Beijing tries to put its imprint on blockchain Premium Blockchain’s selling point is to eventually allow numerous parties in a transaction to interact simultaneously and securely transfer assets over the net. (REUTERS) JAMES T. AREDDY Share Via Read Full Story China, home of the Great Firewall, is trying to bring order to a scrappy corner of cyberspace—and in the process put its mark on the next-generation internet. A Beijing-backed initiative aims to shape a category of online record-keeping called blockchain. Most commonly associated with bitcoin, blockchain holds broad promise for business and other uses but has been hobbled by a lack of uniform technical standards.