The Cyberspace Administration of China ("CAC") has recently distributed the Administrative Provisions for Block Chain Information Services (the "Provisions"), with effect from February 15, 2019.
The Provisions state that, block chain information service providers shall fulfill their subject responsibilities for safety management of the information content, have in place technical conditions commensurate with their services, formulate and publish management rules and platform agreements, and put in place the real identity verification mechanism; they shall not take advantage of block chain information services to carry out any activities banned under laws and regulations or to produce, reproduce, publish or disseminate information content prohibited under laws and administrative regulations; a block chain information service user will be subject to certain measures under the law or as per the agreement, if it breaches any laws, administrative regulations or the service agreement. Additionally, the Provisions require that block chain information service providers shall, within ten working days from its provision of services, provide and submit information for the record-filing purpose via the CAC's Block Chain Information Service Record-filing Administration System, and, in case of any changes to their service items, platform addresses, etc. or a halt to their services, shall carry out formalities for such changes to, or for the deregistration of, their services. A service provider shall conduct the security assessment as required, when it develops and rolls out new products, applications or functions.