NEO (NEO) founder Da Hongfei appeared at the Blockdown 2020 virtual conference on April 16, where he spoke about blockchain’s role in the post-pandemic world.

The creator of the project dubbed the “Chinese Ethereum” suggested that the world was currently witnessing a pattern of de-globalization. According to Hongfei, blockchain will be the technology that puts humanity back on course to becoming a global community.

Hongfei pointed out that blockchain is ideology agnostic, and while different nations may have different financial ideas and concepts, blockchain can be the neutral ground which bridges those gaps:

“First of all, blockchain is ideology neutral. It’s not backed by capitalism, it’s not backed by socialism. It is jurisdiction agnostic… Sometimes people say code is law, I think that’s a smart way of saying blockchain is jurisdiction agnostic.”

Blockchain as global economy

Hongfei said nations in the post-pandemic world would struggle to recover using their own strained infrastructure and supply lines. The NEO founder suggested that while nations may be tempted towards nationalism in the coming months as a defense mechanism, the blockchain could function as the host of a global marketplace:

“Blockchain can become a global marketplace. A ledger is a global database. If we can put all of the global assets on the blockchain, we can have a global marketplace where everyone can trade with everyone.”

That said, Hongfei doesn’t necessarily think the current crop of blockchains are equipped to deal with the demands of hosting a global economy. Most of the world’s value is still tied up in fiat money, and before blockchain can take over, it will have to improve in three key areas, said Hongfei. adding:

“Is today’s blockchain technology ready? Unfortunately my answer is no. I don’t think today’s blockchain can fulfill the mission to hold the human economy on top of it. We can improve in three aspects: interoperability, tokenization and adoption.”

NEO was created in 2014 under the name Antshares. A rebranding job in 2017 saw the project shift focus to digital assets and “smart economies.” NEO also acts as a platform for other blockchain projects, most notably Ontology (ONT), which is currently ranked 30th by global market cap.

Blockdown 2020 runs for the next two days, and will feature a range of speakers and personalities from within the blockchain space.