By
Temitope Olatunji
March 28th, 2024
Tencent has been one of the earliest adopters of blockchain in China, and the novel patent is a kind of experiment with the distributed ledger technology. It is especially topical now, when the Chinese regulators are watching blockchain and crypto-related businesses so closely.
Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate Tencent Holdings Limited has obtained a patent for a blockchain-based missing persons poster. Notably, it took almost three years for the Chinese tech giant to secure the patent.
According to local media source 36kr.com, the patent employs blockchain technology. First, users submit a request for missing person’s data. Second, the data is verified. When the consensus is reached, the request about the missing person is disclosed publicly on the blockchain and stored in the ledger. Besides, it is forwarded to nodes for broadcast to a wider audience. As Tencent has said, the design of the patent aims at increasing the effectiveness of searches of a missing person.
Tencent has been one of the earliest adopters of blockchain in China, and the novel patent is a kind of experiment with distributed ledger technology. It is especially topical now when the Chinese regulators are watching blockchain and crypto-related businesses so closely. Earlier, the company shut down its non-fungible token (NFT) platform Huanhe amid heightened scrutiny in the country. Tencent said it would stop releasing digital collectibles on the platform due to the high scrutiny of NFTs from Chinese regulators.
Chinese Approach to Blockchain
Currently, China is applying a centralized approach to regulating blockchain technology. Last year, the government banned cryptocurrency trading and mining in one of the world’s most intense crackdowns. However, the country is pursuing other uses of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as long as the technology stays under its control. In addition, the country is looking for ways to expand the use of its digital yuan known as the e-CNY.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) believes that the e-CNY will fully meet the public’s daily payment needs, further improve the efficiency of the retail payment system as well as reduce costs. Currently, the digital yuan is being tested in 23 cities and regions in 15 provinces and provincial-level cities. Besides, nearly 4.6 million merchants across China have announced accepting the digital yuan as payment.
Recently, the People’s Bank of China unveiled its plans to use e-CNY smart contracts to improve primary education. The initiative will start with the city of Chengdu where parents will be able to pay for their children’s extra lessons with the e-CNY. The choice of Chengdu is obvious given the city is the national pilot city for the double reduction work. According to the PBoC, it hopes the e-CNY smart contracts can serve as a replacement for an intermediary between parents and private education entities.
