China’s first blockchain engineering major aims to catch up with ever-changing developments in social economy and social informatization. The major looks to provide training to blockchain technical talents to meet the needs of the blockchain industry.
The Ministry of Education of China has just granted Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT) approval to open the country’s first undergraduate blockchain engineering major. Admission and enrollment will start this year, according to a Chinanews agency report from March 4.
The design of the courses aims to equip students with skills in blockchain system design, project management and implementation.
China sees blockchain’s potential to impact social economy and information development
The program will allow future blockchain professionals to gain skills in computer science and technology, basic theory of blockchain technology and blockchain project development methods, according to the report.
China is expediting blockchain implementation
Cointelegraph recently reported that in order to fight against the coronavirus, China has turned to blockchain technology to manage medical data, track supply of virus prevention materials and consult the public.
The tax bureau of Beijing also officially announced that it will start implementing blockchain invoicing within the city on March 2.
In January last year, Cointelegraph also reported that the Food and Drug Administration of Chongqing Yuzhong District was going to apply blockchain to strengthen the supervision of food and drug quality.
China: WeChat Searches for ‘Blockchain’ and A-Share Stocks Skyrocket
Stocks in Chinese blockchain A-share firms maxed out to their 10% daily limit after an endorsement of the technology from the highest echelons of power.
The stock market rally was reported on Oct. 28 by the Global Times, an English-language newspaper within the CPC-owned People’s Daily Group.
Last week, President Xi Jinping had called for the country to accelerate its adoption of blockchain technologies to drive innovation and industrial transformation.
Today, the head of the technology department at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has urged banks to ramp up their application of blockchain for digital finance, Reuters reported on Oct. 28.
Interest in Bitcoin, blockchain
Bitcoin has soared by close to 16% price on the week and is trading above $9,400 by press time.
On Oct. 26, the cryptocurrency saw its highest intraday gain since 2011, gaining 42% to trade AT $10,500.
An explosion of interest in Bitcoin and blockchain is evident in search data on WeChat, with investors correlating the top coin’s price hike with this surge in popular interest:
WeChat searches (10/23/19):
– 区块链 (Blockchain): 777K
– 比特币 (Bitcoin): 572K
WeChat searches (10/25/19):
– 区块链 (Blockchain): 9.2MM– 比特币 (Bitcoin): 1.3MM
Dovey Wan, co-founder of crypto investment holding firm Primitive Ventures, tweeted a screenshot of the stock market boom in the domestic blockchain sector, noting that “as expected, almost ALL (over 100) blockchain-related Chinese A-shares hit the daily upper limit (10% intraday gain)”:
A blockchain arms race
Meanwhile, on global markets, Chinese firms such as the Shenzhen Xunlei Networking Technologies Co. soared 107.76% to $4.82 – its highest daily rise since its listing on Nasdaq in 2014, according to the Global Times.
Today, Oct. 28, Wan has also voiced her concern following reported news that:
“China Merchant Bank just announced invested in BitPie, the Bitcoin wallet with longest history and most users back in China … Tho it’s a non-custodial wallet there can be a non-zero chance …. redacted”
Blockchain platform Tron (TRX), formerly under intense scrutiny from Beijing, has gained almost 25% on the TRX/USD charts over the 24 hours to press time.
Readers might recall that Mark Zuckerberg had last week attempted to fuel lawmakers’ concerns about a prospective cryptocurrency and fintech arms race between the United States and China, in a bid to seal their approval for the development of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin.
