引言
2月4日，美国知名连线杂志发表文章《Inside China's mission to create an all-powerful cryptocurrency》，分享和探讨中国的加密货币行业发展相关话题。该文中重点引用了此前旺链科技CEO刘涛先生对于区块链行业及DCEP的精彩观点。我们很庆幸，作为区块链行业的从业者，我们的知识和意见可以与全球更广阔的读者分享，也感谢《连线》杂志对于我们观点的认可及关注。借此推送，小编将文章全文及刘涛先生观点再次分享，期待与更多同行的深度交流。
Inside China's mission to create an all-powerful cryptocurrency
By BARCLAY BRAM04 Feb 2020
Bitcoin miners face severe regulation in China. Instead, the country is creating its own digital currency – and it could be adopted at a fast rate.
This may be the year we see the world’s first sovereign digital currency. First discussed more than five years ago, China’s DCEP (short for Digital Currency/Electronic Payments) looks to be nearing completion. There have been some false starts; reports initially said there was a chance it would be released countrywide by November 11, while Caijing, a large domestic finance magazine, thought it would be debuted in Shenzhen before the end of 2019.
While neither of these deadlines have come to pass, it’s clear that China is gearing up to release DCEP as soon as possible, according to presentations by Mu Changchun, the head of the Chinese central bank’s digital currency research institute. In these presentations, Mu has elucidated a vision of a sovereign digital currency,one that stands in stark contrast to the decentralised aspirations embedded into existing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Bitcoin, which was released into the world by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, is based on a techno-utopian vision of a decentralised global currency that would provide anonymity and security, while allowing users to subvert the established financial system and its gatekeepers. Underpinning this technology is the blockchain. Miners, who use heavy-duty processors to solve the difficult computational problems necessary to string together transactions in clusters, or “blocks”, which constitute the “chain”, are rewarded for their efforts with coins. By forcing miners all over the world to compete for coins by algorithmically contributing to the blockchain, the ledger for transactionsis both decentralised and unhackable.
There are three main differences between DCEP and existing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to Terry Liu, CEO of VoneChain Technology, a blockchain consultancy based in Shanghai that is working closely with various government agencies on projects related to its rollout. First, it’s underlying value source is different. Bitcoin and related currencies are mined, which means the source is decentralised and controlled by an algorithm. DCEP is government sanctioned, and as more than 50 patents registered in relation to DCEP indicate, the plans are for the government to distribute the currency through traditional banks and the monetary system, making it fully centralised and exactly like the release of traditional paper money.
旺链科技是一家总部位于上海的区块链咨询公司，其与多家政府机构紧密合作，开展推出相关项目。旺链科技CEO刘涛表示：DCEP与比特币等现有加密货币有三个主要区别。第一，价值来源不同。比特币和其他数字货币是通过挖矿得到的，这意味着它的来源是分散的并由算法控制。而DCEP是政府批准的，正如与DCEP有关的50多项注册专利所表明的那样，央行DCEP计划旨在让政府通过传统银行和货币体系来发行这种货币，使其完全集中化且与传统纸币的发行无异。
Second, the underlying technology is different as the blockchain ledger will be controlled by the government and not distributed across the system. Finally, it is intended to operate exactly like a normal currency and integrated throughout the commercial system. Because the ledger is held by the government and is not distributed to mining nodes, the currency won’t have the time lags associated with bitcoin, making it practical to use in everyday situations. Also, because it is released by the government and pegged to the valuation of the yuan, it won’t be traded in fractions. It is likely to be seamless; most consumers won’t really notice a huge difference between using DCEP and existing digital payments platforms.
