Application Dilemmas and Optimization Strategies of Blockchain in New Forms of the Digital Economy

Application Dilemmas and Optimization Strategies of Blockchain in New Forms of the Digital Economy

Authors:  Fnu Oudom

Abstract

The digital economy has entered a new development stage centered on the market-oriented reform of data factors, value Internet and industrial digital collaboration. As a core underlying technology for building distributed trust systems, activating data assets and reshaping industrial collaboration models, blockchain serves as a core infrastructure for fostering new quality productive forces and unclogging bottlenecks in value circulation within the digital economy. At present, blockchain has been widely deployed in various new-form scenarios including supply chain industrial finance, digital copyright confirmation, government data sharing, full-chain commodity traceability, data factor trading and metaverse digital assets, offering a brand-new technical solution to long-standing challenges such as information asymmetry, excessive intermediary costs and difficulties in data right confirmation. Nevertheless, the large-scale industrial rollout of blockchain is trapped in multiple structural contradictions. From a technical perspective, it is long constrained by the "impossible triangle", making it hard to balance performance expansion, cross-chain interconnection and privacy protection simultaneously. From an industrial perspective, superficial applications, mismatched input and output, and massive value silos prevail widely. From an institutional perspective, decentralized architectures conflict with the traditional centralized supervision system, lacking a sound legal framework governing the legal validity of smart contracts, on-chain rights and obligations, and cross-border value circulation. From a market perspective, immature business models, severe talent shortages and redundant infrastructure construction further drive up implementation costs. Based on the characteristics of new forms of the digital economy, this paper breaks away from the traditional research paradigm limited to pure technical discussions. It systematically dissects deep-seated barriers to blockchain implementation from five dimensions: technical architecture, industrial ecology, institutional rule of law, business model and talent infrastructure, and distinguishes technical bottlenecks, institutional obstacles and market deficiencies. On this basis, a systematic optimization scheme is proposed, covering hierarchical technological iteration, categorized scenario deployment, graded regulatory governance, phased commercial closure and all-round talent cultivation. This paper innovatively puts forward a hierarchical technical route of "alliance chains as the main body, public chains for pilot experiments and side chains for capacity expansion", and establishes a new collaborative governance model featuring "technical compliance + legal guarantee + on-chain traceability". It strives to shift blockchain away from conceptual hype and simple data archiving toward in-depth empowerment of the real economy, enable technologies to underpin the market-oriented reform of data factors, and facilitate high-quality, standardized and sustainable development of new digital economy formats.

Keywords: blockchain; new forms of the digital economy; data factors; trust mechanism; regulatory governance; industrial digitalization; new quality productive forces

I. Introduction

(1) Research Background

The new round of digital revolution has transformed the Internet from an "information Internet" focused on information transmission to a "value Internet" featuring automatic value circulation. New forms of the digital economy extend beyond shallow digitalization represented by e-commerce and online services, covering emerging sectors such as industrial supply chain collaboration, data asset trading, digital property operation, decentralized business organizations and cross-border digital trade. As data has officially become the fifth major production factor, the confirmation, circulation, pricing and income distribution of data have become core propositions for digital economic development.

Relying on four core capabilities — distributed ledgers, asymmetric encryption, consensus mechanisms and smart contracts — blockchain inherently boasts strengths including data tamper resistance, full traceability, multi-party joint witness and automatic performance. It can build cross-subject trust at low cost and break trust barriers in industrial collaboration, addressing pain points such as difficulties in data right confirmation, traceability, profit allocation and regulatory evidence collection. Therefore, blockchain has been designated a core technical infrastructure of China’s digital economy. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development clearly proposes to accelerate technological innovation and scenario-based implementation of blockchain to fuel the transformation and upgrading of the real economy. In recent years, China’s blockchain infrastructure, including the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), provincial and municipal government alliance chains, industrial traceability chains and supply chain financial chains, has been successively constructed, with application scenarios expanding rapidly.

