Blockchain Technology and the Future of Smart Cities in Hong Kong - Aug.25
With the eyes of the tech industry firmly focused on blockchain, more and more events are being held around the world. Recently, Blockchain EXE, Japan’s largest blockchain community, held a major event in Hong Kong titled “Blockchain Technology and The Future of Smart Cities”.
NEM has a working product | Ricardo Medrano
Ricardo Medrano, NEM’s Foundation Director of Partnerships for Hong Kong and Australia, talks about the use of blockchain in APIs. Ricardo emphasizes that NEM is a secure, developer-friendly and scalable blockchain platform which has been working without any issues since 2015. “You don’t need to learn any programming or complex languages,” explains Ricardo, asserting that NEM is a developer-friendly product allowing development of applications through API and SDK.
As for NEM in Smart Cities, KC Tam introduces two ongoing projects:
(1) “Landstead” uses NEM blockchain technology to create a registry of land and property, allowing government and citizens to co-create an open blockchain system that can be trusted and consulted by interested parties.
(2) ioNEM: Its main purpose is to provide transferable and on-chain Internet of Things ownership using NEM technology.
Data Sharing and Computation in a Secured and Privacy Preserving Manner | Dr. Lawrence Ma
Dr. Lawrence Ma, founder and president of HKBCS (Hong Kong Blockchain Society) begins his presentation with the idea of a smart city blueprint. He believes that in order for smart cities to work, trust and data are required and they are supported by three components:
(1) digital identity
(2) Internet trust authority and
(3) secure privacy preserving / verifiable computation
He explains that ”BlockchainDLT are systems that enable parties who do not trust each other to form and maintain consensus about the existence status and evolution of a set of shared facts.”
The World’s First Universal Wallet | Ellena Ki
Infinito Wallet’s marketing leader Ellena Ki introduces the product “Infinito Wallet” as the world’s first multi-asset universal wallet, offering major transactional cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and ERC20.
It is also available in 6 languages and in the Google and Apple stores. Infinito Wallet’s strength is not just its user-friendly functions, but also its security and privacy criteria to protect users and their identities. This is achieved through not storing users’ private keys and passwords. In addition, the product has privacy touch ID function and periodical audits. She ends her presentation by introducing two newly launched services:
(1) Token verification service, enabling users and ICO investors to have a bigger community with ease though QR code, ICO tap on token pages, news feed, and push notification features offered for over 230,000 users
(2) Wallet Connection Service, enabling users to cut down on manual processes
Applying the Autonomous Gateway, “Connectom” to Smart City | Atsushi Ishii / Kazuaki Ishiguro
Couger, the company developing “Connectome”, has many engineers who were previously game developers. How did they transition from the world of game development to AI and blockchain? “Game development has been an area which has required AI-related technologies for over 40 years. Game mechanics have a significant impact on AI decision-making,” says Atsushi Ishii, Couger’s CEO. Couger’s developers have developed a number of popular games involving technologies such as real-time complex processing similar to AI and blockchain technologies.
Kazuaki Ishiguro, Couger’s lead blockchain engineer and EEA Japan’s regional head, also mentioned how Connectome could interact with other connected devices.
White Label Capabilities | Billy Chan
Billy Chan, vice president of products at ANX Technology Solutions, introduces their B2B2C white label exchange platform called “White Label Capabilities.”
The company started off with only a handful of people back in 2013 and grew rapidly, reaching over 400 members in just 5 years with 800K unique users trading USD$400+mn annually.
In 2014, the company launched an exchange platform “ANEX Pro” and partnered with OTC traders in 2015–2016.
Chan believes that the company’s rapid growth was achieved through meeting the market requirements and business opportunities, offering a one-stop solution, creating a new ecosystem, and working closely with strong partners. Their cost and time efficient product not only allows user to develop their exchange platform in just 30 to 60 days, but also saves costly business functions such as marketing and security assurance.
Hong Kong is actively promoting the Smart City concept, and was the third country to host the Blockchain EXE Asia Tour. The event garnered a lot of attention from industry and was a great success. Demand for blockchain technology is extremely high in China, and especially in Hong Kong, which is at the forefront of the technology. We will continue to work with companies and organizations to promote blockchain technologies around Asia.