‍With “blockchain” becoming a buzzword in 2018, companies and investors are eagerly embracing the game-changing technology.

Often confused with Bitcoin, blockchain is in fact the underlying technology that powers the wider-known cryptocurrency. Now, a host of Chinese companies are exploring its potential application in a range of industries.

Traceability Chain, a blockchain company based in Beijing, has already applied blockchain technology to record a product’s journey every step of the way from the farm to the dinner table. The company is also looking to expand into medicine, children's products, alcohol, intellectual property, and other areas where tracing a product’s origin is a major concern.

Banking services is another area where blockchain can prove useful. Network-based inter-bank transactions will save lenders from independently bring their records up to date, meaning that waiting time in some cases can be reduced from hours or days to mere minutes. Bochen, a blockchain infrastructure tech company, has targeted the financial industry, providing blockchain technology for the Bank of China and other financial institutions.

According to an industry report by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of March of 2018, the country had more than 450 blockchain-related companies, with business scopes covering a range of areas: infrastructure, hardware, basic technology development, and platforms.

Experts say blockchain technology will give a boost to the real economy by addressing the issue of unreliable information, and that will help lower the risk and facilitate financing for businesses, especially cash-strapped small companies.