Objectively, however, the vast majority of blockchain projects are confined to shallow applications such as electronic evidence storage and file uploading. Fewer than 20% of projects have built sustainable business models and generated tangible industrial incremental value. Numerous projects suffer from common drawbacks: treating data uploading as the ultimate goal, prioritizing technical construction over value mining, and merely recording data on-chain without enabling value circulation. The technological dividends of blockchain have failed to translate into industrial dividends, resulting in a severe mismatch between technical supply and the real demands of new digital formats. Against the backdrop of stringent financial supervision, standardized governance of digital assets and full enforcement of data security legislation, the blockchain industry has entered a rational contraction phase with speculative bubbles cleared out. Technical implementation must confront a series of profound contradictions.

(2) Literature Review and Research Innovations

Existing research mainly falls into three categories: first, pure technical research focusing on TPS throughput, consensus algorithms, cross-chain technologies and other technical hurdles; second, studies on the regulatory risks of digital currencies and decentralized finance; third, single-industry case analyses of traceability and evidence storage. Current research results generally have three deficiencies. First, they separate technical issues from industrial business models, only discussing technical weaknesses while ignoring the lack of commercial closure as the primary cause of project failure. Second, technical, institutional and market dilemmas are conflated without hierarchical and systematic decomposition. Third, proposed countermeasures are fragmented, lacking an integrated framework adapted to China’s new digital economy formats that balances innovation development and risk prevention.

Compared with existing literature, this paper delivers three distinctive innovations:

Innovative Research Perspective: Rooted in the market-oriented reform of data factors under new digital economy formats, this paper positions blockchain as the trust foundation for data right confirmation and circulation. Instead of discussing technical performance in isolation, it embeds technical bottlenecks into the full spectrum of industrial collaboration, property right distribution and value transactions.

Innovative Problem Deconstruction: It categorizes application barriers into five layers of structural conflicts: technical architecture, industrial ecology, legal supervision, business operation and talent infrastructure, distinguishing short-term solvable issues from long-term fundamental challenges.

Innovative Governance Strategy: Abandoning the binary mindset of either full liberalization or blanket regulation, this paper puts forward a four-dimensional collaborative optimization path: hierarchical technical architecture, categorized scenario deployment, categorized sandbox supervision and phased commercial realization. It clearly defines the applicable boundaries of public chains, alliance chains and private chains, and differentiates industrial applications for the real economy from virtual asset speculation to strike a balance between innovation and risk control.

(3) Research Framework

This paper first defines the core application boundaries and value logic of blockchain under new digital economy formats. Second, it analyzes multi-layered practical dilemmas across technology, industry, law, business and talent, and excavates the underlying causes of such contradictions. Third, corresponding systematic, hierarchical and actionable optimization strategies and implementation mechanisms for scenario deployment are proposed. Finally, research conclusions and future development directions are summarized.

II. Core Application Logic and Mainstream Scenarios of Blockchain Under New Forms of the Digital Economy

(1) Core Value Logic of Blockchain Empowering New Digital Economy Formats

The biggest pain point plaguing new digital economy formats is excessive trust costs. Data is stored separately across enterprises, departments and regions, leading to mutual distrust among multiple stakeholders, who rely heavily on centralized intermediaries for guarantee and verification. This pushes up transaction costs and hinders the free flow of data.

The core value of blockchain lies in replacing artificial credit with machine code to build a decentralized distributed trust system, achieving three value leaps:

Digitalized Credit: Convert paper contracts, verbal agreements and corporate credit into tamper-proof on-chain data records to cut costs of credit investigation, verification and evidence collection.

Clarified Property Rights: Confirm rights on-chain for digital works, supply chain goods rights, data resources and intellectual property, clearly defining ownership, usage rights and income rights of data assets.

Automated Performance: Automatically execute profit sharing, settlement, pledge and performance clauses via smart contracts to reduce default risks and arbitration costs.

In short, blockchain solves the core problems of credible data, traceable assets and automatic income distribution, providing institutional technical safeguards for decentralized digital commerce.

