Are Bitcoin and blockchain far away from us? Chinese and foreign business leaders gathered to discuss

The technological revolution is impacting the financial services industry and is likely to make digital currencies and blockchains more popular in the coming years. At the 2016 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, experts discussed the revolution in the monetary system brought about by financial technology: from big data analysis to mobile applications, technology has facilitated the interaction between companies and customers and provided new ways for customers to manage their finances and transactions.

In the first quarter of this year, global venture capital in financial technology reached US$5.7 billion. About half of the funds were invested in the Asian market, especially China. "Mobile technology, big data analysis, blockchain, and machine learning, these four major platforms are still in their infancy." Catherine Wood, CEO of ARK Investment Management, said, "The financial services industry is one of the largest offline industries. It may have been 'electronic', but it has not yet been 'digital'. Therefore, this technological revolution has just begun."

“Fintech is growing rapidly because it solves real problems for consumers,” speculated Taavet Hinrikus, UK CEO of TransferWise and co-chair of the 2016 New Leaders Forum Annual Conference. “Companies are looking for solutions for themselves and their sustainable business models.” He added that mobile-based digital payments are often cheaper, more inclusive and more convenient than bank transactions.

"China is leading the world in mobile lending and other fintech solutions," Tang Ning, founder and CEO of CreditEase, told attendees. It took several years for peer-to-peer lending to grow significantly and attract investor attention. "Venture capital is concerned about the negative aspects of fintech," he said. "They focus more on traffic and traction, but credit rating and risk management are equally important, and these are the basic issues that investors should pay attention to."

The key factor in the development of financial technology is to increase the accuracy of big data analysis. "Data quality is crucial," said Xu Haotian, CEO of Fangcheng Technology. "The ecological environment of financial technology in China has improved. More and more small and medium-sized enterprises are doing mobile payments. As a result, data is richer and people have higher credit. This is one of the reasons why capital is pouring into China's financial technology sector."

In the fintech sector, attention is focused on the development of Bitcoin and potential blockchain financial transaction technology. Bitcoin mining, Bitcoin payments, and the blockchain process that secures Bitcoin are made possible due to openness and transparency. Wood said: "Liquidity is non-existent, but costs will drop dramatically due to the circulation of Bitcoin. As a digital ledger, the blockchain is completely transparent. It has an audit trail. We eliminate many middlemen. When it comes to financial fraud, we are problem solvers, not problem makers."

Tang Ning echoed her sentiment: “It takes time for awareness and liquidity to build. But when we invested in the Chinese peer-to-peer lending model, it was quiet and not hot. People said we were crazy.

"The leaders of Bitcoin and blockchain have to be crazy sometimes." Indeed, not everyone is a believer in Bitcoin. "There is a fundamental problem with this." Hinrikus insisted: "It lacks purpose and is pure speculation. I find it hard to see that Bitcoin can really solve problems." Despite this, he remains optimistic about blockchain technology. "Blockchain is elegant and intelligent. We will see many applications in the future that have nothing to do with Bitcoin. There are many smart things we can do. I can see a lot of things built around blockchain rather than digital currency entering our lives."

For Chandler Guo, the Bitcoin explorer and co-founder of Bitbank China, the era of digital currency is coming soon. He predicts that GDP will be reported in Bitcoin in the future . "Bitcoin will be the future of currency. Everyone owns Bitcoin. Bill Gates' wealth will be measured by how many Bitcoins he owns. More and more financing companies will enter the blockchain field. When you finally realize that this is the future development direction, you are already too late."