Xiao Feng's Full Speech in Shanghai: Large-scale Applications, RWA and Global Developers

Author: Xiao Feng, Wanxiang Blockchain

Dear guests, colleagues, friends, and those watching the live stream:

Hello everyone, welcome to the 9th Global Blockchain Summit, which we have been holding for nine years. Over these nine years, we have received tremendous support from many colleagues and friends. Without your support, we would not have the determination to continue holding this summit. We especially want to thank Mr. Ma, who has participated in the summit for many years! Today, we also have many new friends, including Mr. Paul Chan and Mr. Ren Jingxin from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The addition of these new friends gives us confidence in continuing to hold this summit well, as we are constantly expanding our scope and content, continuously bringing new value to the participants.

Creating a classic takes time. For the summit, nine years is clearly not enough to make it a classic. We are very willing to continue working together with everyone to keep this Global Blockchain Summit going and to keep it thriving. The theme of this summit is "Next Stop Web 3.0." It can be said that Web 3.0 encompasses technologies related to the Internet, blockchain, the metaverse, AGI, and more; Web 3.0 is a general term. Web 3.0 not only covers technology but also involves innovative business models, organizational forms, economic mechanisms, and financial models. We have invited experts, developers, and practitioners from various fields to share their insights and provide value to the participants.

Blockchain is transitioning from the construction phase of infrastructure to a new phase of large-scale applications. The next three years are crucial for blockchain applications. In the coming three years, the technological framework of blockchain is expected to mature, although there will still be many details, such as performance and other aspects, that need to be optimized and refined. However, the upcoming improvements in performance or refinements in details require specific application scenarios to bring about better changes. Once the framework is established, product refinement needs to align with demand; without specific demand, how can we optimize? From which direction should we optimize? These issues will arise. Therefore, this is a mutually reinforcing and promoting process. Once the framework is set, with applications in place, we will know how to optimize the overall architecture during the application process.

The next three years are a critical moment for blockchain to enter large-scale applications. Conversely, it is also the stage for blockchain to prove that it can genuinely support the real economy, support technological innovation, and support financial markets. In the past, we were in the construction phase of blockchain infrastructure. We have seen many technologies that are unrelated to the real economy and specific application scenarios developing. During this stage, it is easy for people to perceive these things as virtual or empty; the infrastructure indeed has no direct relationship with specific application scenarios or particular demands. However, without the construction phase of infrastructure, we cannot support large-scale applications on the blockchain framework. Any large-scale application of blockchain ultimately relies on the core value of blockchain. What is the core value of blockchain? The core value of blockchain lies in its being a public, transparent ledger. This is a significant difference from Web 2.0 or other previous models; the most fundamental difference is that it is a public ledger.

On such a public and transparent ledger, strangers, even strangers from around the world, can collaborate efficiently and without friction to accomplish any complex tasks without the endorsement of various trust intermediaries. This is the core value of blockchain. This period has also seen the rise of a very popular term called RWA (Real Asset Tokenization). We have already seen financial institutions, including those in Hong Kong, making attempts; recently, a financial institution in Hong Kong issued a tokenized green bond worth 200 million dollars. The only regret is that it was registered and issued on a private ledger. Of course, this is already a significant advancement, but it is still registered on a private ledger. If these financial institutions can find more compliant methods to issue on a public ledger, the result would be that the assets issued on this public ledger become assets with global liquidity. Because assets issued on a public ledger can be seen by Chinese people, Brazilian people can see them too; Chinese investors can invest, and Brazilian investors can also complete investment actions point-to-point on the public ledger. This is the future of RWA real asset tokenization. We have seen regulatory authorities in various countries establishing new regulatory rules in this area, and we have also seen regulators encouraging markets like RWA for real asset tokenization, adopting a supportive and encouraging attitude. Through RWA, we see how blockchain technology supports the real economy and how it supports technological innovation. Like in Hong Kong, issuing green bonds on the blockchain is a very green approach. We have already seen blockchain supporting financial innovation. The applications built on blockchain help us establish a global work network, a global market network, and a global financial network.

In recent months, we have seen thousands of Chinese engineers directly developing products and applications on the ChatGPT or GPT-4 networks, some working alone and others in small groups of two or three. Thousands of developers are targeting the global market, utilizing global systems to launch their products and services for global users, which is very successful. I believe this marks the launch of Globalization 2.0 in the digital age. Globalization is an unstoppable trend; although it is currently retreating due to geopolitical factors, we must recognize that while Globalization 1.0 is retreating, Globalization 2.0 has already quietly started. A fundamental driving force behind the launch of Globalization 2.0 is Web 3.0. In a digital world, it is challenging to restrict Chinese engineers or Web 3.0 entrepreneurs by geographical space; it is difficult to create physical or spatial separations in a digital space. We eagerly anticipate the arrival of the next stage and the advent of the Web 3.0 era.

I believe that Chinese developers and entrepreneurs can achieve greater efficiency and win a more globalized market, achieving a larger global market than in the Internet era.

I would like to once again thank all the guests, colleagues, and friends who have attended the summit, and I would also like to thank everyone for their continued support and assistance for the blockchain summit. Thank you all!