Blockchain ecological "river and lake": are listed companies developing technologies or hot spots?

Source: Daily Economic News

Author: Every time there was correspondent Jin Wei edited every level of government red

At present, the development of blockchain can be said to be standing at the "wind vent".

China has always attached great importance to the development of blockchain technology. As early as December 2016, blockchain was written into the "State Council's Notice on Printing and Distributing the National Informationization Plan of the 13th Five-Year Plan" as a strategic frontier technology. In October this year, the blockchain was identified as a breakthrough for independent innovation of core technology, and its important status was further clarified.

• Year in review: Killer apps have not yet appeared, compliance is still insufficient, 2020 still needs work
• Citi Private Bank: Looking to 2020, Fintech Unstoppable (full text)
• Introduction | ZK Sync: a key part of the popularity of Ethereum

Nowadays, more and more institutions attach importance to and participate in the research of blockchain technology, and Internet giants such as BATJ have also laid out one after another. So, what is the actual situation of the current development of the blockchain? "Daily Economic News" reporters tried to restore and analyze the situation of blockchain development through multiple interviews.

"Mineral Circle" and "Coin Circle"

When it comes to blockchain, everyone may think of Bitcoin. In fact, the mining and currency circles in 2019 are not calm.

Due to the abundant hydropower resources in the country, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, has a bitcoin mine with huge power consumption, and was once awarded the title of "World Mining Capital".

“Daily Economic News” reporter noticed that on December 24, the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province published a paper entitled “Our State Actively Doing a Good Job in Meeting Winter Peak Power”, the article revealed that in the implementation of power restriction measures, the “Ganzi State Work Plan for Cleaning Up and Rectifying Bitcoin Mines "(this information is no longer available on the official website). At the same time, an urgent document named "Notice of the Office of the People's Government of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Convening a Symposium on the Cleanup of Bitcoin Mines in the State" was circulated on the network. At one time, the relevant news of "Bitcoin Mines Cleanup" became The focus of the bitcoin industry.

Earlier on May 28, the relevant person in charge of the Economic and Information Bureau of Kangding City publicly stated that Ganzi Prefecture does not allow bitcoin mining. "If bitcoin is included in the investment promotion, we will also conduct a data survey for big data projects. And then make a decision. "

At present, Ganzi Prefecture is in a dry season and power resources are relatively tight. Many bitcoin companies have moved out of Ganzi Prefecture and moved to areas where thermal power is concentrated.

Interestingly, on December 22, a news about stealing electricity to mine Bitcoin attracted attention. Hebei Tangshan Police recently conducted a special operation with the State Electricity Department to combat the crime of stealing electricity. It was discovered that the use of bitcoin mining machines to steal electricity has become a new type of electricity stealing crimes in recent years. Currently, 6,890 bitcoin mining machines have been collected. 52 power transformers.

Under the circumstance of increasingly strict supervision of the mining circle, in 2019, the "river and lake" of the Bitcoin currency circle is also surging.

From a price point of view, since 2018, the bitcoin scene has been difficult. As of now, the price of bitcoin has remained at more than 7,000 US dollars, which is close to the price compared with the price of the coin at the end of June this year.

The trading situation in the currency circle is also not calm. On November 25, Binance Shanghai Office, one of the three major exchanges in the currency circle, closed. On December 18, a piece of news about "Shenzhen speeds up the rectification of virtual token transactions, and eight suspected coin issuing companies were interviewed", adding a lot of waves to the "currency circle". Subsequently, the news was confirmed, eight companies were suspected of engaging in illegal activities of virtual tokens.

Virtual token transactions have been the focus of many regulatory authorities. The reporter noticed that regulatory authorities in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places have launched crackdowns on rectification. For example, the Office of the Shanghai Joint Conference on Financial Stability and the Shanghai Headquarters of the Central Bank have stated that they need to step up supervision and control, crack down on virtual token transactions, and continue to monitor the virtual currency business activities within their jurisdictions. Once found, they will be disposed of immediately and beat early. Small, prevent it before it happens.

