Interview with Li Ming, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: How to Understand the Value of Blockchain

Source: Securities Daily , original title "Understanding the value of blockchain through the traceability process of "Step by Step Chicken" – Interview with Li Ming, Director of China Electronics Technology Standardization Institute

Author: Ma Fang Xing Meng industry

Recently, knowledge of blockchain knowledge, discussion of blockchain technology and its application climax have been set up across the country. How to understand the blockchain? Where is the value of the blockchain? With many questions, the "Securities Daily" reporter interviewed Li Ming, director of the blockchain research office of China Electronics Technology Standardization Research Institute. Li Ming also serves as Director of the Blockchain Research Office of the Electronics Industry Standardization Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technical Committee, IEEE P2418.2 Blockchain Data Format International Standards Project Chairman of the group, IEEE P2841 AI Deep Learning Assessment Framework and Process International Standards Project Chair, long-term follow-up study of global blockchain industry development and blockchain standardization.

"Securities Daily": Director Li, hello, there are more and more people discussing the blockchain in the society, and there are even many metaphors of "shape", such as the use of mahjong. Can you tell us something about the blockchain?

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Li Ming: Ok. The blockchain is actually only a popular saying. According to the standard, it should be called blockchain and distributed accounting technology. It is defined in the ISO22739 international standard. The blockchain is a distribution that uses the cryptographic technique to add the consensus-confirmed blocks in order. Account book. At the technical level, the blockchain is a data structure formed by arranging the blockchain data in time series by using an encryption algorithm. The distributed ledger is a distributed consensus mechanism for storing blockchain data in different nodes in the network. . Blockchain uses a block-chained data structure to "encapsulate" data. Distributed accounting uses a distributed network to store the same ledger as a mechanism guarantee. Therefore, it can be understood that the blockchain and distributed accounting technology use a series of technical means to "encapsulate" the data, forming a credible, consensus-defense-proof technical system to support the maximization of data value.

At the application level, through the "encapsulation" of data, it provides technical support for deposit and confirmation, transaction and exchange, and traceability. Now I combine a traceability scenario to analyze what a blockchain is and its value. An insurance company has made a “step by step chicken” project, which links the breeding bases, distributors, logistics parties and supermarkets in the industrial chain, and encapsulates the “step by step” living data through blockchain technology. "On the chain, the common people can scan the relevant devices to understand the whole life process of the chicken. This is to use the supply chain stakeholders as a distributed node of the blockchain to jointly understand or share the true data of the chickens, in order to complete the consensus of all relevant parties in the supply chain, and finally let the people really eat the guaranteed chicken.

At the same time, the project connects banks and insurance companies into the blockchain network, allowing banks and insurance companies to keep track of chicken health and activity data in real time, so that banks do not have to go to the mountains to investigate, reducing the cost of due diligence, so that At a very low cost, the money is loaned to farmers, and farmers can expand the scale of farming. Similarly, insurance companies also have health data for chickens. For example, the system records that chickens can go 10,000 steps a day. The health of chickens can be guaranteed, and insurance companies are willing to sell insurance to chicken farmers. If there is a problem, the agricultural science experts who access the network can also make suggestions for the farmers according to the actual situation. In this way, all relevant parties are ecologically introduced into the blockchain network to form an ecological consensus.

This example can fully reflect the technical value of the blockchain. The first is to deposit the certificate, to link the activity data of the chicken, share it in the supply chain and the ecological environment after depositing the certificate, thus opening up the trust channel in the supply chain and the ecology, reducing the trust cost and commercial friction, and enhancing the value exchange. effectiveness. This case created a new business model. The original farmers did not have credit guarantees. They needed to be investigated by people and protected by agreement. Now they can realize credit support through blockchain technology, thus building a new business model. Through our analysis, we find that the blockchain can be used in four aspects: deposit and confirmation, transaction and exchange, traceability and credit service. The premise of the latter three application methods is to deposit and confirm the rights. Exchange, traceability and credit services. Most of the projects of traceability, points, supply chain management, and judicial deposits are now in the category. Through this analysis, the exhaustion phenomenon in various scenarios such as finance, education, and medical care is avoided, and related application logic can be extracted based on the technical characteristics of the blockchain to provide guidance for all industries.

Securities Daily: No matter what kind of new generation information technology, it should ultimately serve the real economy. Then, what is the difference and connection between information technology and the real economy and the digital economy?

Li Ming: From the perspective of science and technology, the core elements of the digital economy are data, blockchain and other new generation information technology is a tool for processing data, mainly to maximize the value of data, the activities generated by the new generation of information technology processing data process And phenomena may be a component of the digital economy. At present, in the process of digital transformation, we must maximize the value of data. There are two aspects to this process. The first is digital industrialization, and the second is industrial digitalization. Digital industrialization is to accelerate the formation of a new generation of information technology industry ecology. Industrial digitalization is the use of digital technology in the industry, including financial technology, regulatory technology, industrial Internet, legal technology and content technology.

The core element of the digital economy is data, which is quite different from the traditional industrial economy. Suppose that one kilowatt of electricity is used, a certain amount of coal is consumed, and the electricity is used up, and the coal is gone. However, the data is different. Once collected, it can be used indefinitely under the premise of compliance and legality. It can even reduce the marginal cost of data collection and acquisition to zero. In addition to the diminishing marginal cost, the value space of the data can be infinitely magnified. For example, height and weight data is a value, height, weight, and home address are another value, and then increase the work address, but also form a new value space. Each data item and other data items can form a new value space, and when the amount of data is infinite, a huge value space will be formed. This is why the head Internet companies such as Facebook and Ant Financial have defined themselves as data companies because they have gained great commercial value in the data.

Finally, data-based services have become the main form of service, the most direct is the credit information service, the data in the credit field is the business. Data is important, but there are legal risks associated with non-compliant direct transactions and exchanges. Data-based services have become a very good business model. In the traditional environment, buying a bicycle is a commodity-based service. In the digital economy environment, there is a large amount of data, the transformation of commodity-based services to data-based services, and the sharing model emerged in this context. People don't need to buy a bicycle. As long as they are based on geographic location and mobile payment, they can complete the data service based on shared bicycles. You can enjoy the service by spending 1 yuan. Shared bicycles are no longer commodities, and they have become the carrier of data services. The marginal cost of data, infinite space, and data-driven services form a new business model or an innovative model worth considering.

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