Ant Financial will use blockchain technology to promote public welfare projects

This is an era where technology drives financial development. The driving factors of technology have evolved from the earliest Internet information to big data, cloud computing, and mobile Internet in recent years. However, technological innovation is endless, and blockchain, as a driving force of technology, has shown a booming development trend.

From May 30 to 31, the First Financial Technology and Innovation Conference conducted a comprehensive discussion on the current status and future of blockchain technology, the latest and most cutting-edge field of financial technology. As a blockchain with decentralized concepts and distributed shared accounting technology as its core, it will be embedded in many links in the financial field in the future, such as credit enhancement, title confirmation, equity registration, financial trade, digital assets, etc. A reporter from the First Financial Daily learned from the forum that Ant Financial has currently used blockchain technology to promote public welfare projects .

But it is undeniable that blockchain is still in its early stages of development. Both large financial institutions and small and beautiful startups are still on the road of exploration of blockchain.

Blue Ocean Market

"We are now using blockchain to promote public welfare projects." Qi Yuan, vice president, chief data scientist, and expert of the National Thousand Talents Program of Ant Financial, made it clear at the forum that Ant Financial has made some progress in the field of blockchain. "In the future, we will use blockchain technology to record the entire process of where each public welfare donation comes from and where it goes. This is the first step forward for blockchain technology." Qi Yuan said that it will be easier to achieve in the future if there is support from the government level.

As a distributed shared accounting technology, blockchain, the latest and most cutting-edge technology in the field of financial technology, enables all parties involved to establish a trust relationship at the technical level. At present, this technology has a lot of room for imagination, whether in the field of equity registration, confirmation of ownership, clearing and settlement in the financial field, or in the field of logistics and product verification and traceability.

The technology has been implemented not only by Internet giants like Ant Financial, but also by a large number of small and beautiful companies in the blockchain field. Jiang Hai, founder and CEO of Bubi, pointed out at the forum that Bubi's technology is currently more focused on commercial-grade blockchain technology support services, which specifically include three areas: first, the digital asset field, which includes other digital assets in addition to common points and check-in cards; second, the trade finance field; and third, the equity field, which improves the convenience of equity transactions.

Han Feng, a mentor at Tsinghua University's i-Center and a PhD in quantum physics, said that blockchain will bring a new revolution in asset ownership in the future. "The first generation of Internet information solved the problem of free information transmission, but did not solve the problem of decentralization and asset ownership." Han Feng said that this problem should not be underestimated. At the capital market level, if any technology can clarify the ownership of things that were originally uncertain, it will be a huge change for the entire market.

Take China's current real estate rights confirmation as an example. Even now, compared with foreign countries, China's real estate rights confirmation has only taken a small step to obtain 70 years of use rights. It is precisely because of this clear property right in the capital market that people have more ability to bear capital market risks.

In addition, blockchain will also lead to a huge change in the field of credit enhancement. It is reported that there are about 700 million Internet users in China. "If every Internet user can increase their credit enhancement quota by tens of thousands of yuan through blockchain technology, the increased quota will be trillions nationwide, and it can be proved at the blockchain level that all your credit is universal worldwide," said Han Feng.

"In the future, the core company platforms in China's financial sector will combine data advantages with Internet channel advantages." Lufax Co-Chairman and CEO Ji Kuisheng pointed out at the forum that three things will happen in Internet finance in the future. First, a good matching model between the asset side and the liability side; second, smart investment with follow-up investment and advice and notification as the two main modes; third, blockchain.

"The blockchain model, as a foundation rather than a business model, will solve a large number of credit reporting problems. In the next 3 to 5 years, the largest blockchain market should be in China," said Ji Kuisheng.

Exploration Phase

Although blockchain has shown huge room for growth and brighter prospects in the foreseeable financial development in the future, it is undeniable that this technology is still in its early stages in terms of both technical maturity and commercial implementation model. Concept verification and market education are what the industry is currently investing more energy in.

"Blockchain is still in the exploratory stage." Wan Jianhua, chairman of Zhengtong Co., Ltd., said that if the core concept of blockchain is decentralization, and such a concept builds a new business thinking and financial events, then the foundation is to solve the problem of how to price. The prospect cannot be explained by concepts. In Wan Jianhua's view, if the idea of ​​utopia is used in the business field, the so-called globalization can be realized.

It is undeniable that the exploration of blockchain is very meaningful and valuable, but commercial organizations should still consider it carefully because the development of blockchain is a long process. "The promotion and exploration of blockchain expects support from the government, but in terms of concept, we want to be decentralized, which may be a contradiction in itself." Wan Jianhua said that the impact of information technology on the financial field is still expected.

The development of any technology does not happen overnight, but involves a process. In this chain, blockchain is undoubtedly in its early stages, and this stage is manifested in the immaturity of the technology and the inability to efficiently solve many problems in the financial field.

Han Feng (writer column) told the reporter of China Business News that blockchain is in its early stages and the most important thing is that it is immature. "Bitcoin, which has been running for 8 years, can only process 7 transactions per second in terms of payment processing. Compared with VISA, which can easily process thousands of transactions per second, and Alipay, which peaked at 100,000 during the Double 11 period, there is still a huge gap." Han Feng said that blockchain technology is still in its primitive stage, but this cannot be used to negate the technology.

From the perspective of actual implementation, blockchain technology also has certain "black holes" that need to be filled. "Blockchain technology itself can solve data ownership, pricing and sharing mechanisms, but it cannot completely solve this problem." Qi Yuan gave an example, saying that if an insurance company comes to Ant Financial to discuss cooperation, then the privacy of users is an issue that needs to be "diagnosed" urgently.

Qi Yuan said that how to connect data with user privacy with partners, how to clarify data rights, and other market mechanism issues, in addition to how to price and how to divide, "Blockchain is a very good core technology, but it cannot cover all problems yet."