Blockchain Service Network

3-minutes Read

The Blockchain Service Network (BSN) is a China state-backed blockchain infrastructure project. It is being led by the State Information Center of China (SIC), under the National Development and Reform Commission. They, together with state-owned organizations China UnionPay and China Mobile, as well as three other companies, signed “The Alliance Chain Framework Adaptation Agreement”, creating the BSN Development Alliance. Since then many others have become involved in the project, such as China Unicom, China Telecom and the exchange Huobi.

BSN is not actually itself a blockchain protocol, but rather a centralizing platform that connects other blockchain networks together into a single cohesive system. It will allow individuals and businesses to plug in and code from a selection of chains. The aim of the project is to:
 – Unite the market
 – Offer SME’s a low-cost way to adopt blockchain
 – Improve flexibility and accessibility
 – Provide better compliance oversight

The project was first announced in 2019 and was rolled out across 100 cities in China by early 2020. The global commercial launch officially took place in April 2020 and it is now in the process of being expanded and opened to developers all over the world. BSN will operate three data centers, in Hong Kong, Paris and San Francisco.

On technical specifics, Beijing Red Date Technology is one of the major development partners. BSN has added several permissioned blockchains including Hyperledger Fabric, Baidu’s XuperChain and the local FISCO (developed by a consortium of Chinese tech companies including Tencent, WeBank and Huawei). It has also integrated six public blockchains: Ethereum, EOS, Tezos, NEO, Nervos and IRISnet. Developers worldwide will be able to easily plug into BSN and build dApps on any of these chains, while using BSN’s data centers for bandwidth and storage. By the end of 2020 the aim is to have onboarded more than 10 public chains.