Guangzhou injects $140M into blockchain projects subsidy—but no tokens

The government of Guangzhou is planning to provide at least $140 million in a subsidy fund geared towards encouraging the development of blockchain technology and platforms.

Guangzhou, a port city on mainland China, has been seeking to attract capital to their region, and believes that implementing measures for accelerating the blockchain industry will help them to accomplish this goal, Chinese news outlet Caijing reported.

A document was first provided that explained that the state was establishing a fund of 1 billion yuan, noting that the fund will help to provide different companies and initiatives with multilevel services, such as angel investment, equity investment, and post investment value added. The subsidies will include a maximum of $500,000 for federated chains and as much as $1.5 million for public chain without a token.

the subsidy level is

public chain (without token) up to $1.5M, federated chain up to $500k, 20 blockchain service companies each up to a few hundred k, dapp dedicated in public service each up to 1.5M, and there will be tons of money for local universities' training

— Dovey "Rug the fiat" Wan (hiring) (@DoveyWan) October 30, 2019

According to Primitive Ventures co-founder Dovey Wan, the plan of the Guangzhou government is to sponsor two blockchain projects each year. Beyond this, some money will be set aside to be used toward courses at universities. The funds will be spread between public projects, dApps that help with public services, as well as grants to various blockchain based companies.

Wan, however, pointed out that Guangzhou is only looking at two types of blockchain projects: federal chain projects and “no-coin” public chains.

This is expected to be the tip of the iceberg. Now that Guangzhou has opened the door with this initiative, it is expected that other states within the country will make similar offers. This should not only help to optimize innovation, but should make local governments a lot more efficient as well as improve the overall operation of the central government.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has become a firm supporter of blockchain technology, which is quite a change of heart after referring at one point to the technology as “a scam” that should be completely banned. However, now the Chinese president is seeing the light, encouraging China to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology.