[Exclusive Report] Live coverage of Japan Smart Contract Summit, the Financial Services Agency expressed its willingness to adjust the regulatory system

Rage Comment : At the smart contract conference held in Tokyo today, there were about 400 participants, and it was obvious that there were many extra seats. This shows the degree of attention paid to blockchain technology and smart contracts in the Japanese financial and IT industries. At the meeting, the Japanese Financial Services Agency clearly stated that it would adjust its regulatory policies according to the development of blockchain. This is similar to the sandbox policy proposed by the United Kingdom and Singapore, which allows blockchain-related companies to achieve financial innovations that break through existing regulatory policies within a controllable range, indicating that the Japanese government's financial strategy has begun to lean towards blockchain technology. In addition, the Azure Market proposed by Microsoft is very worthy of attention. Turning smart contracts into trading commodities will greatly promote the development of smart contracts. Everyone can already feel the power of Apple's App Store. In the future, the trading market of smart contracts may become a battleground.

Author: Pencil lead

Today, the Smart Contract Conference 2016 was held at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, Japan. In addition to officials from multiple Japanese departments, several large Japanese financial institutions, Microsoft, Consensys, the Ethereum Foundation and others participated in the conference and conducted in-depth discussions on blockchain and smart contracts.

Yoshimoto Yutaka, the Business Information Policy Coordinator of the Business Information Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and Kanda Junichi, the Planning Officer of the Credit System Counselor of the Planning Division of the General Affairs Planning Bureau of the Financial Services Agency of Japan, delivered opening speeches. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan is equivalent to the Ministry of Commerce of China. Yoshimoto Yutaka said that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry welcomes blockchain technology and has conducted a survey to determine that blockchain technology can bring a market size of 67 trillion yen.

Junichi Kanda of the Financial Services Agency said in his speech that if the existing financial regulatory system affects the development of blockchain in Japan, industry insiders are very welcome to come to the Financial Services Agency for consultation. The Financial Services Agency will try to understand these business models and make adjustments to the system.

Microsoft representatives said at the conference that they will launch Azure Makert, where everyone can develop and manage their own smart contracts, and rent these smart contracts to other institutions, thus turning smart contracts into sellable commodities. For example, other financial institutions can rent fundraising smart contracts developed by Mitsubishi on Azure Makert to conduct real fundraising. However, they only need to pay Mitsubishi a small rental fee for the smart contract. All banks can directly rent their own smart contracts on Azure Makert.

Microsoft said that Azure Market will not only trade smart contracts, but will also be able to package the bottom layer, middle layer, and applications of the entire blockchain system, and allow everyone to join its ecosystem. Then it will be divided into modules and commodities for mutual trading and use.

Marley Gray (Microsoft / Senior Director), a representative of Microsoft, said that the whole process has more advantages than disadvantages for the development of the industry when talking about the recent global attention of TheDao attack and Ethereum fork. Compared with the crisis of the existing financial IT system, this crisis is not serious, and the hard fork measures are also very perfect, which is highly appreciated by Azure's financial customers.

Mizuho Bank is introducing its Fintech incubator. Blockchain will be part of the incubator, along with artificial intelligence, big data, biometric authentication, and more. In addition, Mizuho Bank said they have developed a POC for cross-border securities trading. Their conclusion from the prototype test is that the use of blockchain technology can indeed reduce some traditional processes and improve efficiency.