30 years old this year, Hu Chuangyue, President of the Yangtze River Delta Blockchain Technology Research Institute | Reporter | Yangtze River Delta Blockchain Technology Research Institute
At the Yangtze River Delta Blockchain Technology Research Institute located in Jiaxing, the reporter met Hu Chuangyue. She was dressed in black professional attire, but wearing a pair of sneakers. While sitting on the office sofa for an interview, she hugged a square pillow in her arms.
"Young" has always been the most prominent label attached to Hu Chuangyue. Indeed, she has been the executive director of the research institute for more than three years and has just turned 30.
She sometimes even speaks without hesitation, as if chatting with a friend she has known for a long time. For example, she described the old alley noodle shop next to her office in Shanghai as too delicious; The recent professional photos I just took are so beautiful that I don't know where they can be used. But once it comes to the topic of blockchain, the researcher's temperament on her body will suddenly become extremely clear, both crisp and steady.
Hu Chuangyue
approve
In 2018, Hu Chuangyue worked at the blockchain laboratory in Silicon Valley, USA, under the renowned Turing Award winner Whitfield Duffy.
Academician Duffy has long white hair and beard, and can drink two bottles of red wine when he is happy. His laboratory is highly recognized in the North American blockchain field.
At that time, the blockchain industry in the United States was still growing wildly, and little was known about blockchain domestically. However, many cities also hoped to introduce overseas talents and expand this new technological field. Jiaxing is one of them.
Jiaxing City sent representatives twice to Stanford Blockchain Laboratory for inspection. "My boss doesn't even know where Jiaxing is, but the Jiaxing inspection team explained to him that Silicon Valley is between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Jiaxing is between Shanghai and Hangzhou, Shanghai knows it, Hangzhou Alibaba knows it, and Jiaxing is like Silicon Valley, a very suitable place for scientific research. Then he thought, 'Wow, it makes perfect sense.'" Hu Chuangyue smiled. Soon, Di Fei and his team visited Jiaxing together, and Hu Chuangyue was one of the three Chinese people in the team.
Hu Chuangyue still remembers that at that time, some residential areas in Jiaxing had loudspeakers playing "Buying and selling coins on blockchain is not trustworthy" in a loop. In the eyes of some people, engaging in blockchain is similar to engaging in pyramid schemes. She is a bit worried about it. So, what exactly is blockchain? Hu Chuangyue attempts to use more accessible and understandable expressions to help the other party understand——
Suppose there is a small town where residents often engage in various item transactions, such as fruits, clothes, etc. In the past, they always relied on central institutions to verify and record these transactions. However, the residents of the small town are eager for new ways of trading. Therefore, they decided to create their own blockchain system. In this system, each resident has a ledger for bookkeeping. Now, when someone wants to make a transaction, they send the transaction information to all the town residents. Each resident will verify the validity of the transaction through their own ledger, for example, checking whether both parties have sufficient funds to conduct the transaction. Once the transaction is verified, residents package it into a "bill" and add it to the previous bill according to certain rules, forming a "bill chain". Each "bill" contains detailed information about the transaction, as well as tags related to the previous "bill". If someone wants to tamper with the previous transaction records, it is almost impossible to modify all subsequent bills on this billing chain. So, from now on, the residents of the small town have a relatively reliable blockchain based accounting and transaction method.
"The application fields of blockchain technology are very extensive. In addition to the application of digital currency, it can also be applied in fields such as the Internet of Things, supply chain management, smart contracts, identity verification, etc. The emergence of blockchain provides more secure, efficient, and trustworthy solutions for data exchange, digital asset management, and transactions." Hu Chuangyue said.
In communication, Jiaxing's sincerity surprised the team very much. "There are always people who believe that talent introduction can be bought with money, but it's not true. What's more important than money is the concept." Hu Chuangyue admitted that on the one hand, blockchain's reputation in China was uneven at that time, and many people had no idea how much blockchain could play; On the other hand, compared to traditional manufacturing, blockchain is difficult for people to clearly see its economic value, and introducing software companies can enjoy many preferential policies in terms of taxation.
However, the representatives of Jiaxing City still listened carefully to the ideas of the Duffy team, many of whom had overseas backgrounds, which greatly reduced misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. Of course, both sides still have some drumbeats in their hearts. "The other party is afraid that we won't be able to do anything and their ideas won't fall into place. After all, the level of various blockchain teams in the industry was different at that time. Some teams did well in scientific research, but their industrialization ability was limited. No one in our team has ever stayed in Jiaxing, and we don't know if there is any soil for blockchain development here. To achieve things, there must be educational costs and a change in local concepts." Hu Chuangyue said.
But no matter what, the cooperation was ultimately achieved. The Jiaxing Mayor's Triangle Blockchain Technology Research Institute has landed in Jiaxing Science and Technology City, and has also obtained the Jiaxing Major Talent Special Policy. Hu Chuangyue, as a team representative, is stationed in Jiaxing and serves as the Executive Director of the Research Institute. In late October 2019, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted a collective study on the current status and trends of blockchain technology development.The blockchain industry is gaining momentum in China, with Jiaxing leading the way.
