The essence of high-end dialogue: How to understand the meaning of blockchain and bitcoin?

On May 27th, the high-end dialogue on the theme of “blockchain – the cornerstone of digital civilization” was held at the Guiyang International Ecological Conference Center. The guests participated in the theme of promoting the development of the trusted digital society around the blockchain, and explored the “blockchain+” ecological construction and other content to carry out the peak dialogue.

This high-end dialogue of the blockchain chain was hosted by the Organizing Committee of China International Big Data Expo 2019, hosted by China Information and Communication Research Institute, and exclusive media coverage of Odaily Planet Daily.

Chairman of the Blueport Interactive Group, Wang Feng, founder of Mars Finance, hosted the round-table dialogue. The guests included: Kevin Kelly, author of Out of Control, Cao Jiannong, Head of Department of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hu Jianbo, Chief Engineer, China Institute of Information and Communications, Beijing Internet Court Dean Zhang Wen, head of Ernst China blockchain Wang Jing.

Kevin Kelly believes that the current blockchain is still a superheated concept, and many infrastructures are under construction, but that does not mean that the future blockchain will succeed. But if the future blockchain is successful, it will definitely be integrated into our lives and become accustomed to it. Twenty years later, no one discussed the blockchain, and the blockchain became "boring", like "electricity."

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Hu Jianbo, chief engineer of China Information and Communication Research Institute, believes that the blockchain will be the first to be applied in some areas where data sharing is required, including medical care, supply chain, Internet of Things, and identity management.

Wang Jing, head of Ernst & Young China's blockchain, believes that blockchain technology can help China and other developing countries to spend more than a hundred years building trust systems in developed countries such as Europe and the United States. A blockchain is a transfer of trust and a component that creates a trust machine.

The following is a wonderful record of some roundtable dialogues:

1. A tag in the blockchain is trust. Trust is the first. How do the guests understand the meaning of the blockchain "trust"?

Kevin Kelly, author of Out of Control: The trust we gain from the blockchain is mathematically trustworthy, but those who go to the blockchain service, as well as organizations, or those who control the network, need to be trusted. So trust is not what we naturally generate, but needs to be built – to build trust with the organization and build trust with others. Whether we are a non-profit organization or a profit-making organization, we must trust them. This is also something that we need to achieve through a long effort.

Hu Jianbo, chief engineer of China Information and Communication Research Institute: In order to achieve the effect of trust, some government agencies have also done a lot of measures to endorse trust, but this problem has not been well resolved. When the blockchain technology emerged, we saw its role in building trust and benefiting the development of a credible society.

Cao Jiannong, head of the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University: The blockchain has created a trust-free platform for us in a society that lacks trust. For example, the transfer of funds can make the trading behavior of the transfer parties free of trust through the smart contract, which is actually equivalent to forcing the automated execution of the two parties' transactions. In addition, the blockchain can also be traced, such as beef traceability. So the two most important features of the blockchain, one is the consensus, that is, what I saw, I also saw it, and the two agreed with each other; the second one cannot be changed, and no one can change it after the record is placed. Mutual trust, these two features guarantee the reconstruction of trust.

Zhang Wen, Dean of the Beijing Internet Court: Whether the electronic evidence is credible has always been a problem in the trial of Internet courts. Because of this, we have used blockchain technology to establish a chain of alliances in our courts, the balance chain, to solve the problem of credible electronic evidence.

Wang Jing, head of Ernst & Young China Blockchain: Blockchain technology can help developing countries such as China avoid or eliminate the need to build a path of trusting society in Europe and the United States for nearly a hundred years. Accelerating the entry into a trusting society through blockchain technology and accelerating the promotion of China's business environment is of great significance to developing countries. At the same time, for the industry, blockchain technology has a subversive effect on industries with low trust level or discontinuous trust relationship and high trust cost.

2. What stage is the development of the blockchain now?

Kevin Kelly: I think the blockchain is still an overheating concept. Many infrastructures are under construction, but that doesn't mean the future blockchain will succeed. If there is no cryptocurrency, how many people are interested in the blockchain? These cryptocurrencies shift people's attention to the blockchain. Blockchain is much more important than cryptocurrency, but few people talk about it. Blockchain now makes people think this is a novelty, but if the future blockchain succeeds, it will be integrated into our lives and become accustomed to it. Twenty years later, no one discussed the blockchain, and the blockchain became "boring", like "electricity."

