China’s Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN) is split into two, the Chinese version only supports permissioned or enterprise blockchains, and the international network also includes public blockchains. Today the BSN announced that Cosmos, the interoperability focused public blockchain technology, has been adapted to run on the Chinese network.
The work to create an Open Permissioned Blockchain (OPB) was done by Bianjie, the company behind Chinese public blockchain IrisNet, which is a participant in the International BSN. The company also developed the enterprise blockchain version IRITA.
Two of the BSN’s key aims are to enable low-cost adoption of blockchain technologies for SMEs and individuals and enable interoperability between separate private blockchains.
This permissioned version of Cosmos on BSN is referred to as WenChang Chain after the city in Hainan province.
“BSN’s OPB initiative is a major milestone for China’s blockchain development. China had been longing to embrace public chain technologies for years but there wasn’t an effective way to do so because the regulators are not a fan of cryptocurrency,” said Yifan He, Executive Director of BSN and CEO of Red Date Technology.
He’s hoping other public blockchains will adapt and join in 2021.
Yifan He continued, “We are working hard on interoperability across all blockchain ecosystems. BSN’s OPBs will interoperate with traditional permissioned frameworks within the BSN ecosystem and other OPBs outside the system.”
Cosmos is known for its Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC), which is due to go live on the main public network this month. While it was initially designed to enable tokens to be exchanged between separate blockchains within the Cosmos network, it has since been broadened to include the transfer of data.
Meanwhile, BSN also has a deal with Digital Asset, which has developed a new interoperability protocol DAML Canton, that sits beneath the DAML smart contract language. The aim is to enable workflows across a diverse range of blockchains. The main DAML language works across numerous enterprise blockchains and databases.
In other news, BSN recently announced it will support the Quorum enterprise blockchain, adding to the two currently live ones, China’s FISCO-BCOS and Hyperledger Fabric, and several others already planned. The BSN also laid out a five-year plan to create a universal digital payment network (UDPN) to support multiple countries’ central bank digital currencies.