Undoubtedly, at present, the rectification of virtual tokens is still under high pressure. Regardless of whether the company's main body is located at home or abroad, as long as it involves providing illegal trading channels for domestic consumers, it will be severely punished.

From the perspective of the industry, the illegal crackdown on virtual token transactions will further purify the industry's development environment. The previous barbaric production will continue to be planned, which will also bring more development space for compliance companies.

"Remove fakes and save the truth"

For the blockchain that is above the "window", some people are busy walking the waves, some people are "mining" coins to make hot money, and some people are quietly doing technology.

Generally speaking, blockchain can be divided into currency circle, mining circle and chain circle. Kong Qingxun, CEO of Guangzhou Wensheng Blockchain, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that the development of blockchain is still in its infancy.

Previously, in the three major circles of the blockchain currency circle, mining circle, and chain circle, the chain that focused on technology and applications was the "poorest" and had the slowest development. The "Blockchain Blue Book" report states that there are nearly 28,000 blockchain companies across the country, but most of them are mainly issuing coins.

The so-called chain circle means no coin issuance and no mining, focusing on solving practical problems around blockchain technology. In fact, compared with the currency circle and the mineral circle, the chain circle is more beneficial to promote economic development.

On October 24, 2019, regarding the current status and trends of the development of blockchain technology, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee conducted the eighteenth collective study. The General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping emphasized that the integrated application of blockchain technology was Plays an important role in technological innovation and industrial change.

Subsequently, various regions have introduced policies to support the development of the blockchain. For example, Guangzhou has established a 1 billion yuan blockchain industry fund. For selected blockchain projects or enterprises, a single subsidy of up to 10 million yuan has been granted.

Coincidentally, at the launch conference of the Digital Civilization Conference in December 2019, Wang Jing, the director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, announced that the Hainan Blockchain Pilot Zone released the "Six Chains" special measure. The "chain six" content is actually one of the measures to assist the implementation of blockchain technology. Among them is the establishment of a 1 billion blockchain industry fund to attract social funds to provide angel companies, equity, post-share value-added services and other multi-layer services for blockchain companies.

Sichuan is a “big town” for the development of the blockchain. For the development of its blockchain industry, Wang Mingyu of Maoqiu Technology is an inescapable figure. In the "2019 Hurun Post-80s Self-made Rich List" released by the Hurun Research Institute, he is the only Sichuanese who is on the list, and is one of the eight blockchain practitioners on the list.

The founder of Maoqiu Technology, Mingming Wang, said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that the chaos in the currency circle, including the issuance of coins involving illegal financing and fraud, are "bandits" and should be wiped out. Regarding Sun Yuchen, a "red man" in the currency circle, Wang Mingchen believed, "He is very good at hyping himself, but the hype is a little too much. "

Wang Mingchen said that Sichuan has good conditions and has great advantages. Sichuan is expected to become the national highland of the blockchain industry. Take Maoqiu Technology as an example. On the one hand, Maoqiu Technology is a blockchain business. Currently, it has 14 medium and large-scale computing power service centers in Sichuan, Yunnan and other places, and it is also a cultural and creative industry.

"Blockchain in the cultural and creative industries, including blockchain + games, aims to empower the new entertainment industry, a trillion-level market, with blockchain technology, and explore blockchain technology's originality certification, value transfer, The application of intellectual property exchange certificates, determination of anti-counterfeiting of intellectual property, etc. "said Wang Minghuan.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Maoqiu Technology, Chengdu Chainan Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Chengdu Chainan), which specializes in blockchain, recently reached a cooperation with Renzi Bank (300311, SZ), a listed company. Renzi Bank increased capital to Chengdu Chainan 10 million yuan. So, what exactly is the company's current blockchain application scenario?