Hu Jianbo: If there is no bitcoin, few people talk about the blockchain. The blockchain is now being tested in different areas, and some universities and research institutes are experimenting with it. I think this is a good phenomenon. With such accumulation, the future blockchain will become very accustomed to it. Slowly, people will not feel its existence, or even realize it, and eventually become the cornerstone of the entire society in the future.

Cao Jiannong: The development of the blockchain has gone through three stages – the first stage is bitcoin and cryptocurrency; the second stage is the smart contract brought by Ethereum, which brings a lot of convenience. Now there are various kinds of Application; the third stage is “blockchain+”. The blockchain has been combined with all walks of life, just like the “Internet of Things+”. Technically speaking, the blockchain is still in the early stage of development, and there will be a blockchain standard behind. No standard is not conducive to the development of blockchain technology.

Zhang Wen: The blockchain application is currently in its infancy, and the application of the blockchain scenario will take a long time.

Wang Jing: Ernst & Young believes that 2018 is the first year of blockchain industry, and 2038 will be the peak period of blockchain application.

3. How to understand the meaning of Bitcoin now?

Kevin Kelly: In theory, bitcoin is very interesting and has potential to be used. Due to the limited number, Bitcoin will have a storage function like gold, becoming digital gold; but now it is more like a speculative tool. In the end, which digital currency will win, I think other digital currencies can solve some specific problems, but bitcoin does not have this function, and bitcoin needs to develop. Bitcoin can't really be a currency until bitcoin prices stop volatility, making it hard to come in handy.

4. How to understand the convergence of blockchain technology and digital upgrade?

Kevin Kelly: The role of the blockchain in the digital civilization should be the highly decentralized infrastructure we want, and everyone can get the data we want. Of course, there are also some mechanisms needed to avoid cyber fraud and hacking.

Wang Jing: First, we believe that the blockchain is an important driving force for the digital economy. Data can only be generated by sharing, and blockchain technology can realize privacy protection while sharing data through distributed ledger technology. Second, the organization of people for thousands of years has been realized through decentralization. For thousands of years, we have done business through centralized organizations. The future blockchain technology can make human society enter into a countless center. Organizations provide an endorsed society to an emerging society that realizes credit. Third, humanity enters the digital economy, the platform economy and the sharing economy. Blockchain technology is the underlying foundation of the platform economy, platform economy and shared economy.

Cao Jiannong: In addition to protecting privacy and building trust, the blockchain can also break down digital islands and play a technical support role in establishing new value chains.

5. What problems do blockchain technology most want to solve?

Hu Jianbo: In the government, the most talked about is data contribution and data governance.

Cao Jiannong: In the simplest way, let ordinary people accept the concept of blockchain and use it.

Zhang Wen: From the perspective of the judiciary, how to let the participating units jointly abide by the rules.

Wang Jing: Multi-party cooperation and multi-party consensus issues. First, the lack of the first impetus (central bank, court); Second, how the people understand the value of the blockchain; in addition, many customers will regard the blockchain as an EIP (improvement proposal), we hope to reverse everyone's concept.

6. From theory to practice, in which areas will the blockchain be first applied?

Kevin Kelly: I think the blockchain is most useful for industries where digital data is concentrated. Financial institutions, digital industries, healthcare, retail, etc. will be the first to land.

Cao Jiannong: There is a lot of data, data needs to be shared by multiple parties, such as medical care; data management in the supply chain will be the next application area; Internet data sharing at the edge of the Internet may also be applied; in addition, identity management (university), etc. Application scenario.

Zhang Wen: Copyright protection.

7. Is there any thing in the privacy protection of blockchain technology that gives us hope?

Kevin kelly: Even if the encryption mechanism is not broken, the data may still be leaked. To some extent, it is not that there is a problem with the encryption program, and there is a problem with the human organization. In this process, some people break such rules and steal data.

In terms of algorithms or mathematics, the blockchain is entirely trustworthy, but we cannot fully trust it in the process of chaining the entire blockchain. Even with the blockchain, we still have the problem of data leakage. It's not that its encryption algorithm is a problem, but in the process, there are some artificial non-compliance practices.

