Let Sidechains Drive Bitcoin? A Review of Drivechain Technology at the Hong Kong Web3 Festival Conference
Drivechain is a Bitcoin layer two solution designed to expand the functionality and application scenarios of Bitcoin by running sidechains on the Bitcoin network.Author: LayerTwo Labs
On April 15, Beijing time, the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival, co-hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab and HashKey Group, successfully concluded at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. LayerTwo Labs was invited as a quality project party to attend and deliver relevant speeches, showcasing Drivechain technology and the Mainchain network to numerous Web3 practitioners, project parties, and investment institutions at this industry summit.
Click the image to view the speech video
As the most grand Web3 event in Hong Kong's history, this conference not only attracted global Web3 practitioners to gather but also received full support from the Hong Kong government. Let’s take a look at the actions of LayerTwo Labs at this conference.
1. What is the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival?
The 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival is co-hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, HashKey Group, and W3ME. This summit attracted numerous leading institutions and star product projects such as OKX, Binance, Chainlink Labs, DFINITY, Aptos, Arbitrum, and Scroll to share their insights, along with over 300 industry leaders, blockchain project founders, investors, regulatory representatives, and experts. Additionally, thousands of audience members participated in the on-site activities.
This conference was led by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab. Wanxiang Blockchain was successfully selected as one of the "2022 Shanghai Software Core Competitiveness Enterprises (Innovative)" and has invested over 1 billion RMB in the blockchain field, with more than 500 high-quality blockchain projects globally.
On January 18, 2023, Wanxiang Blockchain Lab announced that it would co-host the "Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2023" with HashKey Group and W3ME. According to official news, the Web3 Festival will become one of the brand events under Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, and this carnival in Hong Kong is the first of this series of events.
HashKey Group is an end-to-end digital asset financial services group based in Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong, with operations in Singapore and Tokyo. HashKey Group primarily provides new investment opportunities and solutions for institutions, family offices, funds, and professional investors in the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem.
The reason HashKey Group can co-host this grand event with Wanxiang Blockchain Lab is that both companies share the same chairman—Xiao Feng, a PhD in economics from Nankai University, with over 18 years of experience in securities and asset management. He is one of the few remaining entrepreneurial veterans still active in the fund management front line.
On October 17, 2015, Xiao Feng met Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin at an informal event he organized. The Ethereum project was quickly recognized by Wanxiang, and in the "Wanxiang Blockchain Lab" established by Wanxiang, Vitalik Buterin held the position of Chief Scientist.
Through his acquaintance with Vitalik, Dr. Xiao saw the disruptive potential of technology and sensed the power of capital. As Wanxiang Blockchain Lab's status in the industry continued to rise, Dr. Xiao also became a highly influential figure in the Web3 circle.
2. The 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival Received Strong Support from the Hong Kong Government
As the most grand Web3 event in Hong Kong's history, it not only attracted global Web3 practitioners to gather but also received full support from the Hong Kong government.
On the morning of April 12 alone, guests attending the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong Web3 Festival included the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Paul Chan, the Acting Head of the Intermediaries Division of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Choi Chung-fai, the Assistant Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Chan Ka-ki, and the CEO of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, Simon Chan.
In addition, hot Web3 ecosystem projects and products such as OKX, Chainlink, Binance, Aptos, Arbitrum, and Scroll participated in this conference, bringing valuable insights to Web3 enthusiasts worldwide.
Undoubtedly, the Hong Kong SAR government's strong attitude towards Web3 was key to the successful hosting of this carnival.
On October 31, 2022, the Hong Kong government released a policy declaration on the development of virtual assets in Hong Kong, announcing its determination to compete as a global virtual asset center. In the following months, policies surged forward, with the approval of virtual asset ETFs, issuance of new licenses, licensing of trading platforms, and even plans to open virtual asset trading to retail investors, making rapid progress that was astonishing. At the establishment ceremony of the Hong Kong Web3.0 Association on April 11 this year, senior officials such as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR, John Lee, Legislative Council President Andrew Leung, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang appeared on stage, reaffirming the unprecedented strength of this policy.
On June 1, the new regulations for virtual asset trading, "Guidelines for Operators of Virtual Asset Trading Platforms," officially came into effect, marking significant progress in Hong Kong's vigorous promotion of building a global virtual asset center.