(2) Mainstream Application Scenarios of Current New Digital Formats

Industrial Supply Chain: Circulation of multi-level accounts receivable, traceability of bulk commodities and uploading of warehouse goods rights to resolve financing difficulties for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in supply chains.

Data Factor Trading: Open and shared government data, registration of corporate data assets and traceable data transactions to ensure compliant circulation of data.

Digital Cultural Industry: Digital copyright evidence storage, work right confirmation and profit sharing from secondary transactions to protect copyrights of cultural creations, films, images and software.

Government Digital Governance: Electronic certificates, judicial evidence storage, bidding traceability and project fund supervision to break cross-departmental data silos.

Green Digital Economy: Carbon footprint traceability, registration of carbon assets and income distribution of green projects to support digital management of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Cross-border Digital Trade: Upload cross-border orders, customs documents, logistics information and settlement vouchers to simplify verification procedures for cross-border trade.

The above scenarios constitute the main battlefield for blockchain to empower the digital economy and also witness the most concentrated conflicts at the current stage.

III. Multi-layered Application Dilemmas of Blockchain in the Implementation of New Digital Economy Formats

(1) First-layer Dilemma: Inherent Flaws in Technical Architecture – The Unbreakable "Impossible Triangle" (Technical Hard Constraints)

Blockchain is long confined by the "impossible triangle", whereby decentralization, security and scalability cannot be optimized simultaneously. This constitutes a fundamental technical shackle restricting large-scale commercial adoption and an unavoidable threshold for all application projects.

Performance Bottlenecks Fail to Meet High-concurrency Demands of New FormatsPublic chains feature extremely low transaction throughput: Bitcoin processes merely 7 transactions per second, while the basic Ethereum network delivers fewer than 30 TPS. Even with sharding and DPoS consensus mechanisms, boosting throughput requires sacrificing node decentralization. Digital e-commerce, real-time adjustment of supply chain goods rights and high-frequency data transactions demand millisecond responses and ten-thousand-level concurrency. Although alliance chains can lift TPS to thousands, they still fail to satisfy real-time on-chain demands for massive IoT device data. To boost speed, most industrial projects reduce node quantities, gradually degrading alliance chains into centralized databases and stripping away the core distributed trust value of blockchain, resulting in superficial projects that amount to nothing more than "databases with an on-chain label".

Meanwhile, the infinite expansion of on-chain data drives up annual storage costs for full nodes, putting node operation out of reach for ordinary enterprises. The network gradually concentrates on a handful of large platforms, giving rise to the paradox of decentralization evolving into a new form of centralization.

Insufficient Cross-chain Interconnection Generates Massive Value SilosAt present, provincial and municipal government chains, industrial alliance chains and industrial private chains are developed independently with incompatible underlying consensus protocols, data formats and account systems, lacking unified cross-chain protocols. Assets confirmed and business data stored on one chain cannot circulate seamlessly on other chains, making cross-chain data mutual recognition and asset interconnection impossible. Independent blockchain construction by various institutions leads to redundant development of underlying systems, severe waste of computing and storage resources, industrial fragmentation and increasingly severe value silos. Although infrastructure such as the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) aims to connect disparate chains, high transformation costs reduce small and medium-sized enterprises’ willingness to participate.

Inherent Conflicts Between Privacy Protection and TransparencyBlockchain ledgers are accessible to all nodes, yet supply chain quotations, corporate operational data, government sensitive information and personal privacy data cannot be fully disclosed to the public. Data encryption impairs on-chain verification efficiency, while plaintext uploading easily causes leakage of confidential information. Privacy computing technologies such as zero-knowledge proof and homomorphic encryption remain immature with high deployment costs, unaffordable for ordinary commercial projects. The dilemma that "open data leads to leakage while encrypted data cannot be verified" has become a prominent barrier to industrial implementation.

Frequent Vulnerabilities in Smart Contracts Bring Uncovered Code RisksOnce deployed, smart contracts cannot be modified. Code overflow, permission loopholes and logical defects easily trigger asset losses. Most small and medium-sized projects lack rigorous third-party code security audits, resulting in frequent contract vulnerabilities. Furthermore, smart contracts operate strictly according to code without human intervention. When unforeseen market fluctuations or policy adjustments occur, contracts cannot be revised through negotiation, amplifying operational risks.

