The significance of blockchain currency: or promote a new round of development of the international digital economy

Most of the currency people may not think of this: the digital currency boom led by Facebook, the rest of the wave will continue for such a long time. Although the relevant rules of this project are still not clear, the two facts that are undeniable at present are: First, the breakthrough that Libra brings to the entire industry is more in the promotion of public opinion than in technology and application innovation; Secondly, Libra's public opinion storm far exceeded the industry's expectations, not only lasting for two months, but also covering the vast majority of financial institutions around the world. Until now, the "China Central Bank Digital Plan" and the "Wal-Mart cryptocurrency action" ignited by it still occupy the headline of the blockchain industry and even the entire financial sector.

Why does Libra's popularity as a discussion topic last for so long? It should be known that in the Internet era, especially in the blockchain industry, a hot spot lasts for two days as a normal level. It lasts for two weeks and is quite unacceptable. As for two months, it will happen only in rare cases. For this matter, it is not difficult to find out after a little review, mainly because in the process of Libra's issuance and promotion, too many elites with their own traffic continue to express their opinions on this issue, to a certain extent. Played the role of "increasing the salary" – from the Internet giants such as Ma Huateng, to Trump's Twitter attack, and later the US Congress's review, the People's Bank of China's digital currency plan, the top 500 perennial Wal-Mart Struggling to catch up, the above behavior, life-long Libra nailed to the hot search list, want to pick can not pick.

But the question is, how can the elite's interest in Libra be so high that they seem to have become money lovers and researchers overnight? After all, many related studies have long been conclusive: unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Libra is not an investment target with an ideal rate of return, and it does not make people rich overnight and cross the class in a short time. There is only one answer: a blockchain-based digital currency like Libra will impact the existing financial and even economic structure to some extent, leading to an event that elites have to pay attention to: the number A new round of economic development.

First, the important constraint of mobile payment: coordination between stakeholders

What is certain is that no matter from which point of view, blockchain currencies like Libra are in line with the general trend of currency development. Needless to say, in terms of the front-end form, the direction of currency development is inherently more lightweight and convenient. That is, from the previous physical form and metal form, to the later banknote form and digital form. For this, many friends should be well-received. Mobile payment such as Alipay and WeChat has become an indispensable tool for daily life, and it is more convenient than paper money.

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However, many of my friends may not have thought about why such a convenient application as mobile payment has always been “self-selling” in China, but has not been widely popularized in other countries. The reason for this situation is largely due to institutional factors and not just the technical factors of Internet companies in other countries. After all, although the overseas business of Ali and Tencent is gradually advancing in recent years, the mobile payment ace business has not been widely spread in other countries with their footsteps.

In order to maintain the focus of this article, the principle of mobile payment is briefly introduced here. Different from what many people think, the popularity and promotion of mobile payment is not only the credit of the product research and development team of technology companies such as Ali and Tencent. The assistance of traditional commercial banks also plays a very important role, if there is no latter. The perfect infrastructure network that has been built over the years, and the ability to allow mobile payment applications to access its interfaces, the third-party payment tools have a high probability of hitting the wall, as if Alipay and WeChat payment were faced overseas.

However, why does the attitude of commercial banks to third-party payment change from the initial conflict to the later cooperation? In addition to the development of technology including the mobile Internet, another important reason is that large-scale technology companies like Ali and Tencent have long-standing cooperation with relevant departments. At the same time, China’s commercial banks are mainly based on State-owned capital is the mainstay, and after 2012, the Chinese economy began to plan to transform from “heavy chemical industry” to “high-tech”. Under the coordination of relevant departments, third-party payment companies and commercial banks that were difficult to cooperate were like this. Standing on the same front.

This is actually an important factor in the failure of many countries except China to achieve mobile payments. It is not that local users do not want to, nor are they completely technical conditions of foreign technology companies. To a large extent, because local commercial banks and payment companies cannot stand together, this may be due to subjective bank attitudes. It is difficult to coordinate the policy without opening the interface, or it may be because the financial infrastructure is incomplete and difficult to spread. As a result, increasing the degree of digitization of the currency has become an unsuccessful dream of these countries and regions. Friends of outbound travel should have the impression that many countries are still using banknotes and coins that are now very traditional when they are paying, or are relatively “dedicated” payment instruments with credit cards instead of Mobile phones are a "universal" payment tool.

Second, the important foundation of the digital economy: Libra-type currency or set off a new round of industrial transformation

However, the emergence of blockchain currencies like Libra gave the payment companies in these countries and regions a chance to overtake the car and quickly realize mobile payments. As we all know, it is very easy to open a wallet account address in the blockchain. At the same time, the user account changes are not like the banks in the traditional financial system. It is necessary to mobilize a lot of resources to carry out this matter – yes, look It seems that very simple mobile payment, in fact, there are many commercial organizations to support this work (to avoid weakening the theme, here is not a narrative).

In other words, for these foreign third-party payment companies, they now use the blockchain technology to supplement their original shortest board (collaboration with banks) on the road of currency digitization. Strong: If they used to engage in the third-party payment business, they had to deal with the regulatory agencies and settle the commercial banks. Under the ideal situation of “all assets are on the chain”, as long as the regulators are That's it. It can be concluded that if a digital currency such as Libra can be smoothly advanced and landed, mobile payment will have a very rapid development abroad in the next few years.

It needs to be explained here that the impact of mobile payment itself on these countries is actually much higher than the “payment” itself, because the free and rapid circulation of value is actually an important foundation for the development of the digital economy. For example, if there is no wire transfer technology, the e-commerce that is now popular all over the world must not be able to rise. After all, you can't post the money to the seller with an envelope. Another example is the popular shared bicycle in previous years. If this application does not have a QR code mobile payment, it is almost impossible to have such a big influence. Imagine: In a place where the electronic payment is mainly based on the "swipe card", how do you pay after using the shared bicycle? Is it necessary to add a pos machine next to the smart car lock? Not possible, too inconvenient. In fact, pile-type shared bicycles do just that, and this is one of the main reasons why they have not been able to get up.

From this point of view, for those countries that have not been able to settle the relationship between third-party payment companies and commercial banks, the positive significance of the blockchain currency has already exceeded the “improving payment efficiency” itself. The above has laid an important foundation for the development of the local digital economy. If the relevant projects are promoted smoothly, people will likely see a lot of dazzling digital economy applications in the world in the future, which will lead to a stagnant digital economy in recent years. A new round of development has emerged. After all, the experience of the cryptocurrency industry tells us that the technological capabilities of Western technology companies are not to be underestimated.

Author: Sun vice president

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