The blockchain startup Conflux has received a research grant of more than $ 5 million from the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee and the Xuhui District Government, which is part of the city's municipal government. This is a sign of future plans for China's economy and social development, which until now has always been cautious of public blockchains.
China decides to support a public, license-free blockchain
The Beijing-based Conflux company said it has become the only public, unlicensed blockchain project backed by the Chinese government, according to a company statement.
The project entered the Shanghai government's list of 57 high-tech projects, which includes 5G and some aerospace technologies, among others, according to an official Nov.25 document issued by the technology committee.
The funding will be used to develop public blockchain research. The project will also support an aerospace supply chain it plans to build on the Conflux network, the company said.
According to the company, the Conflux project was included in the Shanghai government's latest five-year plan. This plan consists of a series of social and economic initiatives that define the country's future economy and social development.
China has mainly focused on the development of authorized blockchains while being cautious of public decentralized chains, as such projects have used initial coin offerings (ICOs) to raise capital and distribute their tokens as an alternative to fiat currencies.
"While the amount of money granted is important, it is the government's signal to support an unlicensed public chain like Conflux that matters most to us," said Conflux co-founder Fan Long.
Conflux will not launch an ICO
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has banned ICOs and cracked down on fiat-to-crypto trading through a series of public measures since 2017. Conflux will not launch an ICO or be involved in any form of centralized sale of token, according to Long.
Founded in 2018, Conflux raised $ 35 million via a private token sale from major players Investors in China, including private equity firm Sequoia China, Huobi Group, Shunwei Capital and Rong360.
Its team includes developers who have attended the best engineering schools in China and abroad, where they studied to get their degrees. The Shanghai government agreed to help Conflux open a research institute and incubation center with an undisclosed amount of research funding as early as 2019.
