From April 12 to 15, the "2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2023" co-hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab and HashKey Group and organized by W3ME was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, and the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Paul Chan, attended and delivered a speech. He said that now is a golden opportunity for Web3 development, and it is also a thrilling moment. We must look at the development of Web3 from the historical perspective of technological change, technological change leads business innovation, and business behavior will also drive the change of better technology, the Internet belongs to this type of change force, the rise of blockchain technology, so that the Internet has entered the Web3 era.
Chen Maobo also said that recent events tell us that the problem with virtual currency, virtual assets and trading platforms is not the lack of innovation power, but whether they have effectively managed risks under a proper regulatory framework. Hong Kong will promote the sustainable and responsible development of the virtual asset market, allowing virtual assets to innovate and develop to the greatest extent under the regulatory approach of "same business, same risk, same rules".
Good morning! It is a pleasure to attend the opening ceremony of the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. The four-day carnival is a grand event that brings together global Web3 technology leaders, experts and scholars, and industry elites, and it is good to know that more than 10,000 people have signed up. I would like to express my warm congratulations on the success of the carnival and wish the four days of activity a complete success.
The rise of Web3
When it comes to Web3, there are many opinions, and I think it should be viewed from the historical perspective of technological change. Technological change has always led to the innovation of business operations, and business behavior will in turn drive more technological changes, and this cycle often becomes the driving force for economic development.
Computers and the Internet are among the forces of this kind of change, and Microsoft and Apple were founded in the seventies to make computers widely used tools. During the period of continuous improvement of computing power and capacity of computers, optical fiber as the backbone of communication networks has also become increasingly popular, and the superposition of the two has actively driven the trend of Internet development and created huge business opportunities.
With the rapid development of science and technology, the Internet has shifted from being a communication channel for specific institutions to Web 1.0, achieving a number of enterprises based on aggregating and disseminating information. In the past 20 years or so, the Internet has developed into Web 2.0, which combines social interaction and the popularity of mobile terminal devices, creating a new generation of giant enterprises. However, Web 2.0 belongs to the centralized Internet, and users' data and information are collected and controlled by large Internet platform companies. They have the advantage of data and information, and thus reap a lot of advertising revenue and economic benefits.
With the rise of blockchain technology, many people believe that the Internet has entered the Web3 era. The immediacy, transparency, efficiency, disintermediation, and de-platformization of blockchain technology break the situation that the original data and information are held by specific Internet platforms, and the data will be jointly owned by builders and users, making the Internet "decentralized". Of course, Web3 is in its infancy, and common applications include cryptocurrencies, decentralized exchanges, digital identity verification, decentralized financial services (DeFi), blockchain games, and even NFTs, but it is conceivable that there will be more new applications and opportunities in the future.
In fact, the rise of Web3 has left many people looking for new opportunities; But at the same time, there are many people who are moving step by step, worried that the future development is uncontrollable. In my opinion, whether at the macro level or at the level of individual enterprises, the key to the true success of Web3 is to better serve the needs of the real economy and market, solve long-standing pain points and difficulties with innovative technologies, models and applications, improve efficiency, create better experiences, and create new values and new models. This can be an improvement on the old one, or it can be a "disruptive creation".
Challenges and opportunities
So what will happen to Web3? I would venture to say that now is the golden opportunity for Web3 development, and it is also the most thrilling moment.
It is thrilling because looking back at history, at the beginning of the emergence of each tide, it is bound to experience the baptism of shock. The explosion of technology in 2000 to virtual currencies in recent years and the recent collapse of virtual asset exchanges have implicated some banks with start-ups as their main customers, which has also brought shocks to the market. Therefore, we must take a calm and cautious view of Web3 development.
After the golden opportunity, the remaining market participants will become stronger and investors will become relatively calmer. Market forces will promote enterprises, technologies and applications and send out new forces and new models, so that powerful companies can survive the stage of market take-off. On the other hand, governments and regulators generally learn from the experience of formulating appropriate strategies to plug loopholes and manage risks after the shock, so that the market can continue to develop prudently.
From a historical point of view, Web3 development will grow rapidly again after going through a shock phase. Recent events have taught us that the problem with virtual currencies, virtual assets, and trading platforms is not the lack of innovation, but whether they have effectively managed risks under a proper regulatory framework.
The premise of Web3 development is that it does not compromise the stability of the financial system and investor protection. In this regard, all of you are concerned about Web3 participants, and I believe that everyone has also learned from recent events: proper regulation is necessary, so as to create a "sustainable development" environment and allow everyone to have a more ideal development space.
Under this premise, Hong Kong actively embraces the development of Web3. As a starting point, we issued the Policy Declaration on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong in October last year. Simply put, we will promote the sustainable and responsible development of the virtual asset market, and maximize the innovation and development of virtual assets under the regulatory idea of "same business, same risk, same rules". Since the issuance of the Declaration, in the past six months, friends in the Web3 circle have paid attention to the development of Hong Kong in this regard, and many of them have settled in Hong Kong; Some of them finally decided to set up a location in Hong Kong after a period of observation.
In this year's Budget, I put forward three major directions from the perspective of "high-quality development", including the digital economy, the development of Web3, and the positioning of an international green technology and financial center. On the development of Web3, I will set up a Task Force on Virtual Asset Development to work with industry representatives to submit proposals to the government on the sustainable and responsible development of the industry. In addition, I have allocated $50 million to Cyberport to accelerate the development of its Web3 base.
summary
Distinguished guests and friends, the road of innovation and change has never been smooth, and it can be expected that the development of Web3 still has a long way to go. Nevertheless, after analyzing the situation and summarizing the development experience of other places, we believe that Web3 can bring benefits to the market and solve pain points for the market and society, which is also an irreversible future trend.
The HKSAR Government is full of expectations for the development of Web3 in Hong Kong. I hope that everyone can focus on the core elements of "prudent progress" and "solving pain points", and work together to build a thriving Web3 ecosystem in Hong Kong, leading more technological breakthroughs, model innovation, and application innovation. I am convinced that there will be opportunities for you to expand our footprint to ASEAN markets, Asia-Pacific markets and the world from Hong Kong as a base.
There are many discussion sessions at today's conference, and I look forward to more in-depth discussions on different topics, such as how to use blockchain technology to promote the better development of green technology and green finance, and how to help traditional enterprises improve operational efficiency with the help of new technologies. I hope that your insights will lead the way to Web3 innovation.
Finally, I once again wish the Carnival a complete success! Distinguished guests and friends, good health, happy work, and great career, thank you!
![Li Ning's Web3 is not enough for the national tide[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)