(2) Second-layer Dilemma: Superficial Industrial Applications and Severe Supply-demand Mismatch – The Industrial Bubble Trap (Industrial Ecological Conflicts)

The biggest problem facing the current blockchain industry is not backward technology, but the severe disconnect between applications and the demands of the real economy. The industry is plagued by a widespread disorder: prioritizing construction over operation, evidence storage over transactions, and data uploading over monetization.

Most Scenarios Are Confined to Simple Evidence StorageMore than 70% of deployed projects only upload file hash values, treating blockchain as an electronic archive repository that merely realizes data traceability without extending to high-value links including asset circulation, automatic profit sharing and multi-level credit transmission. Such superficial functions can be achieved at low cost via ordinary cloud storage and electronic signatures, making it impossible to convert blockchain’s tamper-proof advantage into economic benefits. Enterprises invest heavily in chain construction yet gain no cost reduction or efficiency improvement, leading to project suspension and massive invalid investment.

Insufficient Multi-party Collaboration Makes Alliance Chains "Easy to Build but Hard to Operate"Alliance chain governance requires participation from multiple enterprises and departments with conflicting interest demands. Core large enterprises are reluctant to disclose operational data; MSMEs fear data leakage and lack motivation for data uploading; government departments face lengthy approval procedures for cross-departmental data sharing due to data safety assessment constraints. The absence of multi-party mechanisms for power and responsibility division, profit distribution and risk sharing results in ceremonial chain construction without normalized business operations and idle chain resources. Many supply chain blockchain projects are only operated unilaterally by core enterprises, rendering multi-party co-governance a dead letter.

Homogeneous Project Clustering and Low-level Redundant ConstructionDriven by digital economy policy dividends, local governments rush to launch homogeneous blockchain industrial parks, traceability chains and financial chains with identical underlying architectures. Most agricultural product traceability and commodity anti-counterfeiting projects only support manual data entry at the source, failing to cover logistics, warehousing and distribution links, so source data fraud remains unaddressed. Manual offline data entry leads to false information being permanently solidified on-chain, creating an absurd scenario of "offline fraud with online authenticity" and greatly diminishing industrial value.

Weak Digital Foundations and Asynchronous Digitalization Across Industrial ChainsBlockchain application pre-supposes full-link online operations and electronic data. A large number of traditional manufacturing and agricultural enterprises still rely on paper documents, requiring secondary manual entry for orders, warehouse receipts and logistics data to be uploaded on-chain. This pushes up operational costs and manual errors. Uneven digitalization of upstream and downstream enterprises results in partial blockchain coverage and incomplete trusted collaboration across the full industrial chain.

(3) Third-layer Dilemma: Lagging Legal Systems and Institutional Conflicts Between Decentralized Architectures and Centralized Supervision (Legal and Supervisory Conflicts)

Blockchain’s decentralized and cross-border technical characteristics, coupled with anonymous accounts, are inherently incompatible with the current territorial, centralized and real-name legal supervision framework. Institutional lag has become a core institutional barrier to compliant implementation.

Ambiguous Legal Definition of On-chain Digital Asset Property RightsCurrent laws fail to clearly define the real right validity of digital copyrights, warehouse receipts and data assets confirmed on-chain, the legal equivalence between smart contracts and written commercial contracts, and the judicial enforceability of automatic on-chain profit distribution clauses. In case of disputes, courts scarcely accept on-chain records as valid evidence, and no civil liability mechanism exists for breaches of smart contracts. Most on-chain data assets cannot be mortgaged or transferred for realization, with right confirmation limited to the technical level without legal safeguards.

