Editor-in-Chief Interview | Xiao Feng: We should not only look at new things from a historical perspective

"I have half of the time now on the blockchain."

Prior to joining the blockchain, he had more than 20 years of experience in traditional finance. The leader in the blockchain field began to lead the Wanxiang blockchain in 2015 with a fully ecological business layout.

At present, the Wanxiang Blockchain Conference is under preparation. The summit has been held for five consecutive years and is one of the vane of the industry development trend. What are the highlights this year? What future trends can you see from the conference? Recently, Xiao Feng, chairman of Wanxiang Blockchain, accepted an exclusive interview with the media.

In the interview, the general helmsman of the Wanxiang blockchain talked to us about Libra and the central bank's digital currency , shared their thoughts on the development of the current blockchain , and revealed in advance that he would share at the Wanxiang Blockchain Summit. Part of the content .

• The supply of Ethereum has grown rapidly in the past three years, with 40 million new ETHs.
• Portugal: Bitcoin transactions and payments are not subject to any taxes
• A small step in DeFi, can it bring a big step in finance?

The following is the interview content of Babbitt editor Tang Xiuling and Dr. Xiao Feng, which was confirmed by me.

Tang Xia Ling: The biggest hot spot in recent times is the central bank digital currency. What do you think of the central bank's digital currency? What impact will it have on the blockchain and digital currency markets?

Xiao Feng : In fact, the current technology is not mature enough, and no commercial organization has practiced it before. The central bank is willing to try to set the digital currency. The attitude is very positive and worthy of praise.

The challenge of the central bank's digital currency is to find the demand scenario . The birth of any new currency form must be demand driven. Before the currency appeared, it was a barter exchange, because barter exchange was inconvenient. For example, if you hold two sheep, I will hold a cow. If you can’t trade, you will have a physical currency.

Moreover, because of the inconvenience of physical currency, such as silver ingots and copper coins, it is extremely troublesome transaction and payment method. In addition, papermaking and printing were developed at that time, and banknotes were obtained.

Any subsequent change in currency pattern is accompanied by a new type of transaction or payment requirement. The central bank's legal digital currency is also the same. There must be a scene: What is the central bank's digital currency used for? What scenario is it suitable for? The central bank sends the bank to the bank, how does the bank use it, how to receive the payment scenario, how to connect to the vertical areas such as e-commerce and social networking? This is a huge test and a design that determines success or failure. Tang Xia Ling: I have sorted out the guests and themes invited by Wanxiang in recent years. In 2015, you invited Vtalik to China, letting everyone see the embarrassment of Ethereum and smart contracts first; last year was Irisnet and Cosmos, let everyone Seeing the rise of cross-chain in advance, the Wanxiang Blockchain Conference has become one of the vane of industry development. What will be watched this year?

Xiao Feng : The Wanxiang Block Chain Summit has been running for 5 years. We are very honored to have invited many outstanding overseas projects to share in China. The Wanxiang blockchain team is now more than 200 people, we will also track and research the latest trends. There are two main points of this year: first, financial infrastructure, and second, distributed economic ecology.

First, about financial infrastructure. The blockchain has brought about a revolution in financial infrastructure, which is a huge difference between blockchain and the Internet. The Internet is a commercial revolution, not a financial revolution. The blockchain was born in Bitcoin in 2009, so it has a relationship with finance. After Libra comes out, everyone can discuss this issue in more depth.

The second is the distributed economic ecology. The basic characteristics of the digital economy are cross-border, cross-organization, and time-space. There must be new financial infrastructure to serve this fully digital economy. The application of the blockchain, if this is not done, is only to improve the marginal effect. If these characteristics are not available, they are not applied to the essence of the blockchain. Financial infrastructure and the distribution of economic ecology, we think it will be a big trend in the future. Tang Xia Ling: From the overseas projects that you have been in contact with in recent years, what are the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign blockchain development?

Xiao Feng : Overseas is more technologically innovative, and China wins in the market . The large-scale popularization of China Mobile Internet and mobile payment fully proves this point.

