Nanjing City, the capital of Jiangsu province in China has announced the launch of a $1.48 billion investment fund aimed at promoting blockchain startups and the token economy.
The $1.48 billion investment fund which was announced during the inaugural Industrial Public Chain Summit (IPCS) seeks to explore new blockchain technologies that can be used in a variety of areas. Some of the areas that can benefit directly from decentralized ledger technology include environmental protection, healthcare, content, cross-border platforms and the energy sector.
The investment fund was launched through a partnership between Nanjing City and Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance. The latter is based in Beijing and its members include government research institutes and blockchain firms. The TokenX Community and a decentralized asset platform called UDAP Foundation will be the first beneficiaries of the investment fund.
The initiative is also aimed at encouraging more companies to set up shop in Nanjing City. Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance Chairman Yuandao stated that the adoption of blockchain by more industries will encourage the development of more blockchain projects. This might, in turn, lead to more technological breakthroughs.
“Global cooperation, convergence with industries, consensus, and autonomy will be the key to the token economy’s success going forward,” stated Wang Xiaohui, the deputy chairman of the Internet Industry Research Center at Tsinghua University.
China and South Korea’s involvement in blockchain
Also in attendance of the launch event was Oh Kap-soo, the Chairman of the Global Finance Society, a finance research institute backed by the South Korean government. He commented on the matter, saying that blockchain can be applied in various fields including science, education, and finance. Kap-soo also pointed out that South Korea and China have been working together to speed up the development of decentralized ledger technologies.
China currently tops the charts as far as the number of filed blockchain patents are concerned while South Korea has become a haven for cryptocurrency exchanges. China was initially opposed to the idea of cryptocurrencies but over the past few months, it has been apparent that it seems to be warming up to them and it is also one of the countries that have been offering a lot of support to blockchain projects.