Transformation
From Silicon Valley to Jiaxing, Hu Chuangyue adapted quickly. "I feel happy wherever I go," she told reporters. Indeed, when she went alone to Purdue University in the United States to study mathematics, this Shanghai girl was only 17 years old. Purdue University is a public university in the United States, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. The surrounding area is not bustling, but it allows people to focus more on their studies. After graduating from undergraduate studies, Hu Chuangyue continued her Master's degree in Data Analysis at Pepperdine University. Sometimes, when Hu Chuangyue sees some girls on campus carrying beautiful shoulder bags, she envies them, but she can't do it because there are too many and heavy books in data analysis, and computers are also heavy. According to her, if she doesn't carry a backpack, her waist will almost break.
After obtaining her master's degree, she had an opportunity to work in Silicon Valley, which was to go to Duffy's blockchain laboratory, analyze data on blockchain projects through algorithms and models, and study the possible future trends and success probabilities of the projects. The report issued by the laboratory is almost a barometer for the entire industry.
For Hu Chuangyue, Silicon Valley is a place with great tolerance for young people and great entrepreneurial vitality. She always sees young people who are engaged in blockchain entrepreneurship projects, spending $20 a day sitting in a coffee shop working. Even so, there are still investors willing to invest in supporting such young people, and venture capitalists talk about it over a cup of coffee.
In Silicon Valley, some industry leaders and predecessors are willing to patiently communicate with young entrepreneurs. "They are willing to explain to you clearly, from the weather to their views on something, because they don't know who the young people in front of them will become in the future, so they need to respect them." Hu Chuangyue said, "Many people are infected by the atmosphere in Silicon Valley."
Returning to Jiaxing, the pace slows down a bit. But Hu Chuangyue's management style has put unprecedented pressure on team members. "Later on, I was also adjusting myself because I couldn't become a leader who had to deal with my own employees."
Before them, there was no precedent in China for blockchain research institutes. Fortunately, the Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute has been operating in Jiaxing for nearly 20 years, setting a good example for the blockchain technology research institute. At the beginning of her tenure as Executive Dean, Hu Chuangyue often sought advice from them on how to develop the "Research Institute Economy". "What role can the research institute truly play, how to empower talents, how to better leverage the role and value of blockchain under the existing system, and how to improve our blockchain are all the responsibilities of our research institute," said Hu Chuangyue.
In addition to work, Hu Chuangyue also serves as an off campus mentor to Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College, teaching nine classes of the Software College, allowing students to be exposed to the latest trends in the industry in a timely manner. Last year, the research institute also recruited an employee from the graduates of Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College to join Hu Chuangyue's team.
Nowadays, the research institute has also set up a top-level design office in Shanghai specifically for the development of dual carbon in various regions, and Hu Chuangyue occasionally needs to travel between two places. In 2021, she also applied for a doctoral program in electronic information at Tsinghua University and flew to Beijing in the latter half of each week. Returning to her student identity, she always carries a familiar backpack at Tsinghua Garden. The direction of the research institute is highly consistent with her current research direction, which makes her full of enthusiasm in learning. In the future, she wants to graft blockchain technology into the digital twin field and fill some gaps in the development of the construction industry.
Hu Chuangyue
application
With ChatGPT becoming a new technology darling, some people feel that blockchain has long been outdated. However, Hu Chuangyue believes that the decrease in popularity of blockchain is actually a good thing. Patents in academic papers and social impact cannot be achieved overnight, and it needs to be practiced slowly. After those who pursue the trend leave, the team that truly takes things seriously can actually settle down.
In the past few years since the establishment of the research institute in Jiaxing, the proposal to enable blockchain to play a role in people's livelihoods, finance, and social governance, as mentioned during negotiations with Jiaxing representatives, has gradually been realized.
For example, the "Talent e-DianTong" service platform automatically generates exclusive "talent codes" and "enterprise codes" with 64 bit blockchain transaction numbers by loading blockchain technology, achieving "one person, one code, and one enterprise code". This "code" comes with basic information files, available benefits, and other data. By scanning or identifying the code, talents and enterprises can achieve one code access in policy implementation, project application, transportation, medical treatment and education, and can quickly process talent certification and safely redeem talent subsidies.
The management of the entire career cycle of civil servants in Jiaxing City also applies blockchain technology, utilizing five data encryption consensus nodes in the Jiaxing government cloud to achieve real-time data exchange between departments on the management service platform, integrating nine matters such as civil servant recruitment and transfer, as well as five business areas such as elderly care, medical care, and housing provident fund. This not only transforms information that previously required multiple submissions into automatic matching submissions, but also utilizes blockchain consensus mechanisms to avoid data tampering and achieve secure and trustworthy exchange of platform information data.
