Xu Mingxing: Clarify two misunderstandings in the blockchain industry
Editor's Note: This article comes fromFenghuang.com Finance (ID: finance_ifeng), Odaily is authorized to publish.
, Odaily is authorized to publish.
On the afternoon of November 19th, the "Deshengmen Lecture Hall", sponsored by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and undertaken by the Fujian Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, the Party Committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the All-China Mergers and Acquisitions Association, opened in Fuzhou. With the theme of "Blockchain and Innovation - Promoting the Development of Digital China with Blockchain Technology", this event will promote the progress of blockchain technology and help the development of Digital China.
Fan Youshan, deputy secretary and vice chairman of the party group of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Lin Baojin, vice governor of Fujian Provincial People's Government, Wang Guangyuan, vice chairman of the Fujian Provincial Political Consultative Conference, chairman of the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, Lei Chengcai, vice chairman of the Fuzhou CPPCC and chairman of the Municipal Federation of Industry and Commerce, and other leaders attended the lecture hall . Li Jiarong, deputy director of the United Front Work Department of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and secretary of the party group of the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, presided over the lecture hall.
The event specially invited Xu Mingxing, the founder of OK Group and a well-known blockchain technology expert, as the keynote speaker, and delivered a keynote speech on the topic of "Application Concept of Blockchain in Enterprise Credit System".
In his speech, Xu Mingxing systematically explained the blockchain technology that is currently highly concerned by all walks of life, and combined with the theme of the organizer, he talked about how to apply the blockchain in the enterprise credit system, and also clarified two misunderstandings in the industry on the spot , to rectify the name of the industry.
The following is the full text of the speech according to the on-site shorthand:
It is a great honor to communicate with you about blockchain technology in the Deshengmen Lecture Hall today. I am one of the early blockchain entrepreneurs in China. Our OK Group is the world's leading blockchain industry group and has been engaged in the research and development and commercialization of blockchain technology. Brand digital asset wallet, payment, transaction and other businesses. Today I will share my understanding of blockchain technology from the perspective of entrepreneurial practice. At the same time, the organizer gave a topic about the relationship between blockchain and credit reporting. I also did a lot of homework.
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01 About Blockchain: A Distributed, Irreversible Database
Blockchain is actually not that mysterious, it is a database technology that stores data. The development of database technology has a history of several decades, and various database technologies appeared as early as 20 or 30 years ago.
The first generation of Internet databases is very simple, called two-dimensional flat database, such as Yahoo. Because there are many web pages on the Internet, Yahoo made a "table" to help everyone search the web pages on the Internet by category. This is the earliest Internet database.
Later, with the advancement of this technology, there were more and more web pages on the Internet, and it was impossible to find the web pages we needed by classification. At this time, mathematicians discovered search databases, such as Google and Baidu, which can collect a large number of web pages. The web pages of the website are made into a special database to help everyone find web pages.
With the continuous advancement of database technology, new relational databases have emerged. The characteristic of the relational database is that it can accurately record each data to ensure that it is error-free. This kind of database is used in a large number of e-commerce and finance. Today we are talking about electronic banking and electronic shopping, and the bottom layer is guaranteed by a relational database.
With the development of database technology, we found that we need to store a large number of pictures, such as Douyin, Youtube and other applications with a very large amount of data storage. Relational databases cannot carry massive amounts of data, so a new database has emerged, called file type. database. It can be said that every breakthrough in database technology has brought about the rapid development of Internet applications. Without breakthroughs in file-based databases, there would be no video applications such as Douyin and Youtube today.
The same is true for the blockchain, which is a distributed and irreversible database. This kind of database has several characteristics: first, the blockchain database is built on a peer-to-peer network; second, it is a distributed storage method.
What is peer-to-peer? For example, today’s meeting has a Wifi, and everyone is connected to Wifi. Because the Internet is very powerful, the Wifi in the meeting room is connected to the Wifi in the area, and finally to the city’s backbone network. The intermediate Internet acts as a distributed database, and many central databases pass through The backbone network is connected, which is a distributed structure. The database of the blockchain is very powerful, and other places will not be affected if one area is broken.
But this kind of network is not efficient, so there is a lot of bandwidth waste in data transmission. But because today's underlying distributed network is very powerful, we no longer care about the waste of bandwidth, so we can build this kind of peer-to-peer network. This is also an important reason why the blockchain can develop today: this is the result of powerful underlying network communication technology, reduced bandwidth costs, and improved communication efficiency.
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02 The operation principle of the blockchain: human beings return to the basics in the information age
What can be stored on the blockchain peer-to-peer network? The English of the blockchain is called BlockChain, which can be translated into an account book. On the peer-to-peer network, the blockchain will generate a snapshot of data records at regular intervals, and connect the entire data snapshots through data retrieval technology to form a Blockchain.
