Chen Xiaohong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: To maximize the value of blockchain, we must solve problems such as safety supervision
2020 NetEase Future Conference · Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Special Forum was held in Hangzhou. At the conference, Chen Xiaohong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, president of Hunan Technology and Business University, and honorary dean of the School of Business of Central South University, Chen Xiaohong, stated in the keynote speech “The Digital Mission of Blockchain” that the key to maximizing the value of blockchain is Solve three problems: First, the problem of the ternary paradox: the problem of balancing the scalability, distribution, and security. The second is the issue of safety supervision: that is, blockchain projects are blooming all over the place, and supervision is a difficult problem. Many IC0 projects are difficult to supervise the implementation of the project after the completion of financing, resulting in huge risks after investors’ capital investment. The third is the issue of consensus cost: that is, the traditional consensus mechanism often shows that the cost does not go up, and the efficiency will drop. At this stage, obtaining “consensus” on the chain is not easy. The greater the degree of freedom, the higher the cost of consensus.
In addition, Academician Chen Xiaohong said that blockchain technology has broad application prospects in financial technology innovation regulatory tools, smart digital currency, supply chain finance, and new payment and settlement systems. Blockchain, as a distributed data technology of the Internet of Value, has flourished from the bottom and has become the new generation of information technology that my country is most likely to be at the forefront of the world, from following to leading.
The following is the transcript of Chen Xiaohong’s speech, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the president of Hunan Technology and Business University, and the honorary dean of the School of Business of Central South University:
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Hello everyone!
I am very pleased to receive the invitation of Netease Future Forum to discuss with you. But unfortunately, because I received temporary work arrangements, I couldn’t come to the site in person. Today, I will share with you some thoughts and experiences on the innovation of blockchain applications under the integration of new technologies online through the air.
We are living in an age of change. Apple reinvented mobile phones, Google defeated Li Shishi, and Tesla redefined the car. The new round of technological and industrial revolution is constantly reshaping our economy, life and society. Blockchain, as a distributed data technology of the Internet of Value, has flourished from the bottom and has become the new generation of information technology that my country is most likely to be at the forefront of the world, from following to leading.
As we all know, the party and the country attach great importance to the development of blockchain. On May 28, 2018, General Secretary Xi listed blockchain together with artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, and the Internet of Things as a new generation of information technology representatives in an important speech delivered at the academician conference of the two academies. And in the speech when presiding over the collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on October 24, 2019, it was mentioned that the integrated application of blockchain technology plays an important role in new technological and industrial changes. We must take the blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies, clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the innovation and development of blockchain technology and industry. On April 20, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission for the first time clarified the scope of “new infrastructure” and officially included the blockchain in the construction of new infrastructure of “new infrastructure”. Blockchain mainly plays the role of trust tool in the new infrastructure, and it has huge development potential. Not only in China, but also major countries in the world are seizing the high ground of blockchain development, and more and more foreign companies have begun to join in the development and contribution of blockchain source code, forming a center around Bitcoin (Bitcoin) and Ethereum ( Ethereum), Hyperledger (Hyperledger), Ripple (Ripple) and many other core open source platform companies and their personal cooperation development ecology. On the whole, my country belongs to the first echelon in terms of the contribution of open source code, the number of blockchain companies, and patent applications. Netease is also at the forefront of the international and domestic in this field. This conference also launched the blockchain ticket service for the first time.
Blockchain technology is considered to be the next-generation disruptive core technology after steam engines, electricity, and the Internet. It is also an important support for the development of the Internet economy after the epidemic. The reason why the blockchain can subvert the tradition lies in the three characteristics of the integration of the five elements of “two structures, two algorithms, and one contract”: data cannot be tampered with, data is collectively maintained, traceable, and multi-centralized decision-making. It has five genes of “full airspace, full process, full scene, full analysis, and full value”. However, in order to maximize the value of the blockchain, the key is to solve three problems: First, the problem of ternary paradox: scalability, distribution, and security are balanced and optimized. The second is the issue of safety supervision: that is, blockchain projects are blooming all over the place, and supervision is a difficult problem. Many ICO projects are difficult to supervise the implementation of the project after the completion of financing, resulting in huge risks after investors’ capital investment. The third is the issue of consensus cost: that is, the traditional consensus mechanism often shows that the cost does not go up, and the efficiency will drop. At this stage, obtaining “consensus” on the chain is not easy. The greater the degree of freedom, the higher the cost of consensus. I believe that as long as these three problems are solved, the blockchain will usher in a real spring.
Gartner believes that practical blockchain is one of the ten strategic technological development trends in the 2020 report. It shows that blockchain technology must get rid of the identity of just a distributed accounting technology, fully integrate with emerging information technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and break away from the virtual to the reality, and continue to penetrate into the application scenarios of various industries. Promote application innovation under the integration of blockchain and new technologies. Here I think there are four areas of application innovation that blockchain can focus on:
The first is to promote innovation in smart society governance
On the one hand, blockchain can promote data sharing, co-governance, and sharing. At present, more than 80% of my country’s social data resources are in the hands of government departments at all levels, and data “hidden in the boudoir” is a great waste. Supporting the sharing of government affairs data through the blockchain platform can solve the serious shortage of data sharing between parallel departments and the problems of security and privacy protection. On the other hand, the blockchain “trustless trust architecture” can promote the formation of a trusted society. The blockchain of Beijing Municipal Services and the Xuzhou blockchain police data sharing system are all examples of using blockchain technology to realize data privacy protection and safe sharing, thereby promoting innovation in smart social governance.
