Whilst the US remains the global leader in blockchain technology, many predict that China may well overtake the US within the next five years and become the world’s No.1 blockchain powerhouse, drawing the centre of gravity of technological innovation and influence away from the West. As we all know, the country has seen large-scale deployment of distributed ledger technologies in a myriad of industries and sectors in recent years. These range from e-commerce and financial services to government functions and academic organisations. As China’s pace of rolling out blockchain-powered platforms across its vast digital economy continues to accelerate, ironically the underlying technology and the rationale behind its utilisation, to a large extent, remain a mystery to most of its users and beneficiaries. Furthermore, even the “early-adopters”, which are incorporating blockchain into their digital infrastructure, often find themselves in unchartered territories, not just from a technical standpoint, but from an economic and regulatory perspective as well.
YCW London is delighted to present some of the key opinion leaders, subject matter experts and industry practitioners in this field to share their insights into the recent blockchain development in China and around the world. They will also discuss key issues, covering current trends, implications, challenges, investment and regulatory concerns related to blockchain in China, and explore how the country may collaborate with its oversea counterparts in shaping up the global landscape for blockchain technology going forward.
Event outline
• 6.30pm: Registration opens
• 7.00pm: Opening remark / introduction
• 7.15pm: Delegate speech / presentation
• 8.00pm: Panel discussion / Q&A
• 8.30pm: Networking
Speakers
About Anton Hristoff
With over 17 years of consulting experience in business and digital transformation programmes across the world, Anton spearheads KPMG’s Blockchain Virtual Centre of Excellence and manages the Lighthouse UK blockchain initiatives. He is also the founder of the UK Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Strategy, part of the KPMG Global Distributed Ledger Services. He is specialised in developing technical strategy and use cases based on blockchain and emerging technologies for companies spanning multiple industries and sectors, including banking, insurance, healthcare and construction.
About Haoda (Lester) Li
Lester is the London Head of Huobi Global, the third largest crypto exchange in the world by 24-hour trading volume, and in charge of the exchange’s Global Institutional Business unit. Prior to joining Huobi, Lester was a Fintech banker at China Renaissance, a prestigious boutique investment bank in China, focusing on early-stage venture capital and pre-IPO transactions. Before that, Lester was at Panda Capital, a VC investor, specialised in Fintech and Shared Economy. In addition to his experience in VC and investment banking, Lester founded Lilicai Internet Finance, a Shenzhen-based P2P lending company.
About Tianqi Huang
Based in Beijing, Tianqi is an Investment Manager, who covers the Asian and European markets for Huobi Global Ecosystem Fund, an investment arm of Huobi heavily invested in the upstream and downstream global blockchain industry with over US$200 million of assets under management. Before joining Huobi, Tianqi held positions at Citigroup as a Quantitative Analyst and Citadel Investment Group as a Commodity trader in New York.
About Dr. Andrei Kirilenko
In addition to his role as the Director of the Centre for Global Finance and Technology, Andrei is a visiting Professor of Finance at the Imperial College Business School as well as a Research Fellow in the Financial Economics Programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Before joining Imperial in August 2015, he was a Professor of the Practice of Finance at MIT Sloan and Co-Director of the MIT Center for Finance and Policy. Prior to MIT, Andrei served as the Chief Economist of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2010 to 2012. Andrei received the CFTC Chairman’s Award for Excellence (Highest Honour) in 2010. His scholarly work focuses on the intersection of finance, technology and regulations and has been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and received multiple best-paper awards.
