Beijing pulls ahead of Shenzhen as China’s top blockchain city

Beijing has been named as China’s top blockchain city in the 2020 Chinese Blockchain Innovation Rankings ahead of the blockchain hub of Shenzhen.

The rankings were revealed in a special session at the China International Fair for Trade in Services Summit. According to Finance China, Beijing had a score of 99.82 while Shenzhen — a city with more than 5,000 blockchain firms — lagged behind with a score of 91.2.

The nation’s second largest city Shanghai has a score of 88. One of the biggest business capitals in East Asia nowadays, the ranking puts it in third place.

Beijing Fair, the host of the summit, praised both Beijing and Shanghai as two critical municipalities that rely on their “advantages in research and development (R&D) activities, industrial development and public enthusiasm,” all of which allows them to bring about a strong public awareness of blockchain.

In July, the municipal government of Beijing unveiled a 20-point plan to accelerate the development and deployment of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and turn Beijing into a global and national hub for blockchain tech.

The Beijing Blockchain Innovation Development Action Plan 2020–2022 outlines the city’s intent to solidify itself as a global leader in both private blockchain innovation and public DLT deployment by the end of the next year.

Finance China highlighted the fact that Shenzhen has also been a pioneer in the blockchain adoption among businesses in the country and has helped put blockchain applications in the financial sector “on the right track.”