# What is FISCO BCOS?

Initiated in 2017 by FISCO (Financial Services Blockchain Consortium (Shenzhen)), [FISCO BCOS](https://github.com/FISCO-BCOS/FISCO-BCOS) is an open source blockchain platform created to serve as a trusted infrastructure for the digital economy.

Delivering financial-grade performance and security, this open platform has immense potential in unleashing data value to empower industrial digitalization and the Web3 economy.


## Key Features

To efficiently handle large transaction volumes, FISCO BCOS offers **>200,000 TPS** for a single chain with support for horizontal scaling, easily accommodating the needs of large-scale applications.

Such high performance does not come at the cost of security. A comprehensive mechanism is established encompassing **cryptographic algorithms**, **consensus protocols**, **P2P network**, **key management**, **access control** and **privacy protection** to realize 360° security.

In addition, the feature of **regulatory node** enables **real-time supervision** on the level of nodes, accounts, contracts and transactions on a see-through basis, helping platform users build applications that are more regulator friendly.

Added to full nodes that take part in the consensus process, FISCO BCOS also defines **observer nodes** and **light nodes**, via which general users can access the blockchain network to check transaction history, facilitating open participation in the applications on chain.


## Achievements and Use Cases


Apart from data transparency, the source code of [FISCO BCOS](https://github.com/FISCO-BCOS/FISCO-BCOS) is also fully **open source**, which in turn gives rise to a wealth of application components through community contributions.

Adopting the principle of staying technology agnostic, FISCO BCOS is designed to be fully compatible with mainstream hardware and software platforms covering servers, OS, databases and cryptographic algorithms, making it open to adopters of various IT infrastructure conditions.

With its **robust functionality**, **security**, **ease of use**, and **open-source nature**, FISCO BCOS has been widely adopted across various industries. It has powered over **500+ applications** in finance, e-government, social welfare along with other sectors, effectively promoting industrial digitalization and trusted data circulation.


Among those applications, some of them are influential digital infrastructure including the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), Guangdong-Macao/Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cross-Boundary Data Verification Platforms, Sichuan Blockchain Service Infrastructure (ShuXin Chain) as well as instrumental industrial implementations including the NMDIS Big Data & Privacy-Preserving Computing Platform, Pearl River Delta Credit Chain, Banking BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) and Capital Market BaaS.

The "Open Innovation" philosophy has invited numerous partners to join the forming of a thriving ecosystem. As of the end of 2024, the FISCO BCOS open source community has gathered **over 5,000 enterprises/institutions** and **more than 100,000 individual members**, making it one of the most vibrant blockchain technology communities in China.

In light of its reliable technology and flourishing open source ecosystem, FISCO BCOS has received a number of international and domestic honors, gaining wide recognition from both the industry and academic communities. As the first prize winner of the 2018 Shenzhen Fintech Special Award, FISCO BCOS became the first consortium blockchain platform adopted by BSN in China.

In 2022, it was listed in the CIC Approved Blockchain Programs (Professional Grade). In the next year, FISCO BCOS was among the first group of blockchain technology products to be formally certified by the National Financial Technology Certification Center (using national standards JR/T 0184-2020, JR/T 0193-2020 and JR/T 0171-2020).

In the international arena, 2 out of 4 Chinese use cases in the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies – Use Cases (ISO/TR 3242:2022) were based on FISCO BCOS.

Alongside, [an architecture research paper](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3581784.3607053) of FISCO BCOS was accepted by **Supercomputing Conference 2023**, which is **the first paper on blockchain performance optimization at the conference series**.

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## Vision

As globalization accelerates and enters a deeper phase, FISCO BCOS will continue to break down barriers, transforming its best practices into global de facto standards, empowering digital transformation in more countries and regions, as an ardent commitment to promote the sustainable prosperity of the global digital economy.