Mr. Yang has been deeply involved in the blockchain technology field for 10 years and co-founded a well-known local blockchain company in China with several PhDs from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has shared many astonishing views, such as “In the future, digital freedom, users control their own data,” “Blockchain technology solves the issue of digital property rights,” “Blockchain will become a global ‘World Bank,’ where trillions of fiat currencies, digital securities, and more will flow freely on blockchain technology,” “Traditional banks will become smart contracts of blockchain technology,” “The development of blockchain technology is not hindered by policies, laws, or regulations, but by security.” Today, we take this opportunity to explore these viewpoints.
Reporter (Can): Mr. Yang, you mentioned that blockchain will become the global “World Bank,” and traditional banks will become smart contracts of this “bank.” Why do you hold this view?
Fan Yang: Blockchain has a higher efficiency in financial transactions, such as digital currencies, securities, etc., which can freely flow anywhere globally accessible by the internet. The cost of establishing trust between countless financial institutions (e.g., banks, securities companies, etc.) is nearly zero, significantly enhancing the global capital matching efficiency. Assets stored in financial institutions are almost digitalized. The internet transmits digital information in milliseconds and seconds, while the efficiency of existing financial institutions in transferring digital assets is abnormally lagging. Global capital matching, especially among international financial institutions (e.g., bank remittances), takes days and weeks. A financial asset sold globally might need days to reach its destination through several intermediary financial institutions. Blockchain can increase efficiency to seconds, drastically changing the efficiency of global capital matching needs. Current financial technology used by traditional financial institutions utilizes the internet, but their ledgers are independent. Each financial institution’s digital ledger only conducts transactions with those it trusts commercially, like your everyday bank, which cannot directly remit to all banks worldwide. Some remittances require changing banks or finding intermediary institutions. Establishing a network-wide commercial cooperation relationship between banks worldwide has extremely high business integration costs and takes a very long time, almost impossible. We assume if these banks use a trustworthy shared ledger, technically everything is solved. But then comes the question: who owns this ledger? How can the owner of this ledger make global financial institutions trust him? The widely used financial technology on the internet requires a trusted third party financial institution to complete a digital transaction. However, Bitcoin’s underlying technology has proven that a trusted third-party financial institution is unnecessary for completing a digital transaction. Ethereum’s smart contracts through ERC20 and ERC721 can prove the diversity of assets on the blockchain (e.g., currency, securities, etc.). These technologies are a shared ledger, characterized by belonging to no one and no institution. The system runs on publicly transparent open-source code, operated and maintained by a network of strangers’ machines. For example, on Ethereum, selling financial assets globally, theoretically accessible by any internet network, the efficiency of capital movement between any global corner is measured in seconds, possibly minutes at peak times, and transactions are direct peer-to-peer without intermediaries. Some institutions have gradually started selling and trading assets on Ethereum, and financial institutions will gradually participate as the value of assets on the blockchain, the number of users, and the time this technology has been validated increase. Represented by Tether and Circle, the USDT and USDC dollar tokens on the blockchain have already exceeded one hundred billion, and the entire industry’s market value has broken through 2.5 trillion dollars. I believe more legitimate securities assets and currencies will flow on it in the future. In 5 to 10 years, I think banks and securities exchanges will do more value matching, while value storage will be on the blockchain.
Reporter (Can): This is indeed a beautiful vision, and some trends are indeed visible. You mentioned digital freedom, user data control by users, and blockchain solving digital property rights issues. Are these related?
Fan Yang: It’s the same idea. With the advent of the internet, the speed of digitalization is extremely fast, and many “physical” things are being digitalized. However, all existing technologies are maintained by a centralized institution. Although you have rights, the institution storing your digital information has the “power” to process your digital content. Your privacy is not your privacy, and the assets in your bank are not your assets. In blockchain, as long as your assets are on Layer 1, not Layer 2 or in contracts, and you keep your private key safe, you own the rights and power to handle these assets. No third party has the right to process your assets. This is the concept of digital property rights I mentioned. In fact, in the current digital world, you do not own your digital property rights; your data does not belong to you but to central institutions. At least in digital asset protection, blockchain allows you to maximize the rights and power of digital assets to belong to you. Technically feasible for personal descriptive information privacy protection, I have made patents and technical validations, but how to commercialize it is one of the things I am currently working on.
