双语解读丨区块链：概念、应用及中国法

Undeniably, “blockchain” is such a buzzword that almost everyone heard of and that almost every business claimed to have something to do with it. Sadly, though mostly talked, “blockchain” is least understood. Most people do not understand what blockchain stands for, let alone how it works, and some alleged “applications” of blockchain turn out to be brazen fraud. Make no mistake, blockchain is a genuine and legitimate technology that can change our life, yet it is too complicated for the authors to thoroughly explain the complex algorithms and mechanisms that back up blockchain in this Article. For us legal and business professionals, however, it is necessary to have a general idea of what blockchain is, how it works, and how it is regulated.

当下，区块链毫无疑问是一个热门词汇，几乎每一个人都听说过，且每个公司都声称与之有关。遗憾的是，虽然人人都听说过，但很少有人真正懂区块链。绝大部分人其实并不知道区块链是什么，更遑论区块链的原理，甚至有些“攀附”区块链的“应用”则被证明是赤裸裸的骗局。但请不要误会，区块链是一种能够改变我们生活的真实技术，但其又过于复杂，以至于作者在本文中绝无可能将区块链技术所基于的算法及运作机制解释清楚。不过幸运的是，对于商业及法律专业人士而言，能够了解区块链的概念、原理及相关法律规则，就已足够。

What is blockchain? The simplest definition of blockchain is that it is a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that is distributed across millions of computers (each a “node”). However, in contrast to the ordinary storage of a ledger, a blockchain ledger is stored on several thousand computers connected to a common network via the Internet. Each such computer contains a complete and identical history of every transaction beginning with the first transactions that were processed into the first “block” on that blockchain[1]. Moreover, the concept of “block” may be abstract and intimidating, but such “blocks” are really nothing more than a convenient way to aggregate transactions into larger batches for processing purposes.

区块链是什么？其最简单的定义是，一个分布于数以百万计的计算机（每一个计算机称为一个“节点”）中的去中心化的电子账本。与传统的账本不同的是，区块链“账本”存在于通过互联网相连接的成千上万的电脑中。每一台这样的电脑都存储有完整且完全相同的，记录着从第一笔交易被计入第一个“区块”开始的所有交易记录[注1]。“区块”这一概念虽然听起来十分抽象，但简而言之，只是一种将多笔交易合并成为一个便于处理的批量交易的简称。

Blockchain is by no means a new thing, although at its inception it was not called the “blockchain”, or rather, the “chain of blocks”. The first work on a cryptographically secured chain of blocks was described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta.[2] They wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. In 1992, Bayer, Haber and Stornetta incorporated Merkle trees to the design, which improved its efficiency by allowing several document certificates to be collected into one block. Blockchain was first conceptualized by a person (or a group of people) known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 in his whitepaper about Bitcoin, although Nakamoto did not actually mention the word “blockchain” in the whitepaper. Nakamoto improved the design in an important way using a Hashcash-like method to add blocks to the chain without requiring them to be signed by a trusted party.

区块链技术并不是一项新生事物，尽管在其诞生之时并没有被称为“区块链”，而是叫做“区块之链”。有关加密区块链的研究成果最早由Stuart Haber及W. Scott Stornetta[注2]于1991年发表。他们的初衷是为了创造一个文件时间戳无法被篡改的系统。Bayer，Haber及Stornetta于1992年将默克尔树（Merkle Tree）整合到区块链的设计之中，通过将多个文件证书集合到一个区块中，提升了区块链的效率。目前意义的“区块链”的概念最早由一位叫中本聪（也可能是以此为代称的组织）在其2008年发表的有关比特币的白皮书中提出，尽管中本聪当时并没有明确提及“区块链”这一词。通过使用哈希函数的模式来增加“链条”上的“区块”，从而去除对可信第三方的依赖，中本聪极大地改进了区块链的设计。

How does blockchain work? The technical aspects of the way blockchain works is far too complicated for people without technical background to understand. It is possible, however, to understand how blockchain works without understanding the technical nitty gritty, by comparing a transaction done via blockchain to a transaction done via checks.

