Blockchain Technology with Chinese Characteristics
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2019-01-24
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en
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Over the past years China has been able to rapidly develop in to a power to be reckoned with. While great strides have been made in terms of financial decentralization, political decentralization appears to lack behind. For this reason it came as quite the surprise when China released its 13th Five Year Plan in 2016, stating an explicit interest in Blockchain Technology. Following from a desire to become a global center of science and innovation the government believes that its’ development and adoption will build strategic technological advantages on the world stage. However, Blockchain Technology was initially designed as a strongly decentralizing force. It was first launched under the guise of ‘Bitcoin’ in the aftermath of the economic crisis, as a decentrally organized digital currency that removes the need for trust in third parties such as banks and instead relies on verification of transactions via a peer-to-peer network. While the country was quick to ban all activities even remotely relating to Bitcoin, the underlying technology appears to be of great interest. This is puzzling because Blockchain, in any form, has the ability to pull discretionary powers away from government. Why would a politically centralized country such as China be interested in the implementation of such a technology? This thesis used a New Materialist framework to shed light on these developments. It enabled the analysis of technology as an agent and how it affected (and continues to affect) China’s political assemblage and division of power within this context. The historical explanatory narrative points out that Blockchain Technology has the agentic capacities to change how is governed in China. This however does not imply a shift in discretionary powers, as China’s political assemblage results in an environment where Blockchain’s decentralizing capacities might actually be transformed into a centralizing force instead.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen