Photo/Shetuwang

May 29 (NBD) -- As Bitcoin, the first application of blockchain, started a craze about the underlying technology across the globe, a variety of cryptocurrencies have been popping up, and blockchain-based applications, no matter how far-fetched they are, have been springing up as well.

Concerns over the blockchain bubble arise in the midst of the global blockchain spree.

Zhu Peijiang, secretary-general of the Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance, held although there do exist bubbles in the blockchain sector, yet that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Zhu noted the industry bubble means a large amount of capital is flowing into this sector and the money influx has been driving related technological innovation.

Currently, the blockchain is progressing fast, and new products and new development directions emerge every one or two months. Zhu attributed such rapid development to the support given by the capital and the bubble, in that the capital pushes developers, investors and researchers to enter the blockchain field and hence drives forward the development of this sector.

Deng Mingyu, founder of a tech company, believed the core of the discussions concerning the industry bubbles is whether the true value created would remain in place after the bubble burst. Deng compared the Dutch tulip mania with the dot-com bubble at the end of the last century, saying that while the former dethroned the Netherlands as the international financial center, the latter generated many great companies which are still well-known to us nowadays.

As the blockchain technology hasn't yet reached its maturity, on the one hand, the bottom line of supervision must be strictly drawn, and on the other hand, a certain degree of bubbles should be spared so as to leave the space for innovation, Deng suggested.

Gao Bin, executive secretary of the special committee under the China Communications Industry Association, compared the blockchain to concrete, in that the blockchain is the underlying technology to enable various applications.

Some industry insiders told NBD that the blockchain technology should not be overrated nor be put on pedestals. The blockchain is more like a combination of existing technologies, said Li Changchun, office director of the Internet space security research center at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn