Taiwan holds first blockchain public hearing, urging blockchain research to start as soon as possible

Rage Comment : This month, Taiwanese government officials, blockchain advocates and scholars attended the first blockchain hearing of the Taiwan Legislative Council to discuss the pros and cons of the emerging technology and its impact on Taiwan's economy. Former Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Zeng Mingzong, National Taiwan University professors and other participants detailed the development of blockchain in the world and called on the government to join this global mainstream technology exploration. This is a clear change from Taiwan's attitude towards digital currency last year.

Translation: Annie_Xu

This month, Taiwan held its first public hearing on blockchain technology to discuss its relationship with money transfer, current regulatory systems, and academic research. Government officials, blockchain advocates, and academics gathered at the Taiwanese Legislative Council to discuss distributed ledgers and their economic impact.

Taiwanese bankers should start blockchain research as soon as possible

Kuan Chung-ming, a professor at National Taiwan University and a member of the Department of Finance, said at the hearing:

Blockchain technology will become a cross-border connection between countries and industries around the world. The new protocol is more cost-effective than traditional payment methods, and "Taiwan should seize the opportunity as soon as possible."

Tseng Ming-chung

This position was also shared by Tseng Ming-chung, former chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), and most current lawmakers present. Tseng explained to the public and central bank attendees that the Bank of England had already begun evaluating the financial technology and that we should follow suit; he also detailed global investment in the field and the rapid development of distributed ledgers.

Zeng Mingzong believes that blockchain technology will not only affect the financial industry, but can also be applied to the scientific field; this revolutionary protocol marks a significant development in domestic industry information; it follows the development of mainframes in the 1970s, personal computers in the 1980s and the Internet in the early 1990s, and will become the next revolutionary stage.

Executive Secretary Cai Fulong, a blockchain supporter, said:

Distributed ledger technology has many advantages, but it also has drawbacks; including 51% attacks, capacity issues, hard forks, and the implementation of new technology versions.

Tseng Ming-tsung said at the meeting that Taiwan has always been open to blockchain technology, despite the fact that mainstream media and various crypto publications have said in the past that Taiwan has banned Bitcoin. However, this is not the case, as Tseng Ming-tsung said in November 215 that Bitcoin has not been scrutinized by the Taiwanese people because it is treated as a commodity and is not strictly regulated. At the meeting, he said that digital currency and blockchain will have a "significant financial impact" worldwide. In fact, he has been calling on the Taiwanese banking industry to explore blockchain as soon as possible.

Liaoshi Wei, a Taiwanese technology developer and professor of information and engineering at National Taiwan University, also spoke in support of the development of blockchain technology, saying, "The essence of blockchain is open and interoperable, which increases government information sharing." Overall, the hearing speakers believed that the Taiwanese government should welcome this global technology trend. The meeting called on regulators and government agencies to avoid discussing regulatory policies to avoid "restricting financial innovation." The meeting also discussed the proposal of a government-issued digital currency.

Supporters of blockchain and digital currency solutions have spared no effort to educate the public on the benefits of blockchain; this first public hearing on blockchain attended by scholars, central bank governors and government officials is an active effort in this direction. No one wants to miss this development opportunity, and Taiwan is certainly no exception.