China’s recently unveiled “National Data Infrastructure Construction Guidelines” place blockchain at the heart of the country’s strategy to improve data security, transparency and scalability as part of its broader effort to digital transformation.
The guidelines, issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other agencies, highlight blockchain technology as a cornerstone to facilitate the exchange of reliable data across sectors and regions.
The paper envisions blockchain networks supporting secure data flow, ensuring traceability and preventing tampering as China builds an integrated national data market.
Under the proposed timeline, China hopes to have a fully operational blockchain-powered data infrastructure spanning the entire country by 2029. The entire plan will be implemented in a phased approach.
Between 2024 and 2026, the government will launch pilot projects in key regions to refine blockchain frameworks and test real-world applications. By 2028, these pilot programs will evolve into fully integrated national blockchain networks, supporting large-scale data flow between provinces, sectors and public-private partnerships.
Blockchain-powered infrastructure
A central part of the plan is the development of “trusted data spaces” that use blockchain to enable transparent sharing of data between multiple parties while ensuring confidentiality, integrity and ownership rights.
These spaces, powered by distributed ledger technology (DLT), will serve as decentralized environments where businesses, governments and individuals can exchange data securely and transparently.
Trust spaces aim to address common data governance challenges by creating immutable records of data transactions. This allows stakeholders to verify data provenance and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. These ecosystems will play a central role in sectors such as cross-border logistics, supply chain management, e-commerce and financial services.
Additionally, the guidelines propose the construction of “data markets” built on blockchain networks. These marketplaces will enable the tokenization of data assets, enabling fractional ownership, monetization and secure exchanges between platforms. This innovation is expected to unlock new revenue streams and encourage large-scale data sharing.
The plan also calls for the creation of blockchain-based platforms tailored to specific sectors. By 2026, pilot projects will test decentralized applications (dApps) in critical sectors such as digital finance, green energy and smart manufacturing. These platforms will facilitate data interoperability between companies, accelerating the industry-wide adoption of blockchain technology.
For example, the guidelines encourage the development of blockchain-based supply chain networks for agriculture and industrial manufacturing, ensuring product traceability and reducing fraud. In the financial sector, DeFi solutions leveraging state-sanctioned blockchains will be explored, providing secure and low-cost alternatives to traditional systems.
Security and Privacy
China’s focus on blockchain goes beyond data sharing and also involves securing the infrastructure itself. The guidelines detail plans to integrate blockchain with advanced privacy-enhancing technologies, including secure multi-party computation, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs.
This combination will allow sensitive data to be processed and analyzed without being exposed, addressing key privacy concerns in sensitive industries such as healthcare and finance.
The paper also describes the creation of blockchain-based monitoring systems to verify data integrity in real time, protecting against unauthorized access, leaks and cyber threats. By decentralizing control of critical data flows, the initiative aims to reduce single points of failure and improve the resilience of national data.
