How do you think the
industry will develop in 2020?
I expect to see existing
blockchains connecting with each other.
Proof-of-work is a perfect
consensus mechanism for Bitcoin.
The Chinese government, the financial authorities
are definitely not encouraging people
to possess or use cryptocurrencies.
Next year, major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and
Cardano are planning to upgrade their
systems to proof-of-stake system.
Do you think that proof-of-work as a system,
on which cryptocurrencies are based on, is
destined to be replaced?
It is destined to be outdated
by different kinds of systems?
No, not really.
I think different consensus
mechanism fits different purpose.
Proof-of-work is a perfect
consensus mechanism for Bitcoin.
Which mimics the gold, Bitcoin is
sometimes called as a digital gold.
And I still believe proof-of-work is
the best consensus for Bitcoin.
But for NEO, for example, NEO
is the digital asset protocol.
So we need the consensus to have
finality, to have certainty about whether transactions,
whether transaction goes through or not.
So we decided to choose a different
consensus other than proof-of-work or proof-of-stake.
The consensus we used is called dBFT.
It's a BFT style consensus.
You will provide one block
finality to the blockchain.
So different consensus will
serve different purposes.
Recently, the Chinese government announced that
they are interested in embracing
blockchain technology. How do you think this statement
from the top levels of the Chinese
government is going to affect NEO?
And how is it going to
affect the industry in general?
I think it's a positive
signal to the industry.
I think the Chinese government just reaffirmed
that the government is very pro-technology
itself, although the regulator s from China
do not encourage any speculative business,
but still encourage the development
of the technology itself.
And NEO, is the protocol for digital
assets with the governments promoting blockchain
technology, a national priority, I believe there will
be more and more business to issue
digital assets, to issue
native digital assets.
And at the end of the day, there will be
more assets that can be managed by the new
blockchain. So I think it's a very positive
signal to NEO, to the whole industry.
Do you think that the recent surge in
price of NEO was directly related to these
statements by the Chinese government?
I can't say for certainty, but I
guess it definitely affects the market.
And there are concerns that these statements
by the Chinese government are not
necessarily a good thing for the crypto industry,
because China, as we know, it's not a
democratic country.
So many are concerned that it could use
blockchain as a way to enhance surveillance
instead of giving this kind of economic freedom
to people, which is the idea that the
basis of most cryptocurrencies.
Are you not concerned that the idea
behind cryptocurrency can be misused by China?
There's definitely different ideology between
China and the Western world.
And I think China is adopting , China
is implementing a different kind of democracy other
than the western definition.
But the government is still, we still have
a free freedom to do business, to do
blockchain developments.
So it doesn't affect our business.
Okay, but what about in terms of projects
that can be born out of China?
Can actually something like Bitcoin really take
place, really become widespread in a
country like China, where Bitcoin is
about mainly financial freedom, the centralization.
Do you think this kind of
project can thrive in China?
I think at this moment it's more difficult
to thrive in China than in many other
countries because we still
have capital control.
The Chinese yuan is not freely
interchangeable with other foreign currencies.
But Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
are a global asset.
It's not controlled by
the Chinese financial system.
So it would be difficult for the
regulators in China to manage those cryptocurrencies.
So I would not say the Chinese
government, the financial authorities that definitely not
encouraging people to possess
or use digital cryptocurrencies.
But the Chinese Central Bank are inventing
their own digital currency called a DCEP,
Digital Currency Electronic Payment system.
How do you think the
industry will develop in 2020?
What are your expectations?
I expect to see existing blockchain
s connecting with each other.
Currently different blockchains
they are separated.
There's no interoperability
between major blockchains.
I hope we will see major
blockchains can be connected next year.
For example, which ones?
For example, if Ethereum can connect with Bitcoin,
they connect with NEO, then assets can
flow between each other and then there will
be more defined business models to be
invented. So that's a good
thing for every business.
And also, if they can also connect to
Ontology, their digital identity solution, then we
will probably have a better regulatory framework
ready for the business, for the
blockchain business. Do you think this is
not exceedingly ambitious target for 2020?
This interconnection between
major blockchain.
Is it something that can happen
in such a short time period?
I don't think we will have the...
We will see everything connected in 2020.
It's just a one year time, but we will
start to see some blockchains connecting to each
other. NEO can be used
to build smart contracts.
And it aims to create
the next generation internet.
That's your slogan, basically.
What is the competitive advantage
of NEO compared to Ethereum?
Well, NEO itself will not
be the next generation Internet.
NEO will be part of
the next generation Internet.
It's one of the building blocks.
Currently NEO is working with Ontology and
other major blockchains that signed NDA with
us. So we're working
on the interoperability protocol.
So NEO will be in the digital assets scope.
Ontology will be the digital identity solution
and there will be distributed storage
solutions or this blockchains will be linked
together to become part of the next
generation Internet. And that's
also the comparative advantage.
We don't want to be everything.
One blockchain for everything.
We just want to focus the
area that we are appetized in.
Okay, so NEO is kind of
building something bigger than itself?
Yes. I see.
Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.
It's a good interview.
