Huobi Releases Details on Digital Economy and Blockchain

As a founding co-organizer of the Hainan Free Trade Zone & Global Digital Economic Forum, Huobi Group today shared key takeaways from the forum which commenced on the morning of December 5th. During the forum, notable Chinese government officials gave opening speeches commenting on the development of blockchain in mainland China. Prominent government officials expanded on details of Hainan and Greater China as a whole. Sun Shiwen, Deputy Secretary of People's People Government of Hainan Province gave the opening address. Sun said to speed up the development of the blockchain industry, Hainan would accelerate the construction of a free trade area, which would promote the integration of the real and digital economy.

Ministerial Panel: International Exchange and Cooperation in Digital Economy occurred with the participation of representatives from Russia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Indonesia and Gibraltar. The guests included ministerial level officials from Belt and Road Initiative partner countries, who were VIP guests invited to the forum to explore possible synergies of their nation's blockchain initiatives with those of the Chinese government. The first questions concerned the initiatives and stances of the panelist's governments towards blockchain. Present were Albert Isolas, Gibraltarian Minister for Digital and Financial Services, who said "Gibraltar was the first county to issue regulation on blockchain, with Huobi becoming one of the first companies to licenses under our regulatory framework." While Saparudin, Executive Governor of Bangka, Special Economic Zone of Indonesia, said his government has launched many projects to promote the development of blockchain, which included three special development zones.

After the panel, Leon Li, founder of Huobi Group gave a speech titled "Building a Global Financial Infrastructure with Blockchain and Digital Finance". In his remarks on the global financial landscape, Leon said blockchain and digital currency would become the supporting technologies for a new generation of global financial infrastructure. Leon predicted that financial intermediaries in digital payments would increasingly be sidestepped, as blockchain allowed high efficiency and low-cost transactions between users. According to Leon, "blockchain has advantages in cost and efficiency, which would be valuable for developing nations." Leon expects countries increase their regulatory cooperation to promote a global regulatory framework.

How Huobi's technology could play a major part in the collaboration was highlighted when Leon gave suggestions to improve global financial security in a speech about financial infrastructure. Leon said recent announcements regarding characteristics of Huobi Chain could provide invaluable to partner nations in building their financial infrastructure. In describing Huobi Chain as open source, autonomous and customized for financial applications, Leon said "the public chain could enable partner organizations and countries to set up their own chains and nodes".

On the 6th, a major portion of the forum was dedicated to Hainan's role in the blockchain ecosystem. Cao Shiping, Chief Engineer of Department of Industry and Informatization of Hainan Province provided valuable insights on local initiatives regarding blockchain. In particular, Hainan is currently home to over 100 blockchain enterprises, including Huobi. Cao said blockchain will have a vital role in the Hainan Free Trade Zone, which will implement new port policies in February 2020, which include revamped tax policies. Cao said "the government of Hainan's policies promote the application and research of various channels within the blockchain industry, including depositary receipts and digital assets." Special policies in the Hainan free trade zone will allow a freer flow of goods, personnel, capital and logistics, thus giving economic benefit to local companies participating in the digital economy.

Shan Zhiguang, Director of Ministry of Information Technology and Industrial Development in China's State Information Center (SIC) made a keynote speech about BSN, which Huobi recently joined. Shan said BSN could be national information infrastructure for Chinese enterprises, but still could be deployed globally at a low cost.

One major highlight of the forum was the launch of the BSN Developer Competition, which Huobi China will organize alongside China Mobile and UnionPay. The BSN developer competition will propagate blockchain knowledge and cultivate qualified developers of BSN, thus providing development, innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities. It is hoped with BSN architecture, the developer competition, which will be held four times per year with each competition lasting three months will provide infrastructure solutions required to develop smart cities and digital economies.