On May 27, 2021, Cointelegraph China successfully hosted “The Convergence of Blockchain Ecosystem” conference in Hangzhou, China. The event was sponsored by Avalanche, Horizen, PlatON, Nervos, Hot Labs, 7 O’Clock Capital and Edge & Node. In addition, Powpower, Nova, Solana, BSN, DAOventures, Polygon, A&T Capital, Suterusu, O3Swap and Helium were special support partners.
The event brought together more than 100 people from top investment institutions, well-known projects and media in the industry to actively share technical developments and discuss investment logic.
Blockchain ecosystem status
Wilson Wu, an ecological partner of Avalanche Asia, said:
“In 2018, the ecology of blockchain was completely different from what it is now. At that time, it was more conceptual. Since last year, great differences have taken place in the blockchain industry. More and more reliable projects are born.”
More funds have also been established to delicately build the blockchain infrastructure. According to Wu, on May 13, the Avalanche protocol also officially established the industry fund — Avalanche Asia Star Shine Fund. It is a series of industry funds independently managed by its Asian team, focusing on supporting Asian ecosystem projects. The first $20 million will be used for the construction of the Avalanche ecosystem, decentralized finance, nonfungible tokens and industrial infrastructure projects.
According to Guan Yin, Horizen’s China representative, at present, the problem encountered by the blockchain industry is that blockchain technology is difficult to understand, and few people really understand the in-depth technology. He added:
“Blockchain and cryptocurrency are too complex for ordinary people, and there is a need to simplify UI/UX on a large scale. Blockchain is not enough to arouse the interest of many people. We need to create real practicality in line with reality.”
According to Yin, Horizen is a Web 3.0 privacy platform designed to allow developers and enterprises to issue their own sidechains, build their own blockchain applications, and serve the real society, according to Yin.
Anatoly Yakovenko, founder and CEO of Solana, revealed to Cointelegraph China that the Solana ecosystem grows every day, and a large number of developers enters Solana daily. The products built by Solana and its developers will be very interesting.
There is now an opportunity to bring blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to many ordinary people. Solana’s vision is to be fast enough to run an exchange like the Nasdaq. It aims to support all fast-growing and high-frequency blockchain applications, as well as make the financial system inclusive.
Technology development and the state of blockchain in enterprises
He Yifan, the executive director of BSN’s development alliance, said that in three to five years, especially when the operating system layer becomes more mature, blockchain technology would become a conventional technology.
He predicts that in three to five years, every developer should be able to build basic applications with blockchain technology.
Gao Yuan, managing director of China at Helium, believes that blockchain technology can be implemented and become a part of the real economy depending on a mature and clear regulatory framework. He said:
“In the future, multiple chains will coexist and there will be some differentiated competition among different public chains and expanded infrastructures. Finally, they will be connected together through cross-chain infrastructures.”
However, Charlie Hu, director of Polygon China, pointed out that the development, competition and cooperation of the industry are inevitable, and blockchain application developers are bound to choose more than one public chain.
At the current stage, developers are choosing to develop atop Ethereum, as the network effect is better. With all kinds of restrictions on Ethereum, however, developers will migrate to Binance Smart Chain or Polygon.
Promising blockchain ventures and institutional investment
Investors generally agree that NFTs and DeFi will be the trends that lead the next round of investment opportunities. Alex Zhou, a founding partner of HOT Labs, and Hua Zi, investment manager of Kirin Fund, are both optimistic about NFTs.
Zhou says there are two types of investment opportunities: value investments and financial investments. Value investments focus on projects, such as Dfinity and its ecosystem, while financial investments focus on strong leading projects, such as Solo, which has strong capital support.
7 O’Clock Capital Kangshi Yang said the total value of DeFi is $100 billion today, and it could reach $1 trillion in the future. He believes DeFi is just beginning to develop.
Belinda Zhou, head of DAOVentures in China, and Todd Zhu, vice president of A&T Capital, also agreed and added that there are decentralized exchanges, loans and stable currencies in the DeFi sector with many representative projects. Their development shows that DeFi has real landing and application value and that the DeFi sector will continue to grow.
Zihua concluded:
“What Bitcoin brings to the blockchain is a revolution in financial sovereignty, while what NFT brings to the blockchain is more of a revolution in the ownership of digital assets. Today, the total market value of the encryption industry is less than $2 trillion. If traditional financial funds can enter the blockchain industry, the ecological development of the blockchain can reach a better height and dimension.”