Most of the early blockchain systems stored the transaction details that occurred on the entire network, and adopted many mathematical methods to facilitate the verification and verification of the transactions inside, including quick query, etc., so the blockchain is A database that stores all transaction details on a peer-to-peer network. So what is the role of this database that stores transaction details? Take an example to see how transaction information is transmitted on the blockchain network.
There is a user A who wants to transfer money to another user B. In our traditional banking system, it usually goes through the access bank and the clearing center of the central bank. If it is an international transfer, it has to go through many intermediary banks before the exchange of value can be realized.
How to make a transaction on the blockchain? It is still a scenario where user A transfers money to another unknown user B. First, generate the transaction on the blockchain; second, broadcast the transaction to the peer-to-peer network through the blockchain, and everyone can receive the transaction information. Of course, for most people, this transaction has nothing to do with them and can be ignored. But in this network, there is a group of people who are specially responsible for bookkeeping, and they will be selected according to mathematical algorithms. This process is called consensus.
There are different algorithms in different blockchain networks, that is, different blockchain networks have different consensus mechanisms. In any case, these bookkeepers are finally selected by network participants in accordance with predetermined rules. The bookkeeper verifies the transaction, such as verifying whether the transaction is true, verifying whether his balance is sufficient, and whether he has a money sent to two people at the same time, etc.
Some people may ask, what if the bookkeeper made a fraud? Because under the consensus mechanism, the bookkeeper is selected according to the established mathematical algorithm, and will be rotated according to different manpower. Once the next bookkeeper finds a fraud, it will be reminded, so it is difficult for anyone to fake in this network.
Therefore, when A completes a transaction, the confirmed account book will be broadcast to the entire network. After being verified by the bookkeeper, this transaction is considered to be accurate, and the accurate transaction is broadcast to the network again, and everyone in the network can receive it. 99% of the people have nothing to do with this transaction, only B will receive and know that a sum of money has been added.
This transaction process is somewhat inefficient and seems unwise, but it is actually epoch-making. This is the first time that human beings have realized peer-to-peer transactions in the information age. After user A and user B make a transaction, there is no intermediary agency serving them in the middle.
Although it is also the information age in the blockchain network, we can achieve an accurate transaction for the first time without going through a special intermediary service provider. In other words, this technology allows humans to return to basics in the information age. Of course, peer-to-peer has both advantages and disadvantages. In any case, this is an epoch-making change.
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03 Smart contract: "technical court" in the blockchain world
With the continuous maturity of blockchain technology, we found that the current blockchain is not only as simple as bookkeeping, but also can store programs and logic. We call it smart contracts. To give a very simple example, A asks B to write an article and agrees on the manuscript fee. What if A does not pay after B finishes writing? The traditional solution to this situation is to find an intermediary and pressure the money to him, and the intermediary will make the final payment of the manuscript fee. But if the intermediary is unreliable, or the intermediary needs to charge, it will increase the risk and cost.
On the blockchain network, a smart contract can be written. This program no longer runs on the server of a certain company, but operates on the entire peer-to-peer network. Before A initiates the demand, the money must be automatically locked in the smart contract. At this time, the smart contract does not belong to anyone. It has both the ability to sign the contract and the ability to "court". We can understand that it is a " Technological courts, capable of automatically enforcing the terms of contracts.
So to sum up, the blockchain is a database, but it is a different database from the past. It is a distributed database in a peer-to-peer network. This database can not only store data, but also store programs. Some people call it a network operating system, which connects global computers to run some programs and logic on it.
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04 Two directions of blockchain application: tools or subversion?
Many people ask me that you have talked so much, what can blockchain do and how to apply it? This question is actually quite difficult to answer, and I have been thinking about it constantly. Today I try to answer how the blockchain is applied. I think it can be divided into two categories: one is called instrumental application, and the other is called subversive application.
In fact, the application of every new technology can be divided into these two processes. For example, the Internet and mobile Internet are the same. For example, electronic invoicing, electronic document circulation, electronic reading, airline electronic booking, etc., such industries actually exist, and we use the Internet as a tool to enable it to provide better services. This is the progress brought about by the Internet and mobile Internet, which is called tool application.
But on the other hand, we also see that in addition to serving existing industries, the Internet and mobile Internet have also created new industries, such as WeChat. In the past, we relied on making calls and sending text messages. WeChat created a new industry, and even subverted or transformed the field of text messages. Operators began to turn into traffic channel business, and the real application layer business is here on WeChat. Including the Didi and Taobao we have seen, they are actually subversive applications.
Every new technology will have these two directions in the application process, and the blockchain technology is the same. When we think about how the blockchain is applied and what kind of application is not necessary for the blockchain, we must first look at whether it is instrumental or subversive.
For disruptive applications, I believe that on the blockchain, there will be some applications that are completely based on blockchain technology, such as Bitcoin and smart contracts. Even now, the rules of many games are naturally embedded in smart contracts and cannot be tampered with, and can be trusted by the entire society and community. Now there are more and more such applications. In China or in our community, many people are committed to the subversive application of blockchain, and I am engaged in the direction of subversive application.
