What is the future of blockchain under communism? Ethereum founder: Permissioned blockchains struggle to gain international trust

China's national blockchain platform, "BSN," has been releasing positive news since the beginning of this year. Not only does it integrate major public blockchains, but it has recently been reported that it will incorporate the use of stablecoins. However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin remains skeptical, believing that this kind of semi-private consortium chain may struggle to gain trust internationally.

National Blockchain Platform "BSN"

The Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) was launched on April 25 this year. The whitepaper claims that BSN is a global infrastructure network for deploying and operating various blockchain applications, which is cross-cloud, cross-portal, and cross-framework, with the ultimate goal of becoming the main network for blockchain. The main participants include:

• China National Information Center (SIC): Under the National Development and Reform Commission
• China Mobile: The largest telecommunications company, converted to state-owned in 2017
• China UnionPay: Issuer of over 8 billion credit cards (UnionPay)
• Beijing Red Date Technology: BSN blockchain architecture provider

Furthermore, the BSN whitepaper indicates that BSN aims to reduce the cost and complexity of developing blockchain applications. Developers can use several enterprise-level blockchain protocols, supporting both consortium chains and public chains frameworks, including mainstream public chains like Tezos, NEO, Nervos, EOS, IRISnet, and Ethereum.

Ethereum Founder's Reserved Attitude

Vitalik Buterin, in an interview with Technode, was asked about China's BSN and his views on the macro development of blockchain. He believes that blockchain talent is widely distributed, not just highly concentrated in Silicon Valley, but also sees many successful teams in China. Regarding BSN, he pointed out its potential but mentioned that the development is far from complete:

Of course, it's welcome for governments and enterprises to step into the blockchain field. Blockchain cannot solve all problems, and the main challenge is that these people focus on consortium chains. I think the most valuable thing is international application, but you cannot assume everyone trusts a single government. In this case, public chains are more neutral and transparent.

Consortium chains are similar to private chains, but unlike private chains used by a single institution, consortium chains allow multiple companies to participate. However, Vitalik believes this type of blockchain is too centralized and difficult to gain recognition and trust internationally.

When asked about the integration of BSN with Ethereum and its future development, Vitalik expressed optimism, but noted that this is a unilateral decision by BSN and he is not clear on the specific reasons. He stated:

What projects BSN will build and how they will develop, I think it's too early to say now. The most important thing is not to speculate too much on specific information in the early stages of the project, otherwise it will be like the mistakes made by various parties in the initial assessment of the Libra project.

Regarding the latest progress of BSN, apart from the release of the international version website on August 10, He Yifan, the founder of Beijing Red Date Technology, also told foreign media that BSN will integrate stablecoin applications. Although DCEP is not based on blockchain technology, BSN provides the best infrastructure.