Decentralized Architectures Create Supervision Vacuums with Unidentifiable Responsible PartiesTraditional supervision relies on centralized platforms to identify liable entities, while blockchain operates in a distributed manner without a single operational hub. When false information, data fraud or illegal financing occurs, supervisors cannot pinpoint the responsible node. Anonymous on-chain accounts increase traceability difficulties and breed risks such as money laundering, illegal capital circulation and false trade vouchers, creating a supervisory dilemma: on-chain data is visible yet anonymous subjects remain uncontrollable.

Legal Conflicts Between Data Compliance and Public On-chain LedgersThe Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law impose strict restrictions on the collection, storage and disclosure of personal sensitive information and corporate business data. Full replication and permanent storage of ledger data across multiple nodes easily cross compliance red lines regarding excessive data retention and information diffusion. Enterprises struggle to balance multi-party on-chain verification demands with supervisory requirements for minimized data storage and desensitization, stalling progress for most industrial projects.

Lack of Collaborative Governance Mechanisms for Cross-regional and Cross-border BlockchainsAlliance chains usually operate across provinces and national borders, yet current supervision adopts territorial jurisdiction with inconsistent local access standards. Cross-border chains face vast disparities in national laws, foreign exchange controls and digital trade rules, lacking international rule alignment for cross-border data uploading and voucher mutual recognition, which severely restricts the development of cross-border digital trade.

(4) Fourth-layer Dilemma: Absent Closed-loop Business Models and Imbalanced Input-output – Industry Profit Predicament (Market Commercial Conflicts)

Blockchain projects feature high upfront R&D investment and sustained high operational costs alongside ambiguous monetization channels. Most projects cannot achieve commercial self-sufficiency and rely heavily on government subsidies and investment. Once policy dividends fade, projects become unsustainable.

Severe Cost-benefit Imbalance Makes On-chain Adoption Unaffordable for MSMEsThe construction of alliance chains entails high costs for underlying development, node deployment, operational audits and privacy encryption, with limited short-term cost reduction effects and ambiguous return on investment. For low-margin real economy MSMEs, blockchain investment constitutes an incremental cost with low willingness to pay, creating a polarization: large enterprises are willing to pilot while small enterprises refuse to bear expenses, hindering large-scale market adoption.

Missing Incentive Mechanisms Result in Insufficient Sustainable Operational MomentumPublic chains rely on tokens for node incentives, which are prohibited in China; alliance chains adopt traditional service fee models without long-term benefit distribution mechanisms. Nodes bear operational costs without sustained returns, leading to fading participation enthusiasm. On-chain businesses depend on administrative orders or mandatory promotion by large enterprises rather than market-driven autonomous operations, resulting in an unsustainable commercial ecosystem.

Speculative Capital Crowds Out Industrial Capital and Exacerbates Financing Difficulties for Industrial ProjectsThe blockchain industry has long been linked to virtual currency speculation, attracting massive capital to virtual asset tracks while industrial real economy projects lack equity investment. Tightening financial supervision makes banks and industrial funds cautious about blockchain projects, narrowing financing channels and restricting large-scale implementation.

(5) Fifth-layer Dilemma: Inadequate Infrastructure and Severe Shortage of Interdisciplinary Talents (Basic Support Conflicts)

Uncoordinated Underlying Infrastructure with Redundant Construction and Inadequate Public ServicesChina hosts numerous fragmented underlying blockchain platforms with insufficient independent R&D of open-source core technologies and over-reliance on foreign open-source codes, creating risks to technological autonomy. Decentralized industrial chain construction scatters resources with low utilization efficiency. Supporting service systems including on-chain security audits, code detection and judicial appraisal remain imperfect, resulting in incomplete industrial chains.

Massive Shortage of Interdisciplinary Compound TalentsBlockchain professionals require integrated expertise in cryptography, distributed technology, commercial law, supply chain management and data compliance, rather than mere software development skills. Current university disciplines lag behind industrial demands, focusing solely on computer technology training without interdisciplinary cultivation systems integrating technology, industry, law and risk control. The mismatch between technical talents lacking industrial knowledge and industrial practitioners unfamiliar with blockchain mechanisms pushes up project trial-and-error costs and delays launch schedules.