On December 30, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" came to Chengdu Lian'an, located in the D area of ​​Chengdu Tianfu Software Park. Unfortunately, the company's office doors were locked and no office workers were working. Roughly calculated by the station, there are about thirty people in total. The reporter learned from employees of other companies on the same floor that Chengdu Chain Anping is working normally on weekdays. "Maybe I'm on vacation today."

A person in charge of the property office in this office area told reporters that it has been more than a year since Chengdu Lian'an moved in. "Near New Year's Day, the company may be on holiday, and it is usually working normally. No one is today, and the specific situation is not clear." Then he called the Chengdu Lian'an company, but no one answered.

Listed companies at the blockchain air outlet

For A-share investors, the concept of blockchain is no stranger. According to statistics from Oriental Fortune.com, there are 89 blockchain concept stocks. In the Wind blockchain concept section, there are 52 companies.

At present, the application of blockchain technology has extended to many fields such as digital finance, the Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management, and digital asset trading. Driven by policies, some listed companies are "struggling to fight against each other" and have "rushed to the beach".

Taking Yi Jian shares as an example, the company has been deploying blockchain since 2016. In October of this year, Easyshare stated that the company's "trusted data pool" and "easy block" applications are still in their infancy and not yet mature. "The company's relevant blockchain business has no significant impact on the current performance and has not yet had a significant impact on the company's business."

According to the company's semi-annual report for 2019, the revenue of Yi Jian Share Information Services accounted for a relatively small proportion of the company's main business income, which was 1.3%.

In spite of the "self-pour cold water" of Yi Jian shares, in October this year, the stock price of Yi Jian shares rose as much as 53.02% in that month, and the company's market value doubled in one month. On November 4, the company's stock price still reached a new high of nearly 3 years at 20.81 yuan per share.

On December 30, a person in the Department of Easy Shares Securities told the Daily Economic News reporter, "The company mainly has applications and technologies related to easy-to-see blocks, trusted data pools and trusted warehouses. The chain is also in the preliminary exploration stage. "

"Currently, I don't know much about the investment of blockchain. I don't know until the end of the year. Blockchain is also a new technology, and the entire industry is also in the initial stage of exploration. This is the trend of the entire industry." Yi Jian shares also launched Yi Jian Block 3.0 in November, which is the latest achievement of the company. The company's main business is still supply chain and factoring, and the blockchain is in the information service field. The proportion is still relatively small. The company's direction It's still fintech.

In fact, in addition to the easy-to-see shares, many listed companies with the blockchain label have a remarkable stock price performance. However, the current business model is not yet mature. For some listed companies, is it for technology development, or is it just for "hot spots"?

In this regard, Kong Qingxun told reporters: "For the blockchain, there is currently no mature business model in the country. Some listed companies go to the hotspots of the blockchain and buy a company that claims to be a blockchain. The market value has increased by several hundred million yuan, and investors should polish their eyes in response to this phenomenon. "

Chen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, told a reporter from Daily Economic News that some listed companies were stimulated by policy influences. The secondary market's stock price did show an upward trend, but behind the rise, investors should take a rational view.

Shen Meng believes that there are four types of listed companies involved in blockchain: The first is a company that originally did system integration. Now it is going to undertake some blockchain projects, that is, to integrate other people's technology or develop source code software. Used to meet customer needs. "This can only be said to be a new system integration service, which does not form a complete application model with the blockchain itself."

"The second is to use the blockchain to improve its own business processes, but this will not form a new business. It will only provide support in improving the cost structure and streamlining the process, and will not form business benefits. The third is true For the development of the underlying technology of the blockchain, this part will not produce results in the short term. At present, domestic talents and technology in the blockchain are limited, so it is difficult to generate revenue in a short period of time. "Said Shen Meng.

In Shen Meng's opinion, many blockchain companies currently do not have such R & D capabilities in the technical field of blockchain, and there are not many mature teams in the market for listed companies to attract in. Listed companies often choose to use blockchain. To pack your business.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!