PwC partner Ji Ruihua: Blockchain will fundamentally change many business fields

Fintech is changing the financial services industry from the inside out. Its most powerful weapon is financial disintermediation. At the same time, the goal of Fintech is to reduce the cost of the financial industry. Blockchain, a technology that has not been fully utilized, is rewriting the rules of the financial industry.

From June 22 to 24, the 2016 Blockchain International Summit was held in Beijing Renaissance Hotel. At the main venue on the 23rd, Ji Ruihua, a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Beijing, gave a speech entitled "The Future Application and Prospects of Blockchain in the Financial Industry". He mentioned:

"Blockchain may fundamentally change many businesses. PwC is actively researching this technology. Both the financial and non-financial sectors are exploring related applications."

As a global group providing professional services, PwC has more than 208,000 employees in 157 countries and regions. It is considered one of the world's four largest accounting firms, providing high-quality services in the fields of auditing, consulting and taxation. 35% of the Fortune 500 companies are audited by it, with a revenue of $35 billion last year, attracting 43% of the audit fees of the Fortune 100. Since last year, it is not difficult to find that PwC's exploration has extended to blockchain.

Ji Ruihua introduced typical applications of blockchain industry such as R3, Nasdaq Linq, and LedgerX at the meeting, and said,

“Finance is very popular. Like other companies in the industry, we are concerned about whether blockchain can be implemented in the financial industry. For example, the cooperation we just conducted with the Bank of England’s FinTech is an exploration in the financial field. There are also several other projects in the United States that are in the final signing process and will be announced soon.

We often hear the word "scenario" now, but there is still a distance between scenario and actual implementation. We don't want to just conceive, but hope to make something that can actually be implemented. These projects also hope to tell everyone as soon as possible that blockchain not only has application scenarios, but can actually be implemented. "

Blockchain exploration has a long history, and overseas cooperation has been frequently achieved

In fact, PwC has expressed a strong interest in blockchain technology a few years ago.

As early as January 2014, PwC released a report titled "Digital Disruptor: How Bitcoin is Driving Digital Innovation in Entertainment, Media and Communications", which mentioned that Bitcoin has driven digital innovation in multiple industries.

In 2015, PwC released another report, "Currency is not an object: Understanding the changing digital currency market", which mainly discussed how to understand digital currency, especially Bitcoin, and how it will affect the future development of the financial industry.

From these reports released by PwC, we can see the extent to which PwC, as a pioneer, recognizes the potential of digital currency.

PwC has been actively expanding its cooperation in the blockchain field. On June 20 this year, PwC was selected for the Bank of England's Fintech Accelerator Program. In February, PwC hired a former regulator of the UK's main financial regulator to join its newly established blockchain consulting team, which is expected to expand to 40 people this year.

In addition, in late 2015 and early 2016, PwC announced partnerships with blockchain startups: Blockstream, Digital Asset Holdings, and Eris Industries.

Also in 2015, PwC conducted more than 10,000 hours of analysis on more than 1,000 companies using blockchain. Ji Ruihua introduced,

"PwC is a comprehensive professional services firm. In fact, it has a trial mechanism to focus on the development of these technologies in every industry topic. Globally, PwC publishes its technology outlook for the next one to five years every year. Blockchain technology has been on PwC's list of concerns for several years. Our overseas brother and sister firms started doing related research two years ago, and some cooperation agreements in Europe and the United States have been in place for at least a year."

Domestic performance is good, cooperation promotes the application of blockchain in the Chinese market

In addition to frequently reaching cooperation agreements overseas, PwC China has also performed well in promoting the implementation of blockchain. In June this year, PwC announced its cooperation with BitSE, a blockchain startup headquartered in Shanghai.

Founded in Shanghai in 2013, BitSE is committed to building a global blockchain service platform based on the concept of Blockchain as a service and powerful computing power, providing business solutions based on blockchain technology to global customers, especially Chinese customers. In addition to the company's powerful computing power that can provide secondary value-added services for corporate private chains, the company's products include: Vechain, Satoshichain, Colorcontract, and Qtum. They are committed to providing authenticity verification platforms, private chain services, smart contract platforms, blockchain operating systems and other services through blockchain technology. On June 22, BitSE announced that it had joined the Hyperledger project.

Ji Ruihua mentioned in an interview,

"BitSE is a technology company, and we are a professional service company. Each application affects not only the technology itself, but the entire industry needs to be transformed. Blockchain is particularly critical. Everyone says it is here to subvert existing industries. In fact, it grasps the boundaries of many existing applications and is a transformation of the relationship or form of business cooperation between companies. Every change in the system brings about changes in the entire management and customer relations behind it. We hope to achieve a feasible solution through cooperation with BitSE."

With the conclusion of this cooperation, both parties will combine their respective advantages to form a team of more than 50 experts to jointly promote the application of blockchain technology in the Chinese market and provide customers with one-stop solutions.

Every security incident should reflect the appropriate attention to security itself

Taking this opportunity, Ji Ruihua also shared with Babbitt some of his views on typical controversial issues in the industry. The recent attack on The DAO has become the focus of the entire community, and the guests at this summit also shared their views on the solution to The DAO incident and possible consequences. Ji Ruihua put aside the incident itself and interpreted it from a higher level:

"Every security incident should reflect everyone's proper attention to security itself. For example, Bitcoin has encountered some problems in the past. Is the blockchain itself insecure? The core technology blockchain itself is secure. However, when applying it, it must be connected with the business and interact with people. From the management and behavior perspectives, the business and people themselves are a potential gap. So when implementing it, we should pay attention to how to ensure security. The DAO incident came at a very timely moment, reminding everyone not to think that blockchain is omnipotent. In fact, it is just a technology and a tool. When implementing it, we should pay proper attention to the background and supporting links to ensure that it is secure as a whole."