A Peking University professor said at the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 that it is imperative for China to launch its own digital asset exchange, despite the escalated crackdown on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.

China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 held on May 26 in Guiyang, capital city of southwest China’s Guizhou Province has drawn great attention from blockchain practitioners. The four-day expo attracted over 40,000 participants from nearly 30 countries, with heavyweight attendees including Yao Qian, the director of the Digital Currency Research Institute under the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), Don Tapscott, successful business executive and author of Blockchain Revolution, BitShares founder Stan Larimer, Zhang Shousheng, tenured professor at Stanford, as well as a number of senior government officials.

At the Dialogue on Blockchain, Liu Xiaolei, director of Peking University’s Guanghua Blockchain Lab offered her insight on cryptocurrency regulation, saying that

“Although ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges are illegal (banned) in China, ordinary people are in effect not prohibited from buying and selling bitcoin. It is technically not easy to ban blockchain (the underlying technology of bitcoin), and there’s no clear attitude or actions on the regulatory level to ban it.

It is imperative for China to launch its own digital asset exchange. To regulate it, instead of strangling it. As a great power in the world, it is fairly necessary to develop our own digital asset exchange, in a bid to compete for the pricing power and a greater say in the digital asset realm. And we’ll find out a better regulatory solution along the process.”

“The father of the digital economy” Don Tapscott claims that digital currency and blockchain technology have revolutionized the way we live by explaining that digital currency would cut the period and cost in cross-border remittance. He also added that blockchain is not a bubble, but a technology benefit to economy, and suggested that securities-like tokens should be regulated while tokens acting as incentive be encouraged.

As the administrative department, the deputy director of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed that China has initiated the formulation of national standards on blockchain and its applicability will be further extended in an effort to enhance China’s international influence in the blockchain industry.

Zhang Shousheng thinks that the combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence could provide a solution to the privacy protection. He believes that the potential value blockchain could bring to the society is at least 10 folds that of internet.