IV. Systematic Optimization Strategies for High-quality Development of Blockchain Under New Forms of the Digital Economy

Targeting the five layers of dilemmas across technology, industry, law, business and talent, this paper constructs a five-in-one optimization system: hierarchical technological iteration, categorized industrial deployment, graded institutional governance, phased commercial closure and all-round talent cultivation. It firmly adheres to the core principle of empowering the real economy and developing the data factor industry, eliminates speculative financial attributes, and returns blockchain to its technical essence.

(1) Technical Optimization: Build a Three-dimensional Technical System Featuring Hierarchical Architecture, Capacity Expansion and Privacy Protection to Break the Impossible Triangle

We adhere to a hierarchical technical strategy: alliance chains as the main body, private chains for internal business and public chains for technical pilots, balancing security, efficiency and openness to adapt to industrial scenarios.

Hierarchical Network Deployment for Differentiated Balancing of Performance and TrustFirst, open alliance chain architectures are prioritized for real economy industrial applications. Core industrial enterprises, financial institutions and regulatory authorities are selected as consensus nodes to boost TPS and meet high-concurrency demands under multi-party co-governance.Second, private chains are deployed for internal corporate business to store internal process evidence without public ledger disclosure, balancing efficiency and data confidentiality.Third, public chains are strictly limited to scientific research and open-source experiments, prohibiting public token issuance and asset trading.

Layer-2 Expansion and Cross-chain Technology to Resolve Performance and Value Silo IssuesMain chains undertake core right confirmation and bookkeeping, while high-frequency transactions are processed by side chains, with final results synchronized to main chains. This achieves a ten-thousand-fold increase in concurrency without altering main chain consensus mechanisms. Standardized cross-chain protocols are popularized based on the BSN to unify data interfaces and ledger formats, realize cross-chain data mutual recognition and asset interconnection, eliminate value silos and avoid redundant underlying construction. Security audits of cross-chain bridges are standardized to mitigate risks of multi-chain interaction.

Deep Integration of Privacy Computing and Ledger Technology to Balance Verification Transparency and Commercial ConfidentialityDeploy zero-knowledge proof, federated computing and data desensitization technologies to realize "available yet invisible data". Sensitive commercial and personal data are encrypted before on-chain uploading, with only verification credentials retained on-chain and raw data stored locally. A dual mechanism of "on-chain credentials + offline raw data" is established to ensure multi-party verifiability while protecting commercial secrets and personal information, resolving conflicts between public ledgers and data compliance.

Full-process Security Management Mechanism for Smart ContractsImprove the pre-launch third-party formal security audit system, embedding business rules and legal provisions into codes to reduce logical vulnerabilities. A dual mechanism of "main contracts + alternative negotiation clauses" is designed to reserve manual arbitration channels for unforeseen market and policy changes, avoiding operational risks arising from rigid codes. A filing and evidence storage system synchronized with judicial platforms is established to support evidence collection for disputes.

(2) Industrial Optimization: Promote Blockchain Transition from Shallow Evidence Storage to Full-chain Value Circulation for In-depth Scenario Implementation

Abandon the mindset of blind chain construction, adhere to the principle of business-first, data-first and industrial digitalization-first, build online industrial closed loops before targeted blockchain deployment, and eliminate idle empty chains without real business support.

Categorized Scenario Management to Eliminate Superficial Applications by Focusing on Six High-value TracksConcentrate resources on high-value scenarios that generate incremental value: circulation of multi-level goods rights and accounts receivable in supply chains, registration and traceability of data assets, intellectual property confirmation and automatic profit sharing in digital cultural innovation, full-chain traceability of carbon assets and green industry vouchers, cross-departmental government data sharing and certificate mutual recognition, and credible verification of cross-border trade vouchers. Policy subsidies are canceled for pure evidence storage projects without asset transaction or profit distribution functions to drive industrial upgrading from on-chain traceability to value uploading.