区块链是如何工作的？区块链的技术原理对于没有技术背景的人而言十分艰涩难懂，但我们并不需要了解艰涩的技术术语理，而是可以将区块链交易类比为通过支票进行的交易，来帮助我们理解区块链的工作原理。

Since the most fundamental use of blockchain is to track transfer of virtual currency (such as Bitcoin), let us expand the “ledger” notion mentioned above, and think of a ledger that records the transfer of Bitcoin from the transferor to the transferee. Let us imagine that you need to pay one dollar to your friend, Tom. In the real world (a centralized world), if you pay by check, you and Tom basically have to go through the following steps: 1) write a check; 2) sign the check; 3) Tom receives the check and has the check verified at a financial institute; 4) the financial institute clears the check and Tom receives the money. A blockchain transaction goes through a similar and comparable process. In order to transfer a Bitcoin to Tom, the following steps are necessary: first, you will have to generate the computer code that is necessary to provide all of the information for the transaction (this is analogical to writing a check); second, you will have to input a private key that corresponds to the public address on the blockchain (signing the check); third, you will have to broadcast the transaction so it can be received by the nodes running the blockchain protocol and these nodes can continue to propagate the transaction through out the entire network of nodes (verifying the check); and last, miners bundle up transactions into blocks of aggregated transactions and append each block to the previous block, ensuring all of the nodes have a current immutable history of all transactions on the blockchain (clearing the check). The process may seem far more complicated and lengthier compared to an ordinary transaction, however the entire process can be completed within a second. From such illustration of a blockchain transaction, we can see that blockchain works without a centralized trusted party (the financial institute in the real-world example) to authenticate the transaction, and therefore puts our trust into mathematics and computing, which are much less prone to errors. This is indeed the underlying notion of all blockchain applications mentioned below.

由于区块链的最基本的应用就是记录虚拟货币（例如比特币）的流转，我们进一步延伸上文提出的“账本”概念，并可以将其想象成一个记录比特币流转的电子账本。试想一下，如果你需要向你的朋友支付一元，在真实世界（中心化的世界）中，如果你通过支票来完成支付，难么你和你的朋友需要进行以下流程：1）在支票中填入交易相关信息；2）在支票上签名；3）你的朋友收到支票后，将支票在金融机构进行验证；4）金融机构承兑该支票，你的朋友收到钱。而通过供应链完成的支付需要的流程基本相同：首先，你需要编写一段载有所有交易信息的计算机代码（这可类比于在支票上填写交易信息）；其次，你需要在交易中插入一个能够对应到区块链中一个公开地址的密钥（在支票上签名）；再次，你需要向网络中运行该区块链协议的所有节点公告该交易信息，此后这些节点会同时在整个网络中传播该交易信息（验证支票）；最后，“矿工”会将交易批量打包成区块并将该区块与前一区块相连接，从而确保整个区块链中都有一份相同、完整且不可被篡改的交易记录（支票清算）。虽然上述交易过程看似远比真实世界中的交易要复杂和冗长，但实际上上述全过程可在一秒钟之内全部完成。通过上述对区块链交易的介绍，我们可以看到区块链交易中并不需要借助具有公信力的中央机构（例如真实世界中的银行）来验证该等交易，而是将基于对几乎不会犯错的计算机和算法的信任。这也是下文所述的所有区块链技术应用的基础。

According to a blockchain whitepaper published by the PRC Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in May 2018, there are currently 456 companies registered in China with blockchain related business as their primary business[3], which is more than a tenfold increase from 2015. Furthermore, the applications of blockchain technology have expanded from the financial sector to a variety of industries, covering logistics and supply chain management, IP right protection, electronic evidence deposition, to name just a few.

根据工业与信息产业部（“工信部”）于2018年5月发布的区块链产业白皮书，目前中国共有456家以区块链业务为其主营业务的公司[注3]，相比2015年的数字增长了十倍之多。此外，区块链的应用场景也从金融业扩展到了其他众多领域，包括但不限于物流和供应链管理，知识产权保护，电子证据存证等。

China has taken a leading role in utilizing blockchain in financial sector. For example, in asset management, traditionally each party in the process (such as broker, custodian, or the settlement manager) keeps their own records. The use of blockchain can improve efficiencies and decrease errors: the blockchain ledger reduces errors by encrypting the records; moreover, the blockchain ledger simplifies the process by removing intermediaries. In the payments industry, the traditional payment process is error-prone, costly, and open to money laundry. Blockchain solves the above problems, and is already providing solutions with remittance companies such as Alipay that offer end-to-end blockchain powered remittance services.