The second is to help industrial Internet and smart manufacturing
On the one hand, new technologies such as blockchain can improve the intelligent management level of the manufacturing process. Blockchain integrates the Internet of Things technology, allowing companies, equipment manufacturers and safety production supervision departments to monitor all aspects of production and manufacturing for a long time, supplemented by artificial intelligence technology, which can realize fast and accurate problem detection, tracking and resolution Problems and system optimization greatly improve the intelligent management level of the manufacturing process. On the other hand, the blockchain ensures that the key data in digital twin modeling is reliable, credible and available. Digital twin is to realize the interactive mapping between physical space and cyberspace. In the process of digital twin interaction and transactions, the blockchain can solve the trust problem of multiple parties participating in the operation of the system, thereby ensuring the efficient operation of such a digital twin system based on open logic. At present, the smart factory of Weichai Power, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Group’s blockchain digital twin system, and Inspur Group’s quality chain are all examples of blockchain applications in the manufacturing industry.
The third is to promote the transformation of energy utilization and the energy industry
At present, my country’s energy industry has problems such as large energy loss, stability, low reliability, difficult load balancing, and difficult access to multi-distributed renewable energy. Blockchain integrates technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence to build a decentralized real-time energy market to connect local producers and consumers and reduce the need for long-distance transmission. The decentralized energy trading model provides more solutions for the load balancing of the entire grid, and blockchain technology will also drive the formation of more distributed grid infrastructure. In terms of practical applications, Australia’s Power Ledger has also created the country’s first blockchain P2P power trading system. Other projects such as smart city green energy islands and smart energy communities are also exploring innovative blockchain applications.
The fourth is to help create a new engine for the development of the financial industry
Blockchain technology has broad application prospects in financial technology innovation, regulatory tools, smart digital currency, supply chain finance, and new payment and settlement systems. Relying on the technical features of blockchain such as distributed accounting, credible circulation, difficult to tamper with, easy to trace, and auditable, it can effectively solve many current problems in the field of financial technology supervision, such as excessive reliance on manual submission and poor data circulation , Regulatory delays, etc., blockchain can give the central bank’s digital currency (DCEP) more powerful capabilities. Others such as “One Enterprise Bank” SME loan service platform, WeBank’s blockchain reconciliation platform, China Enterprise Cloud Chain, etc. Some innovations in many aspects of blockchain have been carried out.
My scientific research team and I have conducted extensive and in-depth research in the basic application of blockchain technology. In conjunction with Central South University, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Hunan Technology and Business University, etc., we formed a large research team to conduct a series of practical explorations around the application scenarios of the new generation of information technology such as blockchain in the construction of a smart society And application demonstration, has achieved relatively rich preliminary research results, on this basis, successfully approved the National Basic Science Center of “Resources and Environment Management Theory and Application in the Digital Economy Era”.
We are the first to establish a research center for blockchain technology, focusing on the frontier research and application of blockchain, researching the basic theories and cutting-edge technologies of blockchain, and developing blockchain related systems. For example, HOPE data sharing security platform, blockchain information browser, blockchain storage system and so on. Among them, the data sharing security platform we call HOPE integrates blockchain, virtual machine, trusted computing environment, federated learning and other technologies to realize data availability and invisibility, providing a new paradigm for data sharing and cooperation and privacy protection It should be said that this has completely independent intellectual property rights and is a relatively leading technology both at home and abroad.
At the same time, as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2018, I also took the lead in proposing relevant proposals to promote the healthy development of blockchain at the National Two Sessions, which also aroused high attention and good responses from all walks of life. In 2020, at the sixth remote consultation meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, I raised the issue of addressing citizens’ information security, breaking through the barriers to personal information protection through blockchain technology, and realizing the separation of data ownership, usage rights, and income rights. Chairman Wang Yang’s affirmation.
In short, in the new era of promoting quality change, efficiency change, and power change, the importance of new technologies in innovation-driven development strategies has become unprecedentedly prominent. We must persist in leading innovation and development with new technologies; we must persist in promoting high-quality development with new technologies; we must persist in building a new development pattern with new technologies; anchor new technology deployment innovation chains, and insist on laying out industrial chains around the innovation chain.
As scientific and technological workers, we need more than ever to take scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development; uphold the ambition of “dare to be the first in the world” and march toward the most cutting-edge scientific issues; and improve China’s major original and innovative basic research Output; keep up with and lead the new direction of the world’s scientific and technological development; accelerate the birth of new business forms, new models, and new industries through the integration of new technologies, and create new human civilization.
In today’s era, human beings are in the transitional period of the integration of the physical world and the digital world. Blockchain, as an underlying technology, is using its huge power to further stimulate the potential of new technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and mobile Internet. This is the key to the integration of the two worlds. In the face of the “blockchain craze”, only with full understanding, clear understanding, in-depth research, active exploration, courage to practice, and continuous innovation, can the blockchain play its role in the integration of new technologies and contribute to the industry. , Economic and social development brings new opportunities.
