Author: Monte Carlo
On April 20, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) officially defined the scope of "New Infrastructure" for the first time, and blockchain was included as a key component. This move came as a surprise to many in the industry.
The official policy outlines three main categories:
"New Infrastructure" consists of: (1) Information Infrastructure—including communication networks like 5G, IoT, industrial internet, and satellite internet; technology infrastructure such as AI, cloud computing, and blockchain; and computing-power infrastructure like data centers and intelligent computing centers; (2) Integrated Infrastructure; and (3) Innovative Infrastructure.
Currently, the blockchain industry faces significant challenges in real-world adoption. Despite extensive efforts—particularly in areas like DApps—tangible results have been limited. As a result, fundamental questions persist: "What is blockchain, really?", "Can it be practically implemented?", and "Does it deliver real value?"
Viewing blockchain through the lens of "New Infrastructure" provides a useful framework. It helps address key questions like why blockchain adoption is difficult in the short term and what its actual utility is.
1. Blockchain is public infrastructure.
Traditional infrastructure includes railways, highways, and airports. "New Infrastructure" shares many similarities. Take highways, for example: there's a well-known saying, "To get rich, build roads first," highlighting the critical role of transportation networks. Once a road is built, it connects a village to the outside world, opening up new opportunities. Thus, roads are a fundamental prerequisite for development—they are vital infrastructure.
Similarly, blockchain is foundational infrastructure. Like the internet, it serves as an underlying technological layer upon which diverse ecosystems can be built, offering significant convenience to users. A core feature of blockchain is globally verifiable data: because it is open to the entire network, data placed on-chain effectively opens a "village" to the wider world.
The state's classification of blockchain as part of "New Infrastructure" is apt. Like railways, highways, and airports, blockchain is critically important. However, infrastructure projects are inherently difficult to build—they require long development cycles, offer unclear economic returns, and often face extended periods of losses in their early stages. This explains why blockchain has struggled to achieve widespread adoption.
2. This infrastructure is accessible to everyone—at low or even zero cost.
Highways are physical: unless they are toll roads, most are free and open for public use.
Blockchain exhibits similar openness. Public blockchains are accessible to anyone—no identity verification or arbitrary restrictions are required, ensuring equal participation opportunities.
Roads are a social welfare service: in most regions, their planning, construction, and maintenance are state-funded, allowing citizens to use them free of charge. Although ultimately financed through taxation, this arrangement avoids direct financial burdens on residents, especially in poorer areas.
Blockchain differs in one key respect: most blockchains are not state-built but emerge from decentralized communities. Yet, like roads, they impose no entry barriers. Some proof-of-work (PoW) public blockchains require modest transaction fees, but these are typically very low and often negligible.
3. Infrastructure is difficult to build—it demands significant effort.
Building a highway is a massive undertaking, requiring substantial human and material resources. Historically, with limited mechanization, many villages still lack proper roads today. Yet once completed, a highway is a long-term asset—designed for decades of use and intergenerational benefit.
Blockchain follows a similar principle—particularly PoW-based public blockchains, which are exceptionally difficult to develop. They require vast computational power for security, broad ecosystem support to sustain their economic systems, and a delicate balance across multiple niches to ensure long-term viability. Yet once established, a public blockchain can operate indefinitely.
4. Maintaining infrastructure is equally challenging.
Once built, a highway typically serves a village for years or even decades. Only significant socioeconomic changes—like rising incomes and increased car ownership—might necessitate widening or reconstruction, often many years later.
Road renovation is complex: it requires lane closures, massive labor, and materials. The effort can rival building a new highway altogether.
Similarly, blockchain functions as a foundational data-interaction protocol. Protocols define basic interaction rules and, once finalized, rarely change. Even modifications can take decades, akin to the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
Modifying governance rules on a decentralized blockchain is extraordinarily difficult: it requires community consensus, yet stakeholders often have divergent interests, leading to protracted debates. Sometimes, changing a blockchain's rules is harder than launching a new chain.
5. Infrastructure delivers clear, tangible improvements to daily life.
Before highways, villagers relied on muddy footpaths. Today, even if those paths still exist, people naturally prefer highways—especially for longer distances—avoiding mud-stained clothes or vehicles stuck in the muck.
Similarly, before blockchain, many business processes operated online and functioned reasonably well. But blockchain transforms production factors by placing them on-chain: where legal title once required formal registration, on-chain recording now suffices; where physical queues were necessary, digital processing replaces them; where cross-departmental settlement demanded manual coordination, seamless data exchange and cross-chain interoperability enable near-instant resolution. Ultimately, most operations can be conducted on-chain—eliminating the need for tedious "running around."
6. Infrastructure's deeper significance lies in connecting us to the outside world.
When a village gains road access, the immediate convenience is clear—but the greater value lies in linking it to the broader national highway network, integrating it with the outside world. What truly matters isn't just the road itself, but the expansive network it connects to.
Similarly, public blockchains—like highways—hold intrinsic value and provide essential services to on-chain ecosystems. Their deeper significance lies in enabling cross-chain data interaction: accessing functionalities and entering ecosystems hosted on other chains. In professional terms, "cross-chain interoperability may be as consequential as public blockchains themselves."
7. Infrastructure has hierarchical distinctions—primary vs. secondary.
In ordinary small cities, there's typically only one main arterial road. Unless absolutely necessary, no one builds redundant ones. Even in prosperous cities with numerous roads, hierarchy persists: only one true "main road" carries the highest traffic volume.
Blockchain operates similarly: within any given domain, industry, or functional category, only one PoW-based public blockchain tends to achieve dominance. Such chains demand massive energy inputs and extensive ecosystem support, and they exhibit strong network effects, reinforcing a "winner-takes-most" dynamic. Thus, even when multiple competing public blockchains exist, one will inevitably dominate in terms of traffic and usage.
8. Infrastructure upgrades generally require corresponding "transportation vehicle" upgrades.
A highway can certainly accommodate bicycles—riding on one is much faster than navigating a muddy trail. However, highways are designed for cars, which gain the most significant speed advantage. Sticking to bicycles, or even pedestrians, on a highway means you're not leveraging its full potential.
The same logic applies to blockchain. While you can store any data on-chain and benefit from its transparency, immutability, and verifiability, using blockchain comes at a cost. It's best suited for high-value data—information representing significant assets, requiring strong trust guarantees, or needing to interact with external systems. In essence, what runs most efficiently on a public blockchain is a "car," not a "bicycle."
The implications of China's "New Infrastructure" initiative are far broader, but viewing blockchain through an infrastructure lens remains a powerful perspective.