A blockchain storm is sweeping China: food safety, evidence preservation, financial transactions, public welfare and mutual assistance... These complex fields seem to have gained new technical solutions overnight due to the embedding of blockchain. Entrepreneurial teams are eager to try, "blockchain+" projects are springing up like mushrooms after a rain, and the capital market is ushering in a new round of carnival...
However, the fashionable technological concept has become a money-making banner in the hands of some people. "Economic Information Daily" reporters found that the current blockchain industry is very popular, and fund-raising fraud cases occur from time to time. Many speculators and even listed companies have come to "take advantage of the hot spots." Investors need to keep their eyes peeled. The industry urgently needs to get rid of the false and retain the true, and return to its original appearance. application.
Nearly 600 related lawsuits and disputes occurred, and old "routines" put on new "vests"
A reporter from the "Economic Information Daily" searched the China Judgment Documents Network using keywords such as "blockchain" and "virtual currency" and found that since 2017, there have been nearly 600 related litigation disputes, concentrated in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing and other places.
The "Tencent 2017 MLM Situation Awareness White Paper" released by Tencent Security Joint Laboratory stated that in recent times, various overseas capital markets, virtual currencies, and ICO (blockchain project initial public offering token financing) projects have emerged one after another, many of which are Under the guise of innovation and promising high returns, there are hidden risks such as illegal issuance, fake projects, cross-border money laundering, fraud, pyramid schemes, etc., resulting in large amounts of funds flowing overseas. Once it crashes, runs away, or loses contact, investors often have no way to complain, and the losses are difficult to recover, such as Baichuan Coin, Mark Coin, Beta Coin, Dark Coin, etc.
At the end of March this year, Shenzhen police detected a huge fund-raising fraud case, in which thousands of investors were defrauded of 307 million yuan. In this case, the Shenzhen Puyin Blockchain Group Co., Ltd. involved in the case used the "blockchain + Tibetan Tea" model to issue virtual currency and obtain public deposits.
Police investigations have found that in some virtual currency cases under the banner of "blockchain", some criminals used investors' investment funds to achieve price increases and decreases. After attracting a large number of investors to "enter the market", criminals continue to cash out by maliciously manipulating the price trend of virtual currencies, causing the virtual currencies in the hands of investors to be worthless and causing heavy losses.
In some cases, criminals use "blockchain" as a guise to develop members and go offline, which not only causes property losses to the victims, but also has a negative impact on normal "blockchain" research and application. In April this year, Xi'an police uncovered a large-scale online pyramid scheme using the concept of "blockchain", involving more than 86 million yuan.
Why do fund-raising fraud and pyramid schemes cases occur frequently under the banner of “blockchain”? Under the hype of some institutions, the "myth of instant wealth" of Bitcoin is full of temptations, and the concept of "blockchain" has been hyped as an "Internet celebrity". Some "high-end" blockchain lectures shuttle between cities, attracting many curious and wealth-seeking people. Many investors have not yet figured out "what exactly is blockchain" and are eager to "get on board", eager to get rich overnight and invest large sums of money.
Some people have a "try your luck" speculative mentality. Some even know it is a scam, but still want to "make money and leave" before the scam collapses, thinking that they will not be so unlucky and will be "the last one to take over." According to the public security department, many cases are actually pyramid schemes and fraud under the banner of blockchain. In fact, they are all old "routines" put on the new "vest" of blockchain.
On September 4, 2017, seven departments including the People's Bank of China issued an announcement defining ICO as "essentially an illegal public financing activity without approval", which is suspected of illegal sales of tokens, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fund-raising, etc. , financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal and criminal activities, it is required to immediately stop all types of token issuance and financing activities. Subsequently, the China Internet Finance Association also issued a reminder that "various so-called 'coin' trading platforms have no legal basis for establishment in my country."
However, related investment and financing activities have not disappeared. Although large digital currency exchanges such as Huobi and Huobi have stopped exchange transactions between RMB and virtual currencies, they have transferred their business from domestic to overseas and transactions from on-site to off-site, and continue to provide digital currency trading services to users. domestic investors.
Hot discussions about "chain love" and "deceptive announcements" to hype up stock prices
A reporter from the Economic Information Daily found that in some extreme cases, blockchain has become a money-making banner for fundraising and pyramid schemes. More often than not, it is "free-riding" speculators who take advantage of fashion concepts to fish in troubled waters and exploit hot spots. Since this year, many listed companies have disclosed "silly announcements" about blockchain and talked about "chain love". Investors need to keep their eyes peeled.
