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Contracts, transactions and their records are an important part of our social, economic, legal and political systems. They protect our assets and define the boundaries of the organization. They formed and verified our personal identity and various historical events. They manage a series of activities between the state, organizations, communities and indivials. They direct all management and social activities. But these key tools and the bureaucracy that manages them have not kept pace with the digital transformation of the economy. It's like F1 racing in a big jam. In a digital world, our way of supervision and administrative control must be changed

blockchain has the potential to solve this problem. As the core supporting technology of bitcoin and other virtual currencies, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger, which can effectively record the transaction records between the two parties, and can be verified and permanently saved. The ledger itself can be programmed to automatically trigger transaction completion

five basic principles of blockchain technology

1. Distributed database

each party on the blockchain can obtain all data and complete historical records. No one can control data or information. Each party can directly verify the records of all parties to the transaction without mediation

2. Point to point communication

each independent point can communicate directly without a central node. Each node can store information and transfer all information to all other nodes

3. Limited transparency

users who have access to the system can see every transaction and its value. Each node or user on the blockchain has a unique address composed of letters and numbers, which can be used as the identity of the user. Users can choose to remain anonymous or disclose their identity to others. Transactions occur between addresses on the blockchain

4. Records cannot be changed

once the transaction results enter the database, the account information will be updated accordingly, and the records cannot be changed, because these information are related to all previous transaction records (this is the source of the term "chain"). Various calculation algorithms and methods are used to ensure that the records in the database are permanent, sorted in chronological order, and can be seen by all other people in the network

5. Computational logic

the digital nature of the ledger means that blockchain transactions can be connected with computational logic, and can actually be realized by programming. All users can set algorithms and rules, so that transactions can be automatically triggered between nodes


with blockchain technology, we can imagine that in a new world, contracts are stored in a transparent shared database in the form of digital programming, and will not be deleted, tampered with or revised. In such a world, every protocol, every process, every task and every payment will have a digital record and a digital signature that can be identified, verified, stored and shared. Intermediaries such as lawyers, brokers and bankers are no longer necessary. Indivials, organizations, machines and algorithms can freely interact and trade with each other without friction. This is the infinite potential of blockchain

in fact, almost everyone has heard that blockchain will bring revolutionary impact on enterprises and redefine enterprises and economy. Although we are enthusiastic about the potential of blockchain, we are also worried about exaggeration. It's not just security issues (such as the collapse of a bitcoin exchange in 2014 and the recent hacker attacks) that worry us. The experience of research on technological innovation tells us that if there is a blockchain revolution in the future, there will be many obstacles - technological, governance, organizational and social obstacles. It is likely to lead to a big mistake to rashly apply blockchain technology innovation before we really understand blockchain thoroughly

we believe that it will take many years for blockchain to bring real changes to enterprises and governments. Because blockchain is not a "disruptive" technology, disruptive technology can impact the traditional business model with low-cost solutions, and can quickly replace traditional enterprises. We believe that blockchain is a basic technology: it has the potential to create a new foundation for our economic and social system. But its impact is very extensive, and it will take decades for blockchain to penetrate into economic and social infrastructure. The process of blockchain popularization will be graal, and this process and its strategic significance will be the focus of this paper

technology adoption mode

before discussing blockchain strategy and investment, let's recall the technology adoption process we know below, especially the adoption process of other basic technologies. One of the most relevant examples is the distributed computer network technology, that is, the adoption of TCP / IP protocol, which has laid the foundation for the development of the Internet

TCP / IP first appeared in 1972 and has been widely concerned in an independent application scenario: it is the basis for sending e-mail between researchers on ARPANET, which is the predecessor of the commercial Internet developed by the U.S. Department of defense. Before TCP / IP, the communication system architecture was built on the basis of "circuit switching". The connection between two parties or two machines must be preset and maintained through the switch. In order to ensure that any two nodes can communicate, telecom service providers and equipment manufacturers have invested billions of dollars in dedicated lines