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05 Blockchain credit investigation: infrastructure belonging to the whole society
Finally, let's talk about the application of blockchain technology in the field of credit reporting. After receiving this topic, I studied all the papers on blockchain and credit reporting that I could find in China, and I will show it to you here.
Our country tried to issue credit reference licenses to 8 companies, but then stopped. For example, business entities such as Ant Big Data, Tencent Big Data, etc., all do their own things about credit reporting and do not share with each other. In the end, it evolved into a credit reporting company that does not serve the public, but serves the company itself. But unified management of credit reporting is our goal. If credit reporting is handed over to an enterprise, the more monopolized and the bigger the better based on the nature of profit, this is an inevitable result.
Generally speaking, the current credit information system mainly has the following major problems: First, the problem of islands of credit information data. Every company is only willing to give data to itself, not to others. Second, security and privacy protection issues. After the data is shared with others, there are many privacy protection issues, as well as the issue of commercial secret disclosure. Third, define the value of credit data. Sharing and exchanging between enterprises is destined to have problems that cannot be priced or exchanged.
Therefore, blockchain technology may have huge room for development in the field of credit reporting. First of all, a mechanism can be designed on the blockchain network. Everyone can write their own credit data to the blockchain, but this data is encrypted, and only the owner of the data itself has the decryption authority. Therefore, based on the blockchain, there will be a very extensive credit information system in the future, and this credit information data does not belong to any company, but belongs to the infrastructure of the whole society.
Based on the smart contract, if you want to obtain the decryption right of this data, you need to pay a certain fee to the contributor of the data to obtain the right to use the data. The biggest benefit brought by such a blockchain credit reporting system is that it does not belong to any individual or organization alone, and all the data of everyone is together. Of course, this data is encrypted and stored, and it is very safe to store it on the ciphertext-based network. However, national supervision can view it, and individuals who contribute to the data can also view it. This requires a set of token economy to design query permissions.
There are also some specific technical details. The first is the hash algorithm, which is called information fingerprint in many places, which is used to identify the characteristics of a complex information, and finally store this characteristic in the network node to verify whether it has been tampered with. The second is asymmetric decryption. Its biggest advantage is that you don't have to worry about the privacy of this data being leaked. For example, when I want to send data, first everyone will publish his public key. The public key is public. After encrypting and storing the ciphertext on the network, everyone still has his private key. You can only decrypt the data encrypted with your public key, so the sender and the receiver do not need to meet, and a cryptographic method can be used to ensure the safe transmission of data.
Therefore, I think that a peer-to-peer distributed database such as blockchain can create a credit reporting mechanism that is different from the past in the credit reporting system: First, the credit reporting system based on blockchain does not belong to individuals, but belongs to A social infrastructure; secondly, all its participants can share these data equally; thirdly, this credit system is a combination of decentralization and centralization.
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06 Two Misunderstandings of Blockchain: Decentralization and Bitcoin "Coin"
Many people say that the blockchain is decentralized, which is actually a misunderstanding, and the translation of decentralization is also inaccurate. Decentralize is a very neutral word in English.
In fact, there is a very powerful center in the blockchain, which is the designer of the rules. So people say that the blockchain is decentralized, but it is not. For example, the Bitcoin rule designer designed a rule that has been operating in 200 countries around the world for 10 years. The rule has not been falsified or broken, and has been operating accurately. Today, blockchain technology is a very good technology for governments and regulators, if they want to operate a certain rule accurately and without compromise, such as in the field of poverty alleviation, because its center is this The designer of the rules.
So it is wrong to say that the blockchain has no center. Moreover, rule designers can design some super nodes so that regulatory agencies or countries can have some verification rights. For example, the U.S. dollar stablecoin we issued in cooperation with U.S. regulators is not completely decentralized. The U.S. anti-money laundering agency requires us to provide a super private key to stop any sum of money at any time. So when instructed, the transaction can be stopped. Therefore, I think that the blockchain is a peer-to-peer technology and idea in a wider application link, and there is no technical problem in providing regulatory agencies with regulatory capabilities.
The second myth is about Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is not a currency. There are Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. called digital assets on the blockchain. In foreign countries, many central banks directly issue digital assets, and some central banks issue digital assets in US dollars through commercial companies, such as American companies, which are issued in accordance with local regulatory norms. Whether these digital assets are issued or settled, they are ultimately anchored to sovereign currencies.
There are also many communities, similar to when playing games, the equipment recognized by everyone in the game community is actually a kind of points or electronic application, which is a consensus formed based on a specific group of people. Something that is useful to a certain group of people.
The founder of Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto. The earliest word used was bitgold, but the domain name was preempted by others, so the name was changed to bitcoin and translated into Bitcoin. If it is called gold, it is actually a commodity rather than a coin. Therefore, one is about decentralization, and the other is about Bitcoin "coin". I think these are the two biggest misunderstandings in the industry. Today I want to correct the name of the industry.