中国在金融领域对区块链的应用处于世界领先位置。例如，在资产管理产业中，传统业务中的各方（例如经纪人、存管人、结算方）都各自保存着相关交易记录。而区块链的应用可以提高效率并降低错误率；通过对交易记录进行加密，区块链“账本”极大降低了错误率；此外，区块链“账本”使得金融中介方的存在不再必要。在支付领域，传统的支付流程易于出错，成本高昂，且易于被利用作为洗钱等犯罪行为的手段。而区块链则可以很好地解决该等问题。支付宝等电子支付公司已经开始利用区块链技术提供全流程的汇款服务。

Among all industries, logistics is most likely to be transformed by blockchain because the blockchain technology can satisfy its core requirements for traceability and efficiency. Walmart, JD, IBM and Tsinghua University have already formed the Food Safety Alliance to develop blockchain applications for logistics. Take food supply chain as an example, traditional food supply chain has complex and fragmented data sharing systems that are often paper-based and error-prone. Blockchain technology has been applied to supply chain management so that data generated all along the supply chain can be stored and preserved in blockchain. As a result, the authenticity and place of origin of products can be traced in seconds.

在所有的行业中，物流行业是最有可能被区块链所彻底改变的，因为区块链可以很好地满足该行业对溯源性及效率的要求。沃尔玛、京东、IBM以及清华大学已经成立了一个食品安全联盟来开发区块链在物流行业中的应用。以食品供应链为例，传统的食品供应链的信息共享机制十分复杂且分散，且通常是基于纸质书面记录，十分容易出错。目前区块链技术已经被应用到了食品供应链管理中，从而整体供应链中所产生的任何记录都能被记录在区块链中。如此，食品的真实性及原产地等信息可以在几秒钟内得到确认。

Compared with other intellectual property rights, it is harder to protect copyright because of the obstacles in registration. With the blockchain technology, registration can be consummated by trusted timestamps that each copyrighted product in blockchain having a unique Hash ID. Furthermore, with blockchain technology, the copyright holder, copyright registrar and even Internet courts can all be connected so that court discovery can be made much more straightforward.

由于登记的问题，著作权的保护一向都比保护其他知识产权更难。而利用区块链技术，著作权的登记可以通过可信时间戳，以及相关作品在区块链中的唯一哈希值而实现。此外，通过区块链技术，著作权人、著作权登记方甚至是互联网法院都可以实现互连，从而相关证据的搜集及提出将会更加便利。

Electronic evidence is hard to obtain and preserve. There have been no uniform criteria for authentication and admission of electronic evidence within the court system. In addition, electronic evidence in its traditional form is vulnerable to alteration and therefore can easily lose its admissibility. Thanks to its immutability, blockchain provides a very convenient way for preserving electronic evidence and verifying the authenticity thereof. The PRC Supreme Court has already issued interpretation rules to admit blockchain evidence (see Chapter 3.3 for details).

电子证据通常难以获得和保存。长期以来关于电子证据一直都没有统一的公证及法院采纳标准。与此同时，传统形式的电子证据很容易被篡改，因此很容易丧失其证据效力。得益于区块链极难被篡改的特性，区块链可以作为保存及验证电子证据的绝佳方式。最高人民法院已经通过司法解释的方式，确认了区块链证据的效力（请见第3节第3部分）

Besides all the abovementioned applications, China has also introduced blockchain into other areas such as medical care, Internet of Things, E-government, smart contract, land management and so on.

除了上述提及的应用之外，区块链在中国的应用还扩展到了医疗、物联网、电子政务、智能合同、土地管理等领域。

Blockchain technology is burgeoning globally, including in China. In this context, some people acclaimed the advent of Lex cryptographica which would be a new societal governance structure based on “rule of code” rather than “rule of law”[4]. Nevertheless, China obviously took a prudential approach in blockchain legislation. China currently does not have any laws and regulations which specifically govern blockchain per se. Instead, China has enacted laws to regulate certain activities conducted using the blockchain technology. Due to its immutability, traceability and transparency, the blockchain technology has been proactively encouraged and promoted by the Chinese government. Since 2016, multiple central government agencies have issued circulars to promote the development and application of blockchain technology, including the State Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance and State Intellectual Property Office. Similar policies have also been issued by some provincial governments.