For privacy protection, many innovations can be introduced from the technical level to ensure privacy protection. Especially in our era of big data. Recently Google launched an innovative "differential privacy or alliance learning." This data will be mastered by you. If you want to share, it will be combined with other data, and then you can get the combined data. This is just an innovative technology to protect privacy.

Blockchain is also one of the innovative technologies. In the era of big data, we do have a lot of technical means to make people feel the security of data and let them master the control of this data sharing. To protect privacy, what we need to do is not to reduce data flow or to reduce technology use. We need to add more technological innovations and then carry out further privacy protection.

Cao Jiannong: I think the blockchain can focus on three aspects. The first is the storage method. Through distributed, all private information does not necessarily exist in one aspect. There may be different nodes. In the future, your identity and data information are not all together. The second is transparency, who will use my data, who will take me; the third is transparency, so many things do not need to announce my identity, I can also finish this thing.

8. What is the relationship between blockchain as an emerging technology and the several important cutting-edge technologies that we are currently seeing more popular?

Kevin kelly: The current artificial intelligence technologies are based on neural networks, and neural networks require very large data poles for neural network training and millions of training sessions. In the next decade, artificial intelligence will need big data very much. There is no artificial intelligence without big data. At the same time, big data is also inseparable from artificial intelligence. Big data is too big, so there is no cheap, easy to use, and ubiquitous AI has no way to deal with it. Big data is a symbiotic relationship with AI and needs each other.

It is ok to do AI without blockchain, but doing AI without big data can not be practically applied. Blockchain can help big data become more practical and valuable. The most important relationship is the relationship between big data and artificial intelligence. Rather than the relationship between big data and blockchain.

Hu Jianbo: From the perspective of overall development, AI definitely needs big data. What role does the blockchain play in this? I personally feel that you should not overstate its role. AI itself is based on big data. For the accumulation, validity, and usefulness of data, it is possible that the blockchain can do some work. More positioning from this perspective, in this way, can play their respective roles in the overall development of the future. I think it is not appropriate to say that blockchain replaces cloud computing. Blockchain should integrate itself into the business model of cloud computing to provide services for all walks of life.

Cao Jiannong: Blockchain and AI are both basic technologies. As for how the two interact with each other, what I see now is unilateral. I don’t know how to use the AI ​​in the blockchain. The AI ​​uses the blockchain, the blockchain has data, and the blockchain has a lot of spoilers. There are many ways to use data in the blockchain. AI can mine effective patterns from it, and it is more efficient to set the blockchain mechanism through this mode.

Blockchain and big data, the Internet of Things is a kind of enabling. If you talk about cross-cloud cooperation, how to have transparency, build this on a cloudy combination, do data sharing mechanism, service sharing mechanism, I think this is a good method. The blockchain is likely to become a measure under the Internet of Things to share data and manage data.

In the next five years, how will China and the United States compete and integrate in the field of blockchain?

Kevin kelly: Trump is still president in the United States. It's hard to say how much progress will happen. Trump is a man who is hard to predict. But I hope that the blockchain can further realize the interconnection and cooperation between China and the United States, but I really have no way to predict what will happen in the future.

Hu Jianbo: China and the United States have great differences in the blockchain. China is more active in the promotion of applications in various industries, including business model innovation, but the underlying technology has been relatively weak. If there is a global industrial chain support, everyone will jointly use the global industrial chain to promote the future digitalization process. But now in this environment, I think that the parties may develop their position in this industry more evenly. China and the United States may be different and may be more balanced, including application promotion and advancement of the underlying technology.

Cao Jiannong: China and the United States cooperate with each other. On the platform, technically, the possible barriers are not so great. But if the blockchain algorithm is developed as a cutting-edge technology (non-open source), whether it is trusted and whether it is docked, it will be a problem. Blockchains are also value chains, and there will be problems like mutual attacks on the Internet of Things, wars or others, and challenges in the future.

Wang Jing: I believe that the blockchain is the technical bottom line for human survival in its lifetime. Sino-US trade frictions and Trump's uncertainty have a short-term impact on the development of blockchain, but in the long run there is not much impact, because blockchain technology will follow the current nature and laws to change human society.

Original article, author: Qin Xiaofeng

Source: Planet Daily

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