China bats for on-chain blockchain ownership to increase transparency

• The Chinese city of Shenzhen plans to stamp data ownership on blockchain.
• Data owners will reportedly be able to trade data property on the data market.

The Shenzhen Municipal Committee announced the release of the “Interim Measures for the Administration of Data Property Rights Registration in Shenzhen” to standardize the registration of data property rights. It would promote the open flow, development, and utilization of data as a factor of production.

Data owners can use data property for financing

According to the announcement by the Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission, data pertaining to ownership should be kept on-chain for a minimum of thirty years. The proposal aims to protect the public’s right to know and participate in the regulation of data property rights. The city would achieve this by soliciting feedback from relevant units and people before releasing the final version.

As per the proposal, data owners will claim property rights by filing a registration with the relevant authorities. Subsequently, a certificate of ownership for “data property” will be provided to the data owners. People could either use the asset for financing or trade it in the data market. 

This new initiative aims to protect the legitimate rights and interests of participants in the data element market. This has become increasingly important as more and more companies and organizations rely on data for their operations. The lack of standardized registration of data property rights has made it difficult for companies to know who owns data, and has led to disputes over data ownership.

The announcement came after China released the “20 Data Articles” on 12 December 2022, in which it stated that it aims to:

“Establish a data property rights system that protects rights and interests and uses them in compliance, explore a structural separation system for data property rights, and establish a data property rights system framework for the “separation of three rights” of data resource ownership, data processing and use, and data product operation rights.”