Standardize Multi-party Rights, Obligations and Data Sharing Rules to Resolve Operational Difficulties of Alliance ChainsMulti-party co-governance agreements are signed prior to alliance chain construction to clarify three core rules: data access rules that classify public, desensitized and confidential data with hierarchical ledger access permissions; rights and obligations rules that distinguish core, ordinary and observation nodes and define liability clauses for data fraud; profit distribution rules that formulate allocation schemes for on-chain service fees, financing income and data usage revenue to mobilize multi-party participation via market benefits.

Consolidate Authenticity of Offline Source Data to Block Loopholes of Offline Fraud Solidified On-chainBlockchain only guarantees tamper resistance after data uploading, not the authenticity of source data. IoT devices, RFID tags, warehouse sensors and logistics terminals are connected to blockchains to realize automatic collection and uploading of cargo weight, location and circulation data and reduce manual entry. A three-dimensional source authenticity guarantee system is built: automatic IoT collection + third-party on-site notarization + on-chain evidence storage to eliminate false voucher uploading at the source.

Gradually Promote Full Industrial Chain Digitalization to Remedy Digital Deficiencies of MSMEsLed by leading industrial enterprises, lightweight SaaS digital tools are provided for upstream and downstream small and medium-sized merchants, with unified electronic standards for orders, warehouse receipts and logistics documents to realize full-chain online operations. Phased on-chain docking is completed after automatic circulation of upstream and downstream data to avoid disconnection caused by asymmetric digitalization.

(3) Institutional Optimization: Build a Collaborative Governance System of Legal Safeguards, On-chain Traceability and Sandbox Supervision to Resolve Institutional Conflicts

Adhere to blockchain governance under the rule of law, fill legal and regulatory gaps, and achieve balanced development with innovation space, risk red lines and traceable rights and obligations.

Improve Civil Legal Validity of On-chain Digital Property Rights and Smart ContractsPromote judicial interpretations to clarify that ledger records fixed by judicial evidence storage platforms hold legal electronic evidence validity; compliant smart contracts are equivalent to written electronic contracts with enforceable automatic performance clauses; vouchers confirmed on-chain can serve as valid property rights for asset pledge and transfer. Define the property attributes of digital data assets and online warehouse receipts to complete the alignment between technical confirmation and judicial confirmation, enabling real circulation and realization of on-chain assets.

Innovate Penetrating On-chain Supervision to Eliminate Decentralized Supervision VacuumsTransform the traditional ex-post supervision model by granting regulatory bodies read-only node access to alliance chains for real-time full-data monitoring, realizing early warning, in-process supervision and post-event traceability. Real-name penetration verification is supported for anonymous on-chain accounts to identify actual controllers, realizing "anonymous on-chain transactions with real-name background filing" to balance commercial privacy with anti-money laundering and anti-fraud risk control needs. Business chains and supervision chains are separated to achieve controllable technology and standardized behaviors.

Refine Blockchain Data Compliance Rules to Balance Ledger Transparency and Information ProtectionFormulate special blockchain data storage guidelines based on the Personal Information Protection Law, establishing hierarchical ledger retention mechanisms that only store encrypted verification credentials without full uploading of raw data. Restrict the scope of node data replication to avoid excessive information diffusion. Data minimization and authorized access mechanisms are implemented for government alliance chains to prevent public disclosure of sensitive government data and ensure full compliance of on-chain businesses.

Promote Sandbox Supervision and Implement Categorized Differential ManagementA dual-track management system is adopted for blockchain projects: real economy industrial projects such as supply chain traceability, data confirmation and government collaboration are included in innovative sandboxes with simplified approval and fault tolerance mechanisms to encourage technological innovation; strict financial supervision policies are enforced for virtual assets and decentralized finance to prohibit token issuance and illegal fundraising. Cross-regional supervision coordination mechanisms are established to unify alliance chain supervision standards and prevent regulatory arbitrage.

(4) Commercial Optimization: Build Lightweight Paid Mechanisms and Sustainable Closed-loop Business Models to Eliminate Subsidy Dependence

Reduce Enterprise On-chain Costs via Public InfrastructurePopularize public blockchain service networks such as BSN, develop lightweight one-click on-chain tools, and package underlying nodes, consensus services and evidence storage into standardized cloud services with pay-as-you-go billing, replacing heavy-asset self-built node models. Convert one-time upfront investment into on-demand service fees to drastically lower entry thresholds for MSMEs.