区块链技术正在包括中国在内的全球各国蓬勃发展。在此背景下，有人已经在为区块链技术背景下，政府结构转变而可能实现的“依码（代码）治国”对“依法治国”的替代而欢呼[注4]。尽管如此，中国对区块链的法律规制采取了一种稳健而谨慎的态度。目前中国并没有直接规制区块链本身的法律法规，而是采取了规制通过区块链技术而进行的行为的方式。由于区块链难以被篡改、可溯源且技术透明，中国政府十分鼓励区块链技术的发展。自2016年以来，多个中央政府部门发布了促进区块链发展的规范性文件，这其中包括国务院、工信部、商务部、发改委、财政部及国家知识产权局。许多省级政府也公布了相类似的政策。

The Cyberspace Affairs Commission (“CAC”) on January 10, 2019 issued a regulation on blockchain information services (the “Regulation”), which is the first state level regulation that contains the word “blockchain” in its name. Although the Regulation mainly focuses on regulating information services conducted via the blockchain technology, as opposed to blockchain per se, it reflects Beijing’s attention on the technology and its attitude toward tightening the regulation in this area.

中共中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室（“网信办”）于2019年1月10日公布了《区块链信息服务管理规定》（“管理规定”），是第一部名字中含有“区块链”的全国性法规。尽管管理规定主要规范的是通过区块链技术进行的互联网信息服务，而不是区块链本身，但其出台也体现了中国政府对于这一技术的重视，以及对于加强信息服务领域法律规制的态度。

The Regulation features the following requirements:

管理规定的主要内容如下：

a) The Regulation considers blockchain information service providers as “nodes” that offer information services to the public;

管理规定将区块链信息服务提供者定义为“向社会公众提供区块链信息服务”的主体或“节点”；

b) Blockchain information service providers need to register themselves with CAC;

区块链信息服务提供者必须向网信办进行备案；

c) Blockchain information service providers shall strengthen information security management and establish and refine their policies and mechanisms on user registration, information inspection, emergency response and security protection;

区块链信息服务提供者应落实信息内容安全管理责任，建立健全用户注册、信息审核、应急处置、安全防护等管理制度；

d) What is worth noting is that, in the draft of the Regulation issued in October 2018, it was provided that Blockchain information service providers in certain restricted areas (news reporting, publishing and education etc.) must obtain relevant licenses from competent government authorities before carrying out the information services. The formal issuance of the Regulation deleted such provisions, however this does not mean that blockchain information service providers in such restricted areas do not need to obtain government approval. The deletion is made only because it is redundant to state such requirements in the Regulation when other laws have specifically provided so;

值得注意的是，在2018年10月公布的管理规定的征求意见稿中层明确规定，某些受限制行业（如新闻、出版及教育等）的区块链信息服务者应首先经相关主管部门审核同意后方可履行备案手续。管理规定的正式稿删除了这一规定，但这并不意味着从事这些行业的区块链信息服务无须获得主管部门审核同意，而是因为其他法律中本来就有明确的规定，无须在管理规定中重复规定。

e) Blockchain information service providers are not allowed to use the blockchain technology to “produce, duplicate, publish and disseminate” information or content that is prohibited by Chinese laws.

区块链信息服务提供者不得利用区块链信息服务“制作、复制、发布、传播法律、行政法规禁止的信息内容”。

Cryptocurrency, which largely depends on the blockchain technology, has long been the focus of Chinese regulators. As early as in 2013, when blockchain itself was relatively new in China, the People’s Bank of China, MIIT, the Securities Regulatory Commission, the Insurance Regulatory Commission and the Banking Regulatory Commission jointly issued a circular to warn the public of risks associated with Bitcoins. The circular made clear that as a virtual currency Bitcoin is not issued by the monetary authority, and therefore should not be treated equally as the legal tender, and therefore should not be allowed in circulation in the market. The Circular prohibited financial institutions from pricing goods and services with Bitcoins, purchasing and selling Bitcoins, or providing clients with other Bitcoin-related services.

基于区块链技术的虚拟货币长期以来一直都是中国监管者的目标。早在2013年，当区块链本身在中国还是新鲜概念时，人民银行、工信部、证监会、保监会及银监会联合发布了一则警示比特币有关风险的通知。该通知明确虚拟货币不是由法定货币机构发行，因此不应具有与货币等同的法律地位，不能且不应作为货币在市场上流通使用。该通知还禁止金融机构以比特币为服务或商品计价，禁止金融机构买卖比特币，或向客户提供比特币相关的服务。

With the proliferation of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (“ICO”) gradually became popular among investors all over the globe, and China is not an exception. However, in September 2017, seven PRC central government agencies jointly issued a circular to ban ICOs in China (the “ICO Rules”). The ICO Rules explicitly stated that ICOs are unapproved and illegal public fund-raising activity, which could potentially constitute crimes such as illegal issuance of currency tokens, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fund raising, financial fraud and pyramid sale. With ICOs being outlawed, many cryptocurrency exchange platforms had to cease their ICO business, or had to transfer their ICO business out of China.

