The 2-day event in Shanghai was a massive success as the world’s leading banks, technology corporations and financial institutions expressed their positive attitude towards the technology.

Throughout the 2nd Global Blockchain Summit, which followed the Ethereum Foundation’s ÐΞVCON2, a series of presentations were held by the blockchain industry and financial sector’s leading experts and entrepreneurs, including ConsenSys’ Joseph Lubin, Circle’s Jeremy Allaire, Wanxiang's Feng Xiao and Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf.

On the first day of the event, the hosting company of the 2nd Blockchain Summit Wanxiang revealed a 200 billion RMB investment in an innovative smart city, which will demonstrate various use cases of emerging technologies like self-driving vehicles, the blockchain technology and AI.

Specifically, Wanxiang’s Feng Xiao shared the prospects of the blockchain technology utilisation for recording the usage of car components, such as batteries, and property rights.

Wanxiang’s general blockchain investment strategy was followed by a series of presentations targeting regulatory issues surrounding the blockchain technology and its unique applications across many industries.

Joseph Lubin, the founder of the blockchain software company ConsenSys focused on the applicability of the Ethereum network in data storage and maintenance. Lubin extensively discussed the blockchain technology’s potential in solving serious problems with personal identity issues by describing the technology’s capability to embed sensitive data into an unalterable and decentralised ledger.

IBM, which recently announced their venture on business blockchain networks, made a presentation together with Hyperledger and the China's National Internet Finance Association on regulatory frameworks imposed on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

Lihui Li of the China’s National Internet Finance Association emphasised the importance of decentralising blockchain networks for mainstream usage in the conventional financial industry considering the strict financial regulations in China and other Asian countries.

On the second day of the summit, Jeff Garzik and leading financial establishments such as UBS, CME Group and Russia’s Sberbank discussed the potential of integrating blockchain networks into core banking systems and financial platforms.

The former Bitcoin Core developer Jeff Garzik focused his discussion on the significance of open source networks in the development of blockchain systems and applications. Garzik and the Bloq team strongly believe that an open source community is crucial even for creation of private blockchain networks.

Alex Batlin of UBS and Pavel Khodalev of Sberbank presented practical applicability of the blockchain technology in the financial sector due to its ability to process cross-border and cross-institutional transactions, which reduces transaction fees and security costs for banks and financial institutions.

The CME Group, for a change, focused their presentation on bitcoin, explaining the research they carry out since 2012 and their efforts in making bitcoin trading as easy as trading in traditional assets or stocks in the stock market.

Overall, the positivity and optimism of the event represented rapidly increasing interests in the blockchain technology on behalf of banks, major financial institutions and IT corporations.

Joseph Young