On April 18-19, 2024, the 2024 TA Conference was successfully held in Xiamen. At the main forum, Jin Jian, Director of the Institute for Industrial Internet and Internet of Things (IIIIoT) of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), released the report “Xinghuo Strategy and Ecology”, which was shared from the following four aspects: trust and intelligence, the prototype of Xinghuo ecosystem, the strategic thinking of Xinghuo, and the ecological development of Xinghuo.

I Trust and Intelligence

Trust and Intelligence: New Quality Productive Forces in Intelligent Economic Space

Throughout the process of digital development, Jin Jian summarized the general law of technological change with “What changes the era is technology, while what leads the era is always the idea”: technological change often originates from the original rational thought, but the revolution cycle will be longer than expected. For instance, the emergence of the Internet was from the packet exchange ideas in the early 1960s, the trust logic of the blockchain originated from the idea of decentralized bookkeeping thoughts in the late 1980s, and artificial intelligence was rooted in the knowledge expression proposed in the 1950s to give the machine the ability to think, which eventually brought about the great progress of the current generative artificial intelligence. Amid technological change, there inevitably exists confusion, that is, several localized problems that are not well solved, but this does not affect the revolution and its ultimate economic and social value and impact.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is an ongoing technological revolution, making people acquire a deeper understanding of AI progress, the deep integration of digital and real economy, and the development of the digital economy. Many scholars believe that after AGI, the connotation and extension of the concept of “economy” will be redefined because AI can not only redefine productivity, production tools, and the logic of economic decision-making but also alter the values and culture of the global community. Besides the latest productivity represented by intelligence, trust in the digital economic space is the most important production relationship. If technology can be applied to establish trust relations in the digital space, so that trust becomes more continuous and wider in scope, it will significantly enhance the overall efficiency of economic behavior and resource optimization, as well as greatly expand the time and space scope of economic activities.

Identifiers: Most Critical and Important Universal Facilities and Services in Future Intelligent Society

How can this trust relation and efficient economic behavior needed in this new era be achieved? Besides identifying any object, it’s also necessary to realize the “Tokenization” of all objects: measurable, tradable, and holdable, remarked by Jin Jian, but there needs support from the identifier system, which raises higher requirements for identifiers. For instance, AI calls for a lot of energy and computing power, and this power needs to be schedulable and tradable, thus its “Tokenization” is supposed to be based on the identifier system. In fact, any object can be converted into a “Token” by digitalization, i.e. into an asset in digital space, which can be easily traded, shared, processed, or verified in cyberspace, hence bringing about extensive interconnectivity and efficient operation of the digital world and forming an ideal digital economic environment. Traditional identifier systems, such as Internet domain names, handle/DOA, etc., fail to well support the process of “Tokenization”, therefore, new identifier technologies and frameworks are wanted to meet the needs of the new economic space.

As a result, identifiers are the first step in the digitization of any object, and supporting the “Tokenization” of all objects is the most essential requirement for an identifier system.

II Reflecting on Past: Prototype of Xinghuo Ecosystem

Currently, the industrial ecology with the national industrial Internet identifier core facilities at its core is taking shape

Jin Jian pointed out that from the commencement of the systematic research on industrial Internet in 2014 to the proposal of an industrial Internet identifier framework with Chinese characteristics in 2017, the Party and the country have been supporting and guiding the development of industrial Internet identifiers through active policies, which has now far exceeded the initial expectations. The CAICT carried out relevant exploration and studies earlier in this field, conducted research and layout of network capability and technology system for the Internet of Everything, and gradually formed three exploration paths from Internet domain name, industrial Internet identifier to new decentralized identifier (DID). Over the past six years, the CAICT has systematically carried forward the work of industrial Internet identifiers from the four aspects as follows.

Firstly, CAICT systematically studied identifiers and developed technologies. Apart from putting forward the system adapted to China’s development status quo, the core software and hardware systems were independently developed and related protocols and standards were correspondingly designed. CAICT also established the Xinghuo Multi-dimensional Full-connected Laboratory to carry out joint technical research and conducted the “Intelligence + College” program to promote the integration of industry and education. Secondly, CAICT strengthened infrastructure construction, including the completion of the “5+2” national top-level nodes and the building of cross-border data service network of Xinghuo BIF and ASTRON, giving better play to the role of identifiers as a link and supporting the release of the value of data elements. Thirdly, the CAICT committed to verification and application promotion. On the basis of infrastructure, it conducted application scenario verification and vigorously advanced identifier applications. Over 500 enterprises are directly engaged in the work of industrial Internet identifiers now. The CAICT is actively cooperating with other partners within the industry to implement an evaluation of the effectiveness of identifiers and draft guidebooks accordingly. Fourthly, the CAICT attached great importance to international cooperation and governance. Not only did it devise the international layout of infrastructure, but work together with large cross-border enterprises and international organizations in exploring cross-border data and product certification based on the identifier technology.

Based on the core infrastructure represented by national top-level nodes and Xinghuo supernodes and guided by the government’s industry management policies, the industrial ecology around the core facilities of identifier in its infancy constantly boosts more enterprises and institutions to participate in the identifier industry chain and value chain. Meanwhile, it is suggested to integrate identifiers into industrial development through multiple directions of technology, industry, and policy, so as to further attain value landing.