On January 11 this year, Zhongnan Construction, whose main business is real estate, announced a cross-border "on-chain relationship" with blockchain and disclosed the progress announcement of the company's investment in blockchain projects. The “chain love” between two unrelated industries quickly aroused the vigilance of regulatory authorities. Subsequently, in accordance with the regulatory requirements of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Zhongnan Construction was suspended for inspection.
On January 15, Zhongnan Construction repaired the incomplete information disclosure previously released and supplemented and corrected many contents such as investment proportion, project progress, and industry status. The company stated in a supplementary announcement that the industry application of blockchain technology is currently in its infancy, and its development is still subject to factors such as application scenarios, traditional concepts, resources, and further technology research and development. There are significant uncertainties regarding successful application in some industries. risk.
Zhongnan Construction’s supplementary announcement also stated that the company’s main business is real estate development, and blockchain project investment is in the research and exploration stage and has not yet produced benefits. It is not expected to have a significant impact on the company's 2018 and future operating results and financial data.
Since the information disclosed by Zhongnan Construction was untrue, inaccurate, and incomplete, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange subsequently issued a regulatory letter to it, requiring the company and all directors, supervisors, and senior managers to learn lessons, strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations, and be timely, truthful, accurate, and complete fulfill information disclosure obligations in a timely manner and prevent such incidents from occurring.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, since last year, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange has disclosed information related to popular concepts such as blockchain, Xiongan New Area, Hainan Free Trade Zone, etc., including 30 blockchain concept companies, and listed Some. The company has actual investment, but the investment amount is generally not high, and the rest are in the early stages without substantial progress. The company's intention to use hot concepts to hype its stock price is obvious.
The "2018 China Blockchain Industry White Paper" released by the Information Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in May this year pointed out that there is unrealistic publicity and hype in some blockchain application projects, causing the market valuation to deviate from the basic value or give too much. High expectations. In addition, there are some projects that do not really use blockchain technology in essence, but only use the banner of blockchain to obtain valuations that are completely inconsistent with the actual value. The so-called innovation of some projects is divorced from the needs of the real economy and is completely speculative.
Wanxiang Holding Group has previously invested in some blockchain startup projects. Vice Chairman Xiao Feng told reporters that in recent times, people have used blockchain technology white papers to raise funds every day, but some projects do not require blockchain at all. The chain store is just a hotspot. "About 80% of projects are unreliable. Even if I ask entrepreneurs several times, they don't understand what is written in the white paper."
Shenzhen UnionPay Technology Co., Ltd. previously developed a set of blockchain application projects for supply chain finance for a company engaged in agricultural products trading. However, during the promotion process, it was found that few banks were willing to connect to their project. The company eventually had to abandon the use of blockchain for supply chain management.
UnionPay Technology CEO Shentu Qingchun said that the blockchain itself brings trust, but whoever promotes blockchain applications needs credibility. At present, only central banks or industry leading companies have the ability to promote the application of blockchain in the financial field. Other institutions are limited by their own credibility and cannot become a "promoter" of blockchain implementation. Most of them will probably become "cannon fodder."
The "coin circle" cools down, and the "chain circle" accelerates the initial formation of the industrial ecology
How much is the investment value of blockchain? Some people in the industry are cautious about this and believe that it is necessary to distinguish between "chain circle" and "currency circle". Many entrepreneurs in the "chain circle" focus on blockchain application research and development, while the "coin circle" is related to virtual currencies. Investors need to be cautious.
"There are bubbles in the 'coin circle', and there is even a certain degree of fund-raising fraud." Zeng Guang, secretary-general of the Shenzhen Internet Finance Association, believes that blockchain technology can optimize the existing trust mechanism to a certain extent. Its irreplaceability remains to be seen.
According to experts, “blockchain” fraud cases have occurred frequently recently. Criminals often use the excuse that "investment in virtual currencies has a short cycle, high returns, and low risks" to deceive users into trusting them and induce them to transfer funds for investment. At the same time, they also hide the domain name and various contact information of the website so that the defrauded cannot verify the company's qualifications, making it easy to believe the scam.