TCP / IP has completely changed the above mode. The new protocol digitizes the information and decomposes it into many small packets, each packet contains address information. Once these packets are released into the network, they can reach the receiver by any route. The data sending point and receiving point in the network can decompose the data packets, combine the data packets again, and interpret the data. There is no need for dedicated lines or large-scale infrastructure. TCP / IP creates an open and shared public network, which has no central organization or main body responsible for maintenance and update

traditional telecom enterprises and related enterprises are suspicious of TCP / IP. Rarely imagine that data, information, audio and video can be established under the new system, and rarely imagine that the related system will be very safe and develop rapidly. However, from the late 1980s to the 1990s, more and more enterprises, such as sun, next, HP and silicon graphics, used TCP / IP to develop their internal LAN. By doing so, they have developed technologies that go beyond e-mail and graally replace traditional LAN technologies and standards. With the adoption of these newly developed technologies and tools, the proction efficiency of enterprises has been greatly improved< In the mid-1990s, the emergence of the world wide web made TCP / IP widely used. The newly founded high-tech enterprises began to provide relevant "tools" - hardware, software and related services, which are necessary for connecting with the current open network and exchanging information. Netscape has commercialized browsers, web servers and other tools and components. Sun company promotes the development of Java. With the exponential growth of information on the Internet, Infoseek, excite, Altavista, and Yahoo are leading users to use TCP / IP technology

once this basic infrastructure is widely accepted, the new generation of enterprises can seize the opportunity brought by low-cost Internet access to create more Internet services, which in turn helps to replace the original business model. CNET has moved news online. Amazon sells more books than any physical bookstore. Priceline and Expedia make it easier to buy tickets, and the whole purchase process is more transparent. These new enterprises expand their business at a very low cost, making traditional enterprises such as newspapers and physical retail stores feel unprecedented pressure

relying on the widespread Internet, enterprises can create novel and revolutionary applications, which are enough to fundamentally change the traditional business model and create value. These enterprises are built on the new P2P architecture, and generate value by coordinating the users of the distributed network. Imagine how eBay has changed the online retail business through auction mode, Napster has changed the music instry, Skype has changed the telecommunications instry, and Google has changed the Internet search by using the links formed by users to provide more accurate search results

many enterprises have used blockchain to track goods in the supply chain. Finally, it took more than 30 years for TCP / IP to become widely accepted - used alone, locally applied, replaced and transformed - and reshape our economy. Today, more than half of the world's most valuable listed companies are Internet driven, platform based business models. The foundation of our economy has fundamentally changed. Physical assets and proprietary intellectual property rights are no longer the guarantee of competitive advantage; Enterprises that lead economic development can play a key role, especially in organizing, influencing and coordinating a wide range of community networks, users and organizations

new system

blockchain, the P2P network at the top of the Internet, came into people's view as the core foundation of bitcoin in October 2008. Bitcoin is a virtual monetary system, which does not issue currency through the central authority, transfers ownership and confirms transactions. Bitcoin is the first practical application of blockchain technology

the similarities between blockchain and TCP / IP are obvious. Just as email allows people to exchange information, bitcoin allows people to trade with each other. The development and maintenance of blockchain is open, distributed and shared - just like TCP / IP. There's a group of volunteers around the world maintaining their core software. Like email, bitcoin has received enthusiastic support from people at the beginning, but only a relatively small number of people

TCP / IP greatly reces the cost of interconnection, thus creating new value for economic development. Similarly, blockchain can significantly rece transaction costs. Blockchain has the potential to become all transaction recording systems. If this becomes a reality, new enterprises based on blockchain technology will influence and control emerging instries, and the economy will experience fundamental changes again

let's first look at how enterprises operate. Recording transactions is the core work that every enterprise must do. These records track past activities and achievements and provide guidance for the future. They can not only let people understand how the enterprise operates internally, but also let people know how to keep in touch with the outside world. Every enterprise or organization has its own records, and these records are private and confidential. Many enterprises do not have a general ledger record of all activities of the enterprise; On the contrary, all records are scattered in various branches or departments within the enterprise. The problem is that it takes a long time to coordinate transactions between indivials and private ledgers

76 nets, Lu Chai nets