- PART 1 -
Introduction
The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the start of 2020 has impacted us all, bringing much of society to a standstill.
For many founders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this crisis has stirred feelings of fear, anxiety, and helplessness. Some entrepreneurs even fear that bankruptcy may be just a month or two away.
Yet, as the old saying goes, "Within every crisis lies opportunity." The greater the challenge, the greater the potential for innovation.
In 2003, SARS accelerated the shift from brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing centralized offices toward distributed, collaborative work models.
Remote collaboration, open-source governance, token-based incentives, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and distributed workplaces—these blockchain-powered values and frameworks are creating new opportunities for businesses.
In this special series, 13 experts from the Blockchain Industry Talent Think Tank will deliver online talks, sharing insights and practical advice to help SMEs and organizations navigate the current crisis. We're offering 13 free live courses!
This series is guided by the Blockchain Industry Talent Research Institute of the MIIT Talent Exchange Center and co-organized by the Blockchain Industry Talent Think Tank, Huoxun Finance, and Chainren International.
The Blockchain Industry Talent Think Tank was jointly established by the MIIT Talent Exchange Center's Blockchain Industry Talent Research Institute, Chainren International, Tsinghua University x-lab, Securities Daily, the Fujian Provincial Blockchain Association, Huoxun Finance, and other industry institutions. Its goal is to foster collaboration across sectors and build an open ecosystem integrating government, industry, academia, and research for blockchain development.
On the evening of February 10, Zhang Xiaojun, Project Director of Huawei’s Blockchain Team, joined Huoxun TALK. Below is a transcript of our conversation.
- PART 2 -
Key Highlights
Zhang Xiaojun, Project Director of Huawei’s Blockchain Team:
· Huawei is working with government agencies and hospitals to use blockchain technology to bring transparency to public welfare fundraising. The goal is to create a "Public Welfare Fundraising Blockchain" where information flow is controllable, manageable, and traceable.
· Nodes will be deployed at key entities like government bodies, hospitals, and charities. Digital tokens will enable end-to-end tracking, ensuring every transaction is clear and transparent.
· Beyond transparent fundraising, blockchain can also enable secure and interoperable sharing of medical information.
· This pandemic, I believe, will accelerate the adoption of distributed systems as a mainstream direction, further speeding up blockchain's industrialization.
- PART 3 -
Interview Transcript
Host Zhao Yidan, Editor-in-Chief of Huoxun Finance: Good evening, everyone! Welcome to this special Huoxun TALK series hosted by the Blockchain Industry Talent Think Tank. Our theme is "How Can Blockchain Empower Business and Organizational Innovation During the Pandemic?"
Our first guest is Zhang Xiaojun, Project Director of Huawei’s Blockchain Team. His topic is "Blockchain in Healthcare and Philanthropy." Welcome, Mr. Zhang!
Zhang Xiaojun: Hello, everyone. I'm Zhang Xiaojun from Huawei. It's a pleasure to discuss blockchain with you at the start of the new year. As we all know, the global COVID-19 outbreak has placed immense strain on healthcare systems and charitable efforts. Today, let's explore how blockchain can support China's fight against the virus—a technology that many of us are already familiar with.
01
Blockchain Enables Transparent Fundraising and Medical Information Sharing
Zhang Xiaojun: Before we discuss how blockchain can help combat the novel coronavirus (NCP), let's first clarify what the technology can do. Its core value today lies in providing data traceability and tamper-resistance within decentralized, multi-node systems. This makes blockchain particularly valuable for enabling rapid medical information sharing, ensuring transparency, and facilitating the rational allocation of medical supplies.
This outbreak has highlighted several critical needs:
1. Information Coordination: Effective epidemic response requires robust information systems. We need vertical coordination across the public health system and horizontal coordination between hospitals, primary care centers, and specialized facilities to build an integrated model for prevention, monitoring, and intervention.
2. Transparent Donations: Monetary and in-kind donations often pass through multiple channels. Any delay or confusion in reporting creates transparency issues. A clear, transparent flow of information is essential for the stable and rapid deployment of epidemic response resources.
3. Integrated Technology Solutions: This outbreak shows the need for cross-technology collaboration. Blockchain ensures the reliability of intermediate data, IoT handles front-end collection, and big data/AI powers back-end analysis. Together, they form a holistic solution that significantly improves information processing efficiency.
4. Broader Data Sharing: To enable faster collaboration and emergency response—and ultimately curb the epidemic—public health agencies must share data with other entities like community management, public security, and transportation departments.
Initially, the focus was understandably on patient treatment. As major hospitals resume full operations, technology will play an increasingly important role in accelerating diagnosis and epidemic control.
Huawei is currently working with government departments and hospitals to leverage blockchain for greater transparency in public welfare fundraising. We aim to establish a "Public Welfare Donation Chain" where information flows remain controllable, manageable, and auditable. Key entities—including government departments, hospitals, and charities—would serve as nodes. Digital tokens would enable end-to-end tracking, ensuring complete clarity for every transaction.
Beyond donation transparency, blockchain can also streamline medical information sharing. I propose piloting a public health alliance chain involving hospitals, government departments, banks, and insurers. For instance, hospital information systems (HIS) could be integrated on-chain: electronic medical records (EMRs) would be generated and recorded immutably. Authorized parties could then share HIS data, with responsible personnel providing digital signatures. This would support cross-hospital patient visits, synchronized records, and real-time insurance reimbursement tracking. This approach guarantees EMR authenticity and trust during sharing. Patients could also conveniently access their complete medical history and sharing status via mobile devices. It elevates hospital capabilities in informatization, digitization, and cloud integration, moving beyond individual institutions to enable collaborative prevention and treatment.
Zhang Xiaojun: Blockchain deployment is accelerating. Focusing on the use cases above, we are rapidly rolling out services to support transparent epidemic information, traceable donations (funds and goods), and secure patient data sharing. 5G base stations are already deployed in hospitals. We are actively offering Huawei Cloud service platforms—including the Medical Imaging Platform, Genomics Platform, Drug R&D Platform, and WeLink remote collaboration system—as well as our comprehensive "Epidemic Prevention Big Data + IOC" solution. That covers the main points.
We are confident the epidemic will soon pass, and we hope to join hands with industry partners to support our nation in winning this battle.
Zhao Yidan: Yes—we will certainly prevail.
Zhang Xiaojun: This epidemic has underscored the potential of distributed systems as a forward path—accelerating the pace of blockchain adoption in industry.
02
Technically, Deploying Blockchain in Healthcare and Charity Faces No Major Hurdles
Li Hui, China Business News: Thank you, Mr. Zhang. My question is: What is the biggest obstacle to implementing blockchain in healthcare and charity today? And do you have a timeframe for widespread adoption?
Zhang Xiaojun: From a purely technical standpoint, deploying blockchain in these areas isn't difficult. The challenges are operational and relate to the willingness to share data. Currently, the data-sharing barrier is relatively easy to overcome if we choose the right operational partner. We expect rapid deployment. We've assessed our proposed solutions, and overall complexity is low. Is that clear? Thank you.
Li Hui, China Business News: Understood, thank you! When using blockchain as the underlying technology, are there any requirements regarding the scale or efficiency of fundraising?
Zhang Xiaojun: Based on consortium blockchain performance metrics, current specifications fully meet efficiency requirements. In commercial environments, throughput exceeding 3,000 TPS is readily achievable.
Zhao Yidan: Thank you for your question. If anyone else has questions for Mr. Zhang, please add him on WeChat to ask directly—or send them to me, and I'll consolidate and forward them.
