On May 27, a high-end dialogue themed on "Blockchain - the cornerstone of digital civilization" was held at the Guiyang International Ecological Conference Center. The guests at the meeting carried out peak dialogues on the theme of blockchain promoting the development of a trusted digital society, exploring the ecological construction of "blockchain +".
This high-end dialogue on the blockchain of the Expo was hosted by the Organizing Committee of the 2019 China International Big Data Expo, undertaken by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, and reported exclusively by Odaily.
Wang Feng, chairman of Linekong Interactive Group and founder of Mars Finance, presided over the roundtable dialogue session. Guests included: Kevin Kelly, author of "Out of Control", Cao Jiannong, head of the Department of Computing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hu Jianbo, chief engineer of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Beijing Internet Court Dean Zhang Wen, Ernst & Young China blockchain leader Wang Jing.
Kevin Kelly believes that the current blockchain is still an overheated concept, and many infrastructures are being built, but this does not mean that the blockchain will definitely succeed in the future. But if the blockchain succeeds in the future, it will definitely be integrated into our lives and become commonplace. After 20 years, no one talks about the blockchain, and the blockchain has become "boring", like "electricity".
Hu Jianbo, chief engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, believes that the blockchain will be the first to be applied in some fields that require data sharing by multiple parties, including medical care, supply chain, Internet of Things, and identity management.
Wang Jing, head of EY China's blockchain, believes that blockchain technology can help developing countries such as China surpass the trust system that developed countries such as Europe and the United States have spent a hundred years building. The blockchain is the transfer of trust, the building block of the trust machine.
The following are some wonderful transcripts of the roundtable conversations:
1. One label of the blockchain is trust, and trust is the first. How do guests understand the meaning of "trust" in the blockchain?
Kevin Kelly, author of "Out of Control": The trust we get from the blockchain is just mathematical trust, but those companies and organizations that provide blockchain services, or those who control the network, also need to be trusted. So trust is not something that we naturally generate, but needs to be built—to build trust with institutions, to build trust with other people. Regardless of whether it is a non-profit organization or a profit-making organization, we must trust them, and this also requires us to achieve it through long-term efforts.
Hu Jianbo, chief engineer of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology: In order to achieve the effect of trust, some government agencies have also taken many measures to endorse trust, but this problem has not been well resolved. When blockchain technology emerged, we saw its role in building trust, which is conducive to the development of a trusted society.
Cao Jiannong, Dean of the Department of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University: Blockchain has built a trust-free platform for us in a society that lacks trust. For example, in transfers, smart contracts can be used to promote trust-free transaction behaviors between the two parties of the transfer, which is actually equivalent to forcibly automating the execution of transactions between the two parties. In addition, the blockchain can also be traced, such as the traceability of beef. So the two most important features of the blockchain, one is consensus, that is, I have seen what you see, and the two agree with each other; the second is immutability, after the record is put on it, no one can change it. In order to trust each other, these two features promise to reconstruct trust.
Zhang Wen, President of the Beijing Internet Court: Whether electronic evidence is credible has always been a problem in Internet court trials. Because of this, we use blockchain technology to establish a blockchain consortium chain—Tianping Chain—in our court to solve the problem of credible electronic evidence.
Wang Jing, Head of EY China Blockchain: Blockchain technology can help developing countries such as China avoid or avoid following the path of building a trusting society in Europe and the United States for nearly a century. Accelerating entry into a trusted society through blockchain technology and accelerating the improvement of China's business environment are of great significance to developing countries. At the same time, for industries, blockchain technology has disruptive effects for industries with a relatively low level of trust or discontinuous trust relationships and relatively high trust costs.
2. At what stage is the blockchain development now?
Kevin Kelly: I think the blockchain is still an overheated concept, and a lot of infrastructure is being built, but it doesn't mean that the blockchain will definitely succeed in the future. How many people would be interested in blockchain without cryptocurrencies? These cryptocurrencies have diverted attention away from the blockchain. Blockchain is much more important than cryptocurrencies, but few people talk about it. Now the blockchain makes people feel that it is a novelty, but if the blockchain succeeds in the future, it will definitely be integrated into our lives and become commonplace. After 20 years, no one talks about the blockchain, and the blockchain has become "boring", like "electricity".
Hu Jianbo: If there is no Bitcoin, few people talk about the blockchain now. Blockchain is now being tested in different fields, and some universities and research institutions are making some attempts. I think this is a good sign. With such an accumulation, the blockchain in the future will become very commonplace, and gradually everyone will not feel its existence, or even realize it, and eventually become the cornerstone of the entire future society.
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 Application; the third stage is "Blockchain +". Blockchain has been integrated with all walks of life just like we mentioned "Internet of Things +" back then. Technically speaking, the blockchain is still in the early stages of development, and there will be blockchain standards in the future. Without standards, it is not conducive to the development of blockchain technology.
Zhang Wen: The application of blockchain is currently in its infancy, and it will take a long time for the application of blockchain scenarios in the future.
Wang Jing: Ernst & Young believes that 2018 is the first year of the blockchain industry, and 2038 will be the peak period of blockchain applications.
3. How to understand the significance of Bitcoin now?
Kevin Kelly: In theory, Bitcoin is very interesting and has potential. Due to the limited quantity, Bitcoin will have a storage function like gold and become 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 still needs to develop. Until the price of Bitcoin stops fluctuating, Bitcoin cannot really be used as a currency, and it is difficult to come in handy.
4. How to understand the meeting point of blockchain technology and digital upgrade?
Kevin Kelly: The role of blockchain in digital civilization should be the highly decentralized infrastructure we want, and everyone can get the data we want. Of course, some mechanisms are also needed to avoid network fraud and hacker attacks.