Reporter (Can): How do you view some illegal activities on the blockchain, such as transferring funds to illegal organizations?
Fan Yang: It can be solved by addressing the legality of the asset source. For example, the U.S. SEC has already defined most crypto assets as securities. If clear conditions for issuing assets on the blockchain are given, these assets must have their contract code logic controlled centrally by the issuing institution before issuance, which can organize or freeze illegal transactions. Tether has achieved this. But these rules need to be clear, and legal registration channels are needed. Through market competition and protecting investors, some “bad” cryptocurrencies will be squeezed out, so users’ investments will flow into legal and manageable registered assets. Here, I want to explain that if a contract is developed on the blockchain, the released assets can be centralized or decentralized. In any case, they originate from the source, but the built-in tokens of the chain Layer 1 are decentralized, which does not contradict what was mentioned about digital property rights earlier. Blockchain technology can solve digital property rights, similar to giving contracts developed on Ethereum, which can choose some degree of centralization, mainly targeting asset types, ultimately leaving the choice to the user.
Reporter (Can): You also mentioned that the development of blockchain technology is not hindered by policy but by security. How should this be understood? Is blockchain not secure?
Fan Yang: How should I put it, the main obstacle to the development of blockchain technology is not policy, as its benefits and positive aspects are gradually being realized, and the market is accepting it. I believe policy will not become an obstacle in time or ultimately. It’s not that blockchain is insecure, but ensuring the security of one’s assets requires some knowledge conditions for users. This is also an important reason why assets on the blockchain have not been widely popularized, although technology is making breakthroughs. In daily consumer financial settlements, the experience of traditional financial institutions is indeed much better than using blockchain. If you forget your bank card or payment app password, you can retrieve it, and if stolen, it can be recovered. But on the blockchain, if you forget your private key or leak it, the funds are almost irretrievable, so there is a certain threshold for users to store this information. Additionally, the crypto industry currently faces phishing websites, simulating user wallet addresses, obtaining private key signatures, and other methods to steal user assets. According to a February report by Scamsniffer, 57,000 people suffered $47 million in losses from cryptocurrency phishing tools. Although these users could have avoided these incidents, there are indeed some requirements for ordinary users. This is the direction of my future business and technical positioning.
Reporter (Can): I know that the Bubi blockchain company you co-founded in China has been widely commercialized domestically, including OneZeroBuildingBlock’s cryptocurrency big data fraud platform, which already has millions of users. Could you briefly introduce it?
Fan Yang: Bubi blockchain is now commercially used in various financial fields, managing assets over several billion, and is expected to break through ten billion in 2024. OneZeroBuildingBlocks mainly detects mainstream blockchain platforms through big data, helping users track assets and monitor contracts on the chain in real-time, as many phishing platforms use contracts to obtain user signatures and transfer assets. We detect these anomalies and alert customers. I personally have obtained patents for these core technologies.
Mr. Yang has worked in well-known Chinese companies specializing in network security, P2P streaming media technology, etc., serving as core technical and senior management personnel. Since 2014, he started researching underlying blockchain technology with several PhDs from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and founded Bubi Technology, China’s largest blockchain technology company, securing $130 million in financing. In 2018, he founded OneZeroBuildingBlocks, focusing on blockchain big data and blockchain security prevention and anti-fraud technology.
Company Name: One Zero Building Blocks (Shanghai) Technology Co., LTD
Email: jack0528@live.cn
Official Website: https://weibo.com/u/7354434880
Contact Person: Katherine
Country: China
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Economy Compare journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.