Faced with potential fraud crises, how can people avoid being deceived? Zeng Guang suggested that on the one hand, we should look at the value of blockchain objectively and rationally, do not believe in "hybrid" promises, and especially avoid the blind and herd investment mentality; on the other hand, when encountering blockchain-related investment projects, , do not click on unknown links at will, and do not transfer funds to personal accounts easily. Please be sure to verify your company information through official channels to prevent you from believing in false investment scams.
In fact, many misunderstandings that have arisen during the development of blockchain are being clarified. Eliminating the false while retaining the true and returning to application has gradually become the consensus of the blockchain industry. The head of Alibaba’s Ant Financial Technology Laboratory said that blockchain and ICO financing are two different things. The value of blockchain technology lies in building trust, while ICO only uses blockchain technology to achieve incentives for issuing tokens. This is just a mechanism and the two cannot be confused.
On July 19, at the "Chain to the Future·Global Blockchain Application Value Summit" held in Beijing, participating experts said that blockchain technology provides the government with better information sharing, reduced transaction costs, product traceability, media Copyright certification, etc. There are many solution ideas. It's worth following this technology with an open mind while understanding its temporary shortcomings.
Liu Quan, president of CCID Blockchain Research Institute, said that the extended significance of blockchain technology has far exceeded the scope of cryptocurrency. It allows unknown partners to trust each other without the intervention of authoritative organizations. This technology is generally understood as "distributed accounting", which can establish a mutual trust technical mechanism that can handle many transactions that would otherwise be brokered by intermediaries, thus reducing transaction costs.
Liu Quan believes that blockchain technology also provides revolutionary means for information anti-counterfeiting and data tracking. The data blocks in the blockchain are sequentially connected to form a data chain, which can prevent humans from tampering with time and trace past time information; the encryption algorithm and electronic signature application of blockchain technology can also well solve the problems of information protection and authorized access; Problems such as misappropriation of charitable funds and subsidies will be reduced through the application of blockchain technology, because using the programmable nature of the technology, embedding a piece of code while transferring assets can specify the future use scope of the assets and prevent misappropriation.
More and more countries are interested in blockchain technology. According to statistics from the CCID Blockchain Research Institute, more than 20 governments around the world, including the United States, India, Japan, and Germany, have specifically conducted research on blockchain technology or established related research institutions.
As relevant departments in my country increase supervision, the cooling of the “currency circle” is bringing development opportunities to the “chain circle”. Large companies represented by BAT are actively deploying some visible and tangible blockchain applications. Now that it has begun to be implemented, information traceability, financial transactions, and legal evidence storage are the main directions of current blockchain applications.
In November 2017, Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Alibaba, applied blockchain technology to food safety and authenticity traceability. The 26 brands of milk powder produced in Australia and New Zealand have their own "ID cards". In the future, this type of technology will also cover approximately 3,700 product categories in 63 countries and regions around the world. In addition, Ant Financial has also introduced blockchain technology into the Alipay charity donation platform to realize the traceability of the source and destination of donations. As of January 18, 2018, a total of 21 million people had donated to 831 public welfare projects, with a donation amount of 367 million yuan.
Long asset generation chains and doubtful information authenticity are long-term problems faced by asset securitization. In July 2017, Baidu released an asset securitization product based on blockchain, integrating the entire chain of financing companies, trusts, law firms, investors, etc. into the blockchain network. "Baidu-Chang'an Xinsheng" car loan became the first blockchain private equity product listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The certificate storage function of blockchain technology has also begun to play a unique role in the legal field. WeBank, established under the leadership of Tencent, and the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission jointly save loan contract elements on the blockchain. Once a dispute arises such as an overdue loan, the arbitration institution can conduct arbitration quickly and accurately based on the pre-stored information on the blockchain. In February 2018, the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission issued the first non-performing loan arbitration award based on blockchain.
At present, my country's blockchain industry ecology has initially taken shape, and the number of enterprises is increasing rapidly. The "2018 China Blockchain Industry White Paper" previously released by the Information Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that as of the end of March 2018, the number of blockchain companies in my country with blockchain business as its main business has exceeded 450, and the industry has initially formed a scale.
"Fraud and bubbles are prone to occur in the early stages of industry development. As supervision continues to improve, market competition will become more standardized. The top priority is to make real 'hit' applications and bring the blockchain back to its true nature." Application value. "Shentu Qingchun said.
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