Wang Jing: First, we believe that blockchain is an important driving force for the digital economy. Only when data is shared can it generate value. Blockchain technology can realize privacy protection while sharing data through distributed ledger technology. Second, for thousands of years, human organizations have been realized through decentralization. For thousands of years, our business has been realized through centralized organizations. In the future, blockchain technology can enable human society to move from one center that requires countless Organizations provide endorsing societies to emerging societies that realize credit. Third, humans have entered the digital economy, platform economy and sharing economy. Blockchain technology is the underlying foundation of the platform economy, the foundation of the platform economy and the sharing economy.
Cao Jiannong: In addition to protecting privacy and building trust, blockchain can also break down digital islands and provide technical support for the establishment of new value chains.
5. What problem does blockchain technology most want to solve?
Hu Jianbo: In the government, the most talked about is data contribution and data governance.
Cao Jiannong: Let ordinary people accept the blockchain concept and use it in the simplest way.
Zhang Wen: From a judicial point of view, how to make participating units abide by the rules.
Wang Jing: Multi-party collaboration and multi-party consensus. First of all, the lack of the first driving force (central bank, court); second, how do ordinary people understand the value of the blockchain; moreover, many customers will regard the blockchain as a kind of EIP (improvement proposal), we hope to reverse everyone's concept.
6. From theory to practice, in which fields will the blockchain be the first to be applied?
Kevin Kelly: I think blockchain is most useful for industries with relatively concentrated digital data. Financial institutions, digital industries, medical care, retail and other fields will be the first to land.
Cao Jiannong: There is a lot of data, and data needs to be shared by multiple parties, such as medical care; data management in the supply chain will be the next field of application; data sharing at the edge of the Internet of Things may also be applied; in addition, there are identity management (university), etc. Application scenarios.
Zhang Wen: Copyright protection.
7. Does blockchain technology give us hope in terms of privacy protection?
Kevin Kelly: Even if the encryption mechanism is not broken, data may still be leaked. In a way, it's not that there's something wrong with the encryption program, it's that there's something wrong with the human organization. During this process, some people broke such rules and stole data.
In terms of algorithms or mathematics, the entire blockchain is credible, but we cannot fully trust it during the entire chaining process of the blockchain. Even with blockchain, we still have the possibility of data leakage. It's not that there is something wrong with its encryption algorithm, but that there are some artificial non-compliance practices in this process.
For privacy protection, many innovations can be introduced from the technical level to ensure privacy protection. Especially in our big data age. Recently Google launched an innovation "differential privacy or federated learning". This data will be in your own hands. If you want to share, it will be combined with other data, and then you can get the combined data. It's 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, so that they can control the data sharing. To protect privacy, what we need to do is not to reduce the flow of data or reduce the use of technology. We need to increase technological innovation, and then carry out further privacy protection.
Cao Jiannong: I think the blockchain can focus on three aspects. One is the storage method. Through distribution, all private information does not necessarily exist in a certain aspect, and may exist on different nodes. In the future, your identity and data information will not be all collected together. The second is transparency, who will use my data, and who will take away my data; the third is transparency, many things do not need to disclose my identity, and I can complete this matter.
8. As an emerging technology, what is the relationship between blockchain and several important cutting-edge technologies that we have seen so far?
Kevin Kelly: The current artificial intelligence technology is based on neural networks, and neural networks require very large data poles for neural network training, and millions of times of training. In the next ten years, 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 way to deal with it without cheap, easy-to-use, and ubiquitous AI. There is a symbiotic relationship between big data and AI, and they need each other.
It is possible to do AI without blockchain, but doing AI without big data cannot be practically applied. Blockchain can help big data become more practical and valuable. The most important relationship is 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 blockchain play in this? I personally don't think its role should be exaggerated too much. AI itself is based on big data. For the accumulation, validity, and usefulness of data, the blockchain may be able to do some work. More positioning from this perspective, so that they can play their respective roles in the overall development in the future. I think it is inappropriate 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 of them interact, what I see now is one-sided. I don’t know how the blockchain uses AI. AI needs to use the blockchain. There are data in the blockchain, and the blockchain has a lot of spoilers. There are many ways to use data in the blockchain. AI can dig out effective patterns from it, and set the mechanism of the blockchain through this pattern to make it more effective.
Blockchain, big data, and the Internet of Things are a kind of enabling co-existence. When it comes to cross-cloud cooperation, how can there be transparency? It is a good way to build this on the combination of multi-cloud and make a data sharing mechanism and a service sharing mechanism. The blockchain is likely to become a measure under the Internet of Things to share data and manage data in the future.
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 the president of the United States. It is hard to say what will happen in the future. Trump is a very unpredictable person. 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 are very different in terms of blockchain. China is more active in the promotion of applications in various industries, including business model innovation, but the underlying technology has always been relatively weak. If there is a global industrial chain support, everyone will jointly use the global industrial chain to promote the process of the future digital wave. But under the current environment, I think all parties may develop their own positions in this industry in a more balanced manner. China and the United States may be different, and may be more balanced, including the promotion of applications and the promotion of underlying technologies.
Cao Jiannong: China and the United States cooperate with each other. In terms of platform technology, the barriers may not be that big. However, if the blockchain algorithm is developed as a cutting-edge technology (non-open source), whether it is credible and whether it is docked will be a problem. The blockchain is also a value chain. Whether there will be mutual attacks on the Internet of Things and become wars or other things is also a challenge for the future.
Wang Jing: I think the blockchain is the technical bottom line for human survival in the lifetime. The trade friction between China and the United States and the uncertainty of Trump have short-term impact on the development of the blockchain, but in the long run it will not have much impact, because the blockchain technology will follow the current nature and laws to change human society.
