockchain research in practical production and application, and social funds are gathered to form a capital supply effect to accelerate the process of blockchain research and development and the application of new technologies on the ground.
6. Conclusion
As blockchain technology continues to mature, its ability to solve high-intensity security problems will gradually improve, and it will bring infinite value in promoting the development of a new generation of information technology industries and fostering new innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities. With the passage of time, blockchain technology will better contribute to the high-quality development of the digital economy. Therefore, Guangzhou must start from various aspects, accelerate the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and explore new paths for blockchain technology to promote the high-quality development of the digital economy, so as to better meet future development needs.
7. Innovations and Main Contributions of the Study
Previous studies on blockchain in Guangzhou mainly focus on its existing problems and optimization measures, but the innovation of this paper is to compare the current situation of blockchain development in Guangzhou with that of domestic and international landmark cities, and gain a deeper understanding of the actual level of blockchain in Guangzhou and its path to promote high-quality development. At the same time, by comparing and summarizing the experiences and lessons learned from blockchain development in other cities, this paper further proposes the ideas of blockchain development in Guangzhou and the direction of future policy focus. Main contributions: 1) Few studies have compared and analyzed the current situation of blockchain industry development in Guangzhou with that of international landmark cities, and this paper enriches the study of blockchain industry development in Guangzhou to a certain extent. 2) It is of practical significance to promote the development of blockchain industry in various regions of China. This paper compares and contrasts four cities, in China such as Guangzhou, and Seoul, South Korea, and four Chinese cities, such as Beijing, in terms of governmental decision-making, talent cultivation and education, and application scenarios, from which the differences between China and foreign blockchain technology in terms of policies and talent cultivation can be drawn, thus providing a test and inspiration for promoting the development of China’s blockchain industry.
Acknowledgments
The authors disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
We gratefully acknowledge Supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (21CJL007), the Humanities and Social Science Project of China’s Ministry of Education (20YJC790036), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong (2020A1515010629), the Basic and Applied Basic Research Project of Guangzhou (202102021185), Guangzhou Research Center for Public Opinion Governance and International Image Communication Project (2021-YB-01), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Accounting and Economic Development Research Center Project (YGA002), Guangzhou International Trade Centre Research Base Project (JDZB202104), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Pacific Island Countries Strategy Research Centre Project (2021PIC003), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, African Research Institute Project (HX-FZ2022-2), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Asia-Pacific Security and Economic and Political Cooperation Research Centre Project(YT2022001), Guangdong Postgraduate Education Innovation Project (2022XSLT027).
NOTES
1Blockchain is not a disruption of the Internet, but a comprehensive inheritance of the Internet achievements based on the core capabilities of the existing global greatest Internet platform companies extracted and sunk to the level of public infrastructure. In this way, decentralized digital identity, payment, etc. are all basic capabilities and basic services that every user can directly enjoy, and all of them are open source and open protocols, so that no platform can kidnap users through these. The relationship between blockchain and Internet is that the two complement each other and grow together.