3. LayerTwo Labs at the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival
Investors at the Hashkey Summit
Talking with Paul Sztorc and co-founder Austin Alexander
This carnival featured over 200 keynote speeches. Apart from the opening ceremony, opening remarks, and sharing of insights, there were 180 project-related presentations, including popular products such as OKX, Chainlink, DFINITY, Alibaba Cloud, Polygon, Aptos, NEAR, Arbitrum, ConsenSys, Scroll, Celer, Metis, dYdX, imToken, .bit, PlatON, Zebec, and Opside. A total of 37 projects and 10 VCs participated in the Demo Day themed event. Neal Stephenson, author of "Snow Crash," hackathon champions from Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, as well as Sara Mao, the Education Director of Christie's Asia Pacific, all made brilliant presentations at the conference.
On April 14, LayerTwo Labs founder Paul Sztorc delivered a speech on Drivechain technology at the Wanxiang Hashkey Blockchain Summit in Hong Kong. In his speech, Paul stated: "In the past, many public chains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Filecoin existed independently and separately. In the future, we hope to create various sidechains based on the Bitcoin mainnet through Drivechain technology, where countless applications and projects can coexist. The future world only needs one public chain, the Bitcoin network."
Click the image to view the speech video
Paul showcased Drivechain technology, the concept of the Mainchain network, and the future potential of sidechains developed based on Drivechain technology. He stated: "We unanimously believe that Asia will be the new growth direction for Crypto in the future, and due to the high-intensity regulation and policy reasons from the North American SEC, more and more projects will migrate from North America to Asia, especially Hong Kong." At the conference, Paul had friendly exchanges with over 30 VC institutions, laying the foundation for future cooperation.
This image shows LayerTwo Labs founder Paul Sztorc
Commemorative photo with co-founder Austin Alexander in Hong Kong
4. What is LayerTwo Labs?
LayerTwo Labs is a top blockchain team proposing the Bitcoin second-layer solution Drivechain, founded and led by top Bitcoin OG researcher and developer Paul Sztorc. Paul Sztorc previously worked at Blockstream, founded by crypto OG Adam Back, and has been a top Bitcoin OG researcher and developer since 2011, as well as an economist at Yale University.
Blockstream was established in 2014 and introduced the concept of sidechains in its white paper. Adam Back himself is also a staunch supporter and promoter of sidechains. As early as 2013, Paul Sztorc was already researching his own sidechain, which is an upgraded version of Drivechain. In 2015, the two scientists recognized each other's talents, and Adam Back approved Paul Sztorc's Sidechain technology. In 2016, Adam Back raised over $200 million for Blockstream, with the primary mission of developing Sidechain technology for Bitcoin. Paul Sztorc can be regarded as the technical leader of Blockstream.
Click the image to view the speech video
After 2016, Paul Sztorc established LayerTwo Labs to continue the development work of Drivechain upgrades and Sidechain technology. Paul Sztorc and his team plan to release their own PoW blockchain in 2023, incorporating all Drivechain upgrades, referred to as Mainchain.
5. What is Drivechain?
Drivechain is a second-layer solution for Bitcoin, designed to expand Bitcoin's functionality and application scenarios by running sidechains on the Bitcoin network. The basic idea of Drivechain is to use Bitcoin as the driving force, creating sidechains by locking Bitcoin, thereby achieving interoperability between Bitcoin and sidechains.
The main advantage of Drivechain is that it can realize the unfulfilled functions and applications of Bitcoin through sidechains, without affecting Bitcoin's security and decentralization. Unlike other sidechain technologies, Drivechain does not remove Bitcoin from the Bitcoin network but creates sidechains by locking Bitcoin.
This image shows LayerTwo Labs founder Paul Sztorc
Commemorative photo with co-founder Austin Alexander in Hong Kong
Drivechain's design also provides a new scaling solution for Bitcoin, as it can achieve higher transaction throughput and shorter confirmation times on sidechains without affecting the security and stability of the Bitcoin network. Additionally, Drivechain can ensure the security and reliability of sidechains through Bitcoin's consensus mechanism, thereby enhancing the trustworthiness of sidechains. Drivechain implements permissionless Sidechains on Bitcoin, allowing anyone to develop any Token, smart contract, DApp, and other new concepts on their own Sidechain. Each sidechain developer can determine the block size of the chain, the number of minutes per block, and any parameters.
Everything can be adjusted according to the developer's preferences. We can understand Drivechain as providing a clear direction and standard for the development of Bitcoin's second-layer technology.
Reference Links:
Please click the links below to view detailed information about our social platforms:
LayerTwo Labs CEO Paul Sztorc introduced the company's vision and Drivechain technology at the Wanxiang and Hashkey Web3 Summit in Hong Kong.