III Looking into Future: Strategic Thinking of Xinghuo

Xinghuo Strategy is the development strategy of industrial Internet identifiers, serving as the key pillar for the national strategy of building China into a country characterized by strong manufacturing, cyber, and digital power.

How far away is the vision of the Industrial Internet? When will the mission of building a country with cyberspace strength be fulfilled? How to learn from the experience and lessons of global Internet development? Looking forward, the CAICT proposes the Xinghuo Strategy based on the work done in the past 5 to 10 years.

In response to the grand vision of building a community of shared future in cyberspace proposed by President Xi, the Xinghuo Strategy aims at building China-led digital space connectivity standards, core facilities, and service systems at the infrastructure level represented by identifiers, and promoting the construction of a cyber economic space of reciprocal interconnection and equal common governance while forming development advantages for China’s industries through digitization. The Xinghuo Strategy is to contribute to the construction of a complete and interconnection-oriented identifier system, thereby facilitating the large-scale development of China’s industrial Internet, and serving the new industrialization.

In addition to the new industrialization, the Xinghuo Strategy will serve vital national policies including resilience in supply and industrial chains, self-reliance and strength in science and technology, green development “3060” goal, Internet security, cross-border data connectivity, and regional economic coordination and revitalization. For instance, in terms of resilient supply chains, other than figuring out some “bare facts” through identifiers and then making up for and improving our own supply chain capacity, the Strategy can also advance the integration of the global supply chain and consolidate its resilience.

Taking green and low-carbon development as an example. Faced the development strategies like carbon tariffs and product carbon digital passports initiated by the EU, the basic data network established upon the public service capacity of the Xinghuo infrastructure can help enterprises better implement the management and certification of carbon data, gradually determine a carbon neutrality path suitable for China’s latest situation, and also avoid businesses from being directly exposed to “carbon barriers” of different countries and regions all over the world so that they can go global or establish a global green supply chain more steadily.

IV Planning for Present: Ecological Development of Xinghuo

Where Xinghuo Ecosystem heads for

Looking to the future, the CAICT will join hands with the Xinghuo ecosystem to comprehensively boost the development of identifiers and the construction of Xinghuo ecology in the following seven aspects, said Jin Jian. Firstly, the CAICT will fully respond to the three-year “Through” action plan jointly issued by the MIIT and other 12 state ministries and commissions, to help accelerate the scale application of the identifiers. Secondly, the advantages of the think tank will continue to be utilized. The technical research will be conducted in the specialized domains covering AI, data elements, new Internet, future networks, etc., and some strategic issues on applying the identifiers to AI and framing some strategic issues on will garner particular attention in the pursuit of China’s self-reliance and strength in science and technology. Thirdly, the promotion of large-scale applications will be carried out through the Xinghuo ecosystem, by upholding the development idea of “one chain, one system, and one platform” to accurately match the supply and demand resources, gather industrial ecological capabilities, strengthen the fusion and synergistic effect, and promote the integrated development of identifiers. Fourthly, the networked development of the Xinghuo BIF will be comprehensively implemented. With the networked development of infrastructure as its core, the Xinghuo BIF is to build the largest and most widely used trusted data network space in China’s industrial Internet field by continuously consolidating the service platform and cooperating with more partners to achieve multi-governance. Fifthly, the international development of the Xinghuo BIF will be drove focusing on cross-border issues, which aims to rely on the development positioning of cross-border data service network, with an eye on the deployment of node network, the construction of application services, and the construction of international ecosystem, thus creating an international infrastructure system with extensive international interconnection and prosperous application ecology to provide practical measures for the implementation of international cooperation on digital economy in the key areas of trade, dual-carbon, data and so on. Sixthly, a nationwide unified computing power service market will be set up based on the Xinghuo BIF, which will have the decentralized infrastructure as its base and form an efficient and credible platform computing service by connecting multi-partner, widely distributed computing power suppliers, demanders, and regulators through trust. Seventhly, an identifier-based data infrastructure will be established from the perspective of data management, and the three-dimensional data service network will be set up to forge a hierarchical data interconnection hub and a full-coverage data circulation link.

Core Concept of Xinghuo Ecosystem: Multi-Value Connection

Jin Jian emphasized that the core concept of the Xinghuo Ecosystem is to move from the unilateral mass production of the past industrial economy to the bilateral relation of the Internet platform, and then to the multilateral networked relationship against the context of the digital economy. The Xinghuo ecosystem is a multi-party and multi-dimensional value connection that contains five sections: international cooperation and standardization ecology, regulation and governance ecology, technological innovation ecology (led by the Xinghuo’s multi-dimensional and full-connected lab), application ecology, and Xinghuo industrial innovation clusters.

Now the Xinghuo ecosystem has attracted lots of participants. Facing different industries and scenarios or regions, it drives a scene, an industry, or a region to better use the identifiers through the application ecology 11X (initiator, convener, co-constructor), as well as cultivates the industry and value chain required by the application, therefore, gradually facilitate its large-scale application development. With the concept of “Trust and Intelligence” throughout its development and operation mechanism, the Xinghuo ecology is advancing the synergic and collaborative effect inside and outside its ecosystem and constantly creating new models, new scenarios, and new values.