Design Diversified Monetization Paths to Achieve Phased Self-sufficiencyStage 1: Monetize basic services including low-cost electronic evidence storage, voucher verification and copyright registration to cover operational costs.Stage 2: Monetize value-added services by conducting supply chain credit evaluation, accounts receivable pledge registration and trade financing matching based on credible on-chain data, charging credit service fees from financial institutions to convert on-chain credit into financial benefits.Stage 3: Monetize data factors by developing compliant desensitized industrial data products and launching data trading services to tap long-term data value.Gradually break reliance on fiscal subsidies and form a complete profit chain: evidence storage services → credit services → data asset services.

Standardize Industrial Capital Investment and Guide Capital to Real Economy ProjectsIndustry associations purify market public opinion to eliminate the speculative label of blockchain, guiding venture capital to focus on industrial digitalization tracks. Leading enterprises and industrial funds are encouraged to invest in supply chain, data factor and intellectual property blockchain projects; financial institutions only provide credit support for real economy blockchain projects, cutting off capital sources for speculative projects and driving industrial capital to shift away from virtual speculation toward empowering the real economy.

(5) Basic Support Optimization: Improve Underlying Infrastructure and Cultivate Interdisciplinary Compound Talents

Build an Independent and Controllable Underlying Blockchain Technology SystemIncrease national investment in the R&D of open-source underlying blockchains, make breakthroughs in core technologies including consensus algorithms, cross-chain interaction and privacy encryption to reduce reliance on foreign technology and safeguard technological autonomy. Integrate regional industrial chain layouts to avoid redundant construction of underlying main chains, build national core industrial alliance chains and improve infrastructure utilization efficiency. Perfect supporting service systems including on-chain security audits, code detection and judicial appraisal to complete industrial chains.

Innovate Interdisciplinary Talent Training Modes to Resolve Talent ShortagesUniversities establish interdisciplinary majors integrating distributed technology, commercial law, supply chain operation and data compliance under the framework of "blockchain + industry". Industry associations cooperate with leading enterprises to build training bases for compound talents proficient in both code development and industrial risk control. Popularization training is delivered to enterprise managers to correct cognitive misunderstandings such as equating blockchain with token issuance, improving rational industrial application capacity.

V. Conclusions and Prospects

The essence of new forms of the digital economy lies in digitalized trust, digitalized assets and automated transactions, and blockchain serves as the core trust infrastructure supporting this transformation. The slow large-scale rollout of blockchain is superficially caused by insufficient technical performance, yet fundamentally stems from mismatches between technical architectures and industrial demands, incompatibility between decentralized technology and centralized legal supervision systems, and disconnection between project construction and commercial operations. Iterative optimization of algorithms alone cannot resolve industrial dilemmas; coordinated progress across technological upgrading, industrial implementation, legal governance, business models and talent cultivation is mandatory.

The systematic strategies proposed in this paper, covering hierarchical technical architectures, categorized industrial deployment, graded sandbox supervision and phased commercial closure, are grounded in China’s digital economy realities. They balance technological innovation in real economy scenarios with financial risk control, avoiding both over-restrictive conservative regulation and unregulated disorderly development. With the maturation of Layer-2 expansion, cross-chain interconnection and privacy computing technologies, alongside advances in the market-oriented reform of data factors, blockchain will break free from superficial evidence storage applications, deeply embed supply chain finance, digital property trading, government data sharing and carbon asset management, continuously cut trust costs for digital commerce, activate the value of data factors, and evolve from a conceptual technology into a solid foundation for fostering new quality productive forces and advancing high-quality development of the digital economy.

Future research can focus on two directions: first, quantitative model design for long-term incentive mechanisms of alliance chains; second, construction of international coordination rules for cross-border digital trade blockchain supervision, to continuously refine the institutional and technical system of decentralized digital commerce.