In China, WeChat and Alipay are both hundreds of millions of users; in the United States, PayPal is very successful, but the total population of the United States is only 300 million. Whether it is Microsoft, IBM, or Facebook, they have to amortize R&D costs. To make money, they need to sell to China. Therefore, China is a big market that cannot be ignored. Tang Xia Ling: The original blockchain team is doing the public chain, and the traditional enterprise enters the blockchain to form the alliance chain. Which kind of power do you prefer?

Xiao Feng : Looking at all the trajectories of technology development, most of the inventions and innovations at the beginning came from technical geeks, not big companies. However, it is difficult for geeks to standardize and scale new technologies. New technologies, to truly develop into good technical systems and economic systems, need to rely on regular forces with organizational capabilities and commercial operational experience. Therefore, these two people are very important.

I also agree that a non-licensed public chain is the ultimate goal. However , many practices in the public chain are more advanced than the existing financial supervision and legal systems. The alliance chain is a form that is more in line with the existing legal system and compliance requirements on the basis of the public chain. Tang Xia Ling: Wanxiang also has a blockchain investment business. What is the investment direction?

Xiao Feng : In 2015, we established a distributed capital of 50 million US dollars, and Wanxiang is a single LP. At the end of last year, we set up HashKey again, and Wanxiang is also LP, but it attracted some external funds. Investment positioning is focused on blockchain technology and blockchain applications. There were no major projects in the past few years, and 20-300,000 US dollars may be able to account for 10% of the shares. The current projects are generally more expensive. Overseas projects accounted for about 70% of the projects already invested, and next will look more at the application of the blockchain.

Tang Xialing: The blockchain field has been talking about consensus, but at the cognitive level is the circle with the least consensus. What do you think about this problem? What do you think is the biggest consensus in the blockchain circle?

Xiao Feng : I think that there is no consensus at this stage than a consensus. Now the industry is still in a divergent stage. In this early stage of the industry, there is no way to determine who has a future and who has no future.

I joined the financial industry in Shenzhen in 1989. Looking back, the various non-compliance, illegal or even fraudulent behaviors that have occurred in the blockchain industry are not worse than that. This round of currency price increases so much, it means that the market will automatically clean, that is, "market clearing." From a historical perspective, the chaos that exists at this stage is just some of the costs of historical development. Tang Xia Ling: As a senior financial practitioner, why are you curious about the blockchain? What is the most attractive blockchain?

Xiao Feng : What attracts me most is the economic model. The Internet is a bit more technical, but the blockchain is not just a technology, but a combination of technology, finance and economic models .

The most important features of the blockchain are distributed, decentralized, and self-organizing. How does a self-organized economic system motivate all participants? What are the mutual rights and responsibilities? That is, the incentives in economics are compatible, and everyone can get positive incentives. This game can be played for a long time and become an infinite game. The economic model inside is very interesting and I am fascinated. Tang Xia Ling: What will you say in this year's Wanxiang Blockchain Conference? Can you disclose it in advance?

Xiao Feng : I want to share the impact of the emergence of Libra on the future development of the blockchain. I see Libra as the third generation personal payment system. The first generation of personal payment systems are VISA, MasterCard, etc., which are based on bank cards for personal payments. The second generation is mobile payment such as WeChat and Alipay, which is based on mobile wallet and pays with QR code.

Libra is the third generation personal payment system . It is a cross-currency, cross-border, cross-organizational, point-to-point personal payment, and even the exchange of foreign exchange is gone, which will reduce a lot of friction.

This is a challenge for China. On the second generation of personal payment systems, we are hard to surpass others, but if the third generation of personal payment occurs, we are still using the original regulatory policy, and may be behind. Tang Xia Ling: Can you share your own knowledge of blockchain knowledge and build a system of cognitive processes? Do you have any ideas to share with everyone?

Xiao Feng : In the face of a new thing, don't just look at it from the perspective of interest, but from a historical perspective. If you only look at it from the perspective of interest, it is easy to see very short. If you look short and act short, you will become very speculative. If you lengthen the historical dimension, you can see that the new technology may bring huge changes to the financial market in ten or twenty years. Now some short-sighted behaviors don't make much sense.

In the 40 years of reform and opening up, there are times when you think it is your skill. In fact, we have encountered a trend. Blockchain is the trend of history. It takes ten years to do things seriously, do the right thing, and finally earn money. Why not?

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!