Gray industry: an unreasonable but objectively existing industry between legitimate industries (white) and illegal industries (black).
To put it simply, gray industries are projects or industries that skirt the law and make huge profits.
Revealing the gray industry chain of "blockchain license"
Source: Beijing Business Daily
With the popularity of blockchain, the blockchain license A gray industry has appeared in the market, and some brokers with "blockchain licenses" are also digging into the great opportunities to make money. However, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily discovered through investigation that this so-called "blockchain license" is actually a business license with blockchain and is not a formal document approving relevant institutions to conduct business. Analysts believe that companies registering blockchain-related names are actually a kind of hype, which has little investment significance and is suspected of deception and hype.
Get a “blockchain license” with a minimum of 20,000 yuan
Recently, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily saw a message from a financial license resource exchange group, “A new company has been released. The hot blockchain license, no household and no business, the transfer is completed in 15 days, and 20,000 yuan is taken away." The broker selling the license said that the price of acquiring a ready-made license ranges from 20,000 to 100,000 yuan. If there are no special requirements, the merger and acquisition can be completed with a minimum budget of 20,000 yuan.
However, a Beijing Business Daily reporter discovered some tricks in the specific information on the issuance of license plates. According to the formal business license requirements, the business license must be issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce or the local industrial and commercial bureau. The formal business license must have name, type, address, legal representative, registered capital, date of establishment, business period and business scope. As for this so-called "blockchain license", the license stamp is only the local industrial and commercial bureau. It does not indicate the amount of registered capital. It has a registration date but no expiration date, and there is no specific legal person information. In response to reporters’ questions, the license broker did not respond directly.
When a reporter from the Beijing Business Daily asked whether it was possible to apply for a new license, the license broker said that overall, the national blockchain registration policy is getting tighter and tighter, and currently Shanghai has fully restricted the application. . Although Beijing does not restrict processing, the business scope is limited to technology and technology-related types. If you choose to register in Beijing, the fee will be between 18,000 and 50,000 yuan. It can take as little as 15 working days, and as long as it takes about a month.
Analysts believe that the reason why many people are focusing on the business of preemptive registration and transfer of blockchain licenses is because companies with "blockchain" in their names have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Data shows that most of the companies with blockchain in their business scope are newly established companies within one year. There are 4,266 companies, and they are concentrated in Guangdong. Among them, 2,177 companies are registered in Guangzhou and 502 are registered in Shenzhen.
In this regard, Zhang Yexia, a senior researcher at Yingcan Consulting, said that currently there are continuous favorable policies for blockchain in various places, and the overall business environment is good. From the perspective of participants, the current blockchain circle is relatively small, and at the same time there is obvious geographical concentration due to policy differences. For most participants, there is a lot of room for development in the industry’s rising period, and they have strong incentives to start their own businesses. attraction. For sellers, the income from selling "blockchain licenses" is much higher than the difficulty and cost of application, which provides sellers with greater room for profit.
Is this license not that license?
In recent years, the concept of blockchain has become increasingly popular, and various places have introduced preferential policies for blockchain. For example, Guangzhou released the "Ten Blockchain Guidelines", which are based on rewards in many aspects such as cultivation, growth, platform, and application. Therefore, many entrepreneurs see the dividends and actively enter the market. In fact, there is no license for entry into the domestic blockchain industry. As for the formal license, the official statement is "a certificate issued by the industrial and commercial administration authority to industrial and commercial enterprises and self-employed individuals permitting them to engage in certain production and business activities." Foreign blockchain licenses are similar to financial licenses and are official documents that approve relevant institutions to conduct business.
Zhang Yexia told a Beijing Business Daily reporter that in the early days, blockchain was mainly used in the field of digital currency and had financial attributes. However, in recent years, regulators have targeted "third-party payment" and "third-party payment" issued by Internet finance. "Online Small Loans" and other licenses and P2P online loan registration requirements make entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that blockchain also has relevant licenses. This provides conditions for the emergence of “blockchain licenses”.
Zhang Yexia further stated that these so-called "blockchain licenses" are not actually licenses, but business licenses with the word "blockchain" in the company name, which are no different from other business licenses. At present, my country does not have clear access requirements for blockchain business. The current policy support direction is focused on integrating blockchain technology with the real economy, focusing on the technical level rather than the financial level.
A person in charge of a blockchain company admitted to a Beijing Business Daily reporter that blockchain, as a popular project, has strong appeal to investors, and many investors want to test the waters. This money-making opportunity. According to Lu Nan, research director of the Sack Research Institute, obtaining a blockchain business license obviously gives these companies the possibility of getting rich. However, blockchain technology companies do not actually need a "blockchain" business license, so this The "license" actually has no intrinsic value.
Xiao Lei, founder of Xicaihui and director of 500 Gold Research Institute, also believes that blockchain licenses are most likely intended to be hyped. Currently, there is no such thing as a license at the national level, and there are no official documents. , and it will be difficult to issue a specific license for blockchain in the future, because blockchain is a technology, not a business form. Registering blockchain-related names is actually a kind of hype, and the investment significance is not very great. The most important thing is to see the specific company's business capabilities.
There are risks in following the trend and hyping
Due to blind admiration, "blockchain" has always had room for conceptual hype. In addition to the influx of retail investors, as long as a listed company reveals that it is involved in the blockchain, its stock price will rise sharply, and if it announces that it has a blockchain business, it will rise to the limit. This has also attracted many "little-known" companies to issue announcements stating that they will launch blockchain projects, seeking to get involved in this wave of hot spots. When receiving inquiry letters from exchanges or questions from interactive platforms, some companies responded positively, while others urgently clarified and distanced themselves from the relationship.
Xiao Lei emphasized that it is difficult for blockchain to bring actual high profits to enterprises in a short period of time. Judging from the current situation, the short-term risks are very high. Moreover, many corporate projects do not require blockchain technology to be solved, but are imposed on them, which requires very high investment identification capabilities. Nearly 90% of blockchain projects now are "air" type projects, which are meaningless.
Huo Xuewen, director of the Beijing Municipal Financial Work Bureau, emphasized in a closed-door meeting held recently that "blockchain, as a technology, has a threshold. Blockchain from the perspective of technicians has nothing to do with many people." The blockchain discussed is often not one dimension, and most people do not understand technology very well. Scammers take advantage of this to make blockchain a cloak for their own deceptions. Using technical concepts to defraud has become a current trend."
When talking about the reasons why there are still hawking blockchain licenses despite regulatory prohibitions, Shi Dalong, a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, pointed out that after the regulation of blockchain, Bitcoin and other tokens was tightened, , the industrial and commercial registration department has suspended the approval of business licenses involving blockchain. Some companies that are truly engaged in the development of blockchain technology are in urgent need of obtaining business qualifications involving blockchain. These companies will purchase such licenses; on the other hand, it may It is some speculators who speculate, buying low and selling high.
“Society has an almost crazy and blind admiration for blockchain. There is also market space for profit-making by fishing in troubled waters. A large amount of capital continues to enter. However, digital currencies are completely banned in my country, and the registration of blockchain companies has been suspended. As a result, the 'shell resource' market has been formed. Currently, our country has not issued any franchise license in the blockchain field. This is a 'concept' hyped by sellers and has no intrinsic value. In the future, supervision will be implemented or 'blockchain' company registration will be liberalized. These 'licenses' may be worthless," said Lu Nan.