A busy first day of Blockchain Summit , part of International Blockchain Week in Shanghai, was filled with product demonstrations and discussions on security and regulation. Presenters included Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys; Tim Swanson of R3; Feng Xiao, founder of conference sponsor Wangxiang Blockchain Labs; Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville of Circle; Josh Whelan of Santander and Tyler Smith of BHP Billiton. Here are some of the highlights. Vitalik Buterin Kicks It Off Welcoming attendees, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin remarked on the growth in interest in blockchain since his first visit to China in 2014. He noted how, on that trip, he knew of two or three companies that were interested in the technology; after six months, governments and banks were taking notice. Now the space is diversified. Buterin said that people were "now beginning to realize the possibilities we thought of in 2014." He made a comparison to the internet, saying there’s "not one annual conference where people decide the internet." "Once it grows big enough, it naturally grows diverse," Buterin said. Wangxiang Blockchain Labs Announces 200 Billion RMB Investment Looking to grow development, Wangxiang Blockchain Labs’ Feng Xiao announced a 200 billion RMB investment in a "smart city" and development center near Hangzhou, the recent host city to the G20 and B20 summits and home to headquarters of Alibaba, China’s largest online commerce company. Feng said the city will have the capacity to house 90,000 people with lifestyle, traffic and services interconnected digitally. He said the city will also encompass development and production resources to cover "the whole lifecycle of manufacturing," with incubators and accelerators. China’s NIFA, Hyperledger and IBM on Regulation A common theme centered on working with regulatory commissions, both in China and in the West. The day’s talks were opened by Lihui Li […]