In the field of agriculture, the research institute has also enabled farmers to obtain loans through blockchain technology. "Individual households may only have a few pigs or cows, and in the past, they did not have a credit record in banks. Nowadays, the credit of these individual farmers is solidified through blockchain technology. The biggest advantage of blockchain technology is to reduce human intervention, so the data is very credible." Hu Chuangyue explained that these data can not only enable banks to provide loans to farmers in need, but also enable large breeding enterprises to screen more reliable farmers to raise livestock for enterprises.
Recently, the research institute is also collaborating with Shanghai Lingang New Area on cross-border data circulation. Starting from the construction of the digital twin park in Shanghai Lingang New Area, we will work together with Shanghai Lingang Group to create an urban data element base. Based on the massive data foundation in the field of "cross-border data circulation" in Lingang New Area, we will explore new mechanisms for two-way data circulation, promote domestic and foreign enterprises to carry out data circulation cooperation, drive the development of cross-border industrial chains through data circulation, and achieve new exploration of cross-border data circulation in the depth of urban digital economy.
Of course, the application of blockchain has not been fully expanded yet. In the future, there are many areas where this technology can be deeply embedded, such as building information modeling. "Nowadays, building modeling is generally difficult to reuse, but once combined with blockchain technology, it can become a data element that can be repeatedly used. Every improvement or change in the building is related to the model. In the future, emergency fire management, financial value evaluation of buildings, and loans can all refer to these data." Seeing the reporter's confusion, Hu Chuangyue tried to explain the situation more simply and easily: for example, Building A and Building B are located in the same area, and the investment in the building is also the same, but Building B uses more green materials, releases less formaldehyde, and has a better corporate image. These currently difficult to quantify data, once they are solidified by blockchain technology during the first use, will result in lower carbon emissions. Should I get a lower bank loan interest rate? This may be a manifestation of the value of Building B.
"The country is currently promoting the construction of a digital China, which requires the use of data to make it more meaningful. In this process, blockchain, Internet of Things, 5G, and artificial intelligence technologies need to work together, and the role of each technology is reflected in different stages of data formation. Blockchain is mainly in the stage of data ownership and circulation.". The continuous development of blockchain technology is an inevitable trend, and in Hu Chuangyue's view, there is still great potential for the future.
Looking back, changes quietly occur
Recently, Apple released the Apple Vision Pro at the WWDC23 Global Developers Conference. Some people believe that this product will bring the world into the era of "spatial computing" and help us open the entrance to the virtual world. Not long ago, with the emergence of ChatGPT, it triggered a "Hundred Model War", and at that time, many people asserted that the once hotly discussed metaverse had passed away.
If viewed from this perspective, blockchain may have become a "thing of the past". The blockchain technology, which was once talked about in every street and alley, is now rarely mentioned, and many people still haven't fully understood what blockchain is, and it has already been marginalized in the public eye.
At this moment, the reporter is going to have a conversation with Hu Chuangyue, the director of the Yangtze River Delta Blockchain Technology Research Institute. He is a bit nervous, what can he talk about?
In Hu Chuangyue's view, the market is full of waves and sand. How many companies that rushed into the market at that time are still doing things seriously and what they are doing? So the blockchain industry may be a good observation sample. In addition, not talking about it does not mean that the industry has not made progress. Blockchain technology has already quietly expanded its application scenarios and reshaped the underlying logic of some industries.
According to the "China Industrial Blockchain Development Report" released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing in 2022, there are nearly 100000 blockchain enterprises in China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that the global proportion of blockchain patent applications in China exceeds 84%. The blockchain application operator has become a new profession released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and can hold a certificate to work after passing the vocational skill level recognition exam.
In the Yangtze River Delta region, there have been many changes. The "One Network, One Service" government service brand pioneered in Shanghai relies on blockchain technology to achieve empowerment. In May this year, Zhejiang Province accelerated the promotion of electronic bill sharing applications in the Yangtze River Delta region based on the blockchain application of medical insurance electronic bills. At the end of last year, the pilot program for digital RMB in Jiangsu expanded from Suzhou to the whole province. Starting from May 2023, Changshu City will implement full payment of wages in digital RMB for civil servants, personnel in public institutions, and personnel in state-owned assets at all levels.
Hu Chuangyue pointed to the recording pen in the journalist's hand. "The recording pen of iFLYTEK can convert people's words into text, which is an application of artificial intelligence. People are beginning to think that this technology seems to be useful. ChatGPT can do more diverse and stunning things, so everyone says that artificial intelligence is good, really good. For a technology, whether it is good or not mainly depends on its effectiveness, and people are not so concerned about the development of the technology itself. The greatest effectiveness of blockchain may not have been presented at this moment, but I believe it will come one day." She said.
For a long time, people have had an almost fanatical pursuit of the emergence of new technologies, and we are eager to know what this technology can bring us, whether it is money or a huge change in lifestyle. This is why one new technological trend after another has emerged, returning to silence time and time again. Perhaps this mentality can be calmer, giving the industry some sediment, picking gold out of sand, and looking back many years later, perhaps everything has quietly changed.
