Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are shaking up traditional finance and shifting the tectonic plates of investing, but the technology underlying digital assets — blockchain — may eventually have a bigger impact on the world.

Today, most applications on public chains such as Ethereum are centered around the economic layers of cryptocurrencies, such as decentralized finance (DeFi). But for a country like China, where public chain applications may not always be aligned with local regulations, permissioned chains are presenting corporations an alternative as well as greater protection from the volatility of cryptocurrency prices.

“If we ran an application on a public chain, the revenue must be in cryptocurrency. Then, the cost is in cryptocurrency, the revenue is in cryptocurrency — that makes no sense,” Yifan He, the CEO of Red Date Technology — the company behind state-backed Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) in China — told Forkast.News in a video interview. “Next year, the cost could be more than your revenue.”