随着区块链技术及虚拟货币的发展，首次货币发行（“ICO”）逐渐成为全球投资者的宠儿，中国也不例外。但在2017年9月，中央政府7部委联合发布通知，在中国境内取缔了ICO（“ICO通知”）。ICO通知明确规定ICO未经政府批准，是一种非法集资活动，涉嫌构成包括非法发行货币、非法发行证券、非法集资、金融诈骗及传销等多种犯罪行为。随着ICO的被取缔，许多虚拟货币交易所不得不停止其ICO业务，或者将其ICO业务移至中国境外。

What’s worth noting is that the ICO Rules also impose restrictions on other primary businesses of cryptocurrency trading platforms. According to the ICO Rules, cryptocurrency platforms are prohibited from converting legal tender into cryptocurrencies, or vice versa. They are also prohibited from purchasing or selling cryptocurrencies, setting prices for cryptocurrencies, or providing other related agent services. Government authorities may shut down the websites and mobile applications of platforms that fail to comply, remove the applications from application stores, or even suspend the platform’s business licenses.

值得注意的是，ICO通知还对虚拟货币交易平台的其他业务做出了规定。根据ICO通知，虚拟货币交易平台不得将法定货币转换为虚拟货币，反之亦然。平台也被禁止买卖虚拟货币，为虚拟货币计价，或提供其他有关虚拟货币的代理服务。对于违反ICO通知的平台，有关政府部门有权关闭其网站或移动应用程序，将相关应用程序从应用程序商店下架，或吊销相关平台的营业执照等。

Right at its inception in China, the blockchain technology has raised intensive argument among scholars and legal practitioners with regard to evidence produced or preserved in blockchain can be admitted in a court proceeding.

在区块链技术在中国出现之时，学术界及法律实务界就产生了有关区块链中形成或保存的证据是否应在诉讼程序中得到承认的激烈争论。

Despite the debate, courts have made multiple attempts in this regard. In June 2018, the Internet Court of Hangzhou confirmed in its rulings the admissibility of the plaintiff’s blockchain records of copyright information. In this case, in order to prove that the defendant published relevant copyrighted products on the website it operates, the plaintiff chose to conduct crawling and source code identification of the infringing website via a third-party evidence deposition platform. In addition, the plaintiff archived the screenshots and the source code of the infringing website and derived the archived files’ Hash value and uploaded the Hash value to two blockchains. The court admitted the above digital evidence submitted by the plaintiff, which marked one of the several cases in which the admissibility of blockchain evidence is upheld.

除了该等争论，法院也对此做出了许多尝试。2018年6月，杭州互联网法院在其判决中确认了原告提交的有关其著作权信息的区块链记录的证据效力。在该案中，为了证明被告在其网站上发布了原告拥有著作权的作品，原告通过第三方电子存证平台对被告的网站进行了数据爬取和源代码认证。原告将侵权网站的截图及源代码进行存档，并将存档文件的哈希值上传到了两个区块链中，并向法院提交。法庭确认了原告提交的区块链证据的效力，这也标志着又一起确认区块链证据效力的中国法院判决的诞生。

Furthermore, in September 2018, the PRC Supreme Court issued rules on how Internet courts should review internet-related legal disputes. Part of the rules specifies that Internet courts shall recognize the legality of blockchain as a method for storing and authenticating digital evidence, provided that parties can prove the legitimacy of the technology being used in the process. This officially affirmed the admissibility of blockchain evidence in court.

此后，最高人民法院于2018年9月发布了关于互联网法院审判互联网相关案件的司法解释。该司法解释中明确规定互联网法院应当确认区块链作为存储及验证电子证据的效力，从而正式明确了区块链证据在司法程序中的效力。

Just like any other technology, the blockchain technology is “neutral” in nature and can be used for good or bad. In terms of regulating the blockchain technology, we should embrace this innovative technology, while we shall remain cautious about the risk of the technology falling into “wrong hands”. Guided by this spirit, a proper regulation and supervision by the government will certainly facilitate the long-term growth of the blockchain industries.

如同其他所有技术一样，区块链技术本身是“中立”的，其可被应用于或好或坏的用途。就区块链技术的规制而言，我们应当积极拥抱这项创新技术，但也应保持警惕，避免该技术被别有用心之人所利用。基于这样的原则，政府对于区块链技术的恰当规范和监管必将有益于区块链技术的长期发展。