第二，底层的技术不同，DCEP的区块链帐本由政府控制，而不是分布在整个交易系统中。第三，央行发行DCEP的目的是想让其完全像之前的法币一样运作并流通在整个商业系统中。因为账本是由政府持有的，并且没有分布到挖掘节点，所以这种货币流通过程中不会出现比特币挖掘过程中的时间延迟情况，这使得它在日常货币流通过程中显得便捷实用。此外，由于它是由政府发布的，并与人民币估值挂钩，因此不会以小额形式进行交易。它与传统法币的替换过程几乎是无缝衔接，因此大多数消费者不会真正注意到使用DCEP与现有数字支付平台之间的巨大差异。
“As digital natives, Chinese welcome further convenience and integrated infrastructure into their lives,” says Chloé Reuter, founding partner of Reuter Communications, a marketing agency based in Shanghai. The two largest digital payments platforms in the country, run by Ant Financial (a division of Alibaba) and Tencent respectively, already handle trillions of dollars of payments per quarter. People are so used to mobile payments that the government had to remind vendors that it was illegal not to accept paper money. “With a population already very well-used to cashless spending thanks to WeChat Pay and Alipay, it wouldn’t be anything new to deal with another form of digital payment,” Reuter says.
“The government has always taken the reigns of building infrastructure,” noted Jingyang,one of China’s first investors in bitcoin. “Just like they built ports and rail, they’re now gearing up to build the digital infrastructure that is necessary for future development.”
For the government there are a number of factors that have driven its decision to launch DCEP. Bitcoin or Ethereum stand in contravention to central banks and legacy financial institutions. This is why China has so resolutely sought to block cryptocurrencies in the country, issuing a slew of legislations starting in 2017 that banned initial coin offerings and exchanges from trading from servers in China or using Chinese Yuan, the sovereign currency which is not easily exchanged abroad. Last year the government moved to ban crypto-mining – prior to the regulations 70 per cent of the world’s bitcoin were mined in China.
“China is extremely concerned with social stability,” a former member of the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC), told me, requesting anonymity because of his ties to the government. Cryptocurrencies pose a risk as they allow capital flight. The country employs strict currency regulations that are designed to prevent large amounts of currency moving out of the country. Crypto allowed people to skirt those regulations and were seen as a thorn in the side of Xi Jinping’s aggressive anti-corruption campaign, as corrupt officials could use them to siphon money out of the country anonymously.
DCEP allows China to push forward into the digital era, while still retaining control over its financial instruments. Mu, of the Central Bank, has been explicit in saying that the motivation for the bank to produce DCEP has been “to protect our monetary sovereignty and legal currency status.” The former NDRC member noted that Libra, Facebook’s long mooted digital currency that is currently facing regulatory challenges in the US, had been singled out as a particular threat that China wanted to get ahead of.
Part of the backdrop of these moves has been the trade war and China’s desire to try to decouple from the US-dollar dominated financial system. “When we trade with the Philippines,” the former NDRC member says, “and we use the regular financial system, both of us convert into dollars. It’s the US who benefits on that trade.”
As China expands trade globally as part of the belt and road initiative, DCEP has the potential for China to carve out significant financial autonomy and less exposure to the US. China’s moves in this arena will help to shape the future of digital currencies, swerving them dramatically away from the decentralised ideals that spurred their creation. As the NDRC member noted, “it’s crypto with Chinese characteristics.”
刘涛观点全文分享
1.中国政府想发行自己的数字货币，你个人觉得原因是什么？
我认为至少有两个重要的原因：
（1）中国政府一直在做的事情就是通过改善基础设施建设来提升社会整体效率，比如建港口、修路、修跨海大桥等项目，在中国数字社会的建设中也延续了这个思路，中国政府发行的DCEP就是希望成为未来数据社会里的基础。
（2）应对Libra的冲击，加快人民币国际化的进程，数字货币是天然适合全球流通的，DCEP有利于人民币在其他国家的使用，特别是一带一路国家。
2.这个数字货币与其他数字货币，比如说比特币有什么区别？
区别主要有三点：
（1）价值来源不同：DCEP是中国央行发行并背书的与人民币有同等法律地位的货币，所以是数字法币。比特币是靠共识机制让去中心化节点达成共识来聚集信用形成价值的。
（2）技术底层不同：DCEP是中心化发行的，而且对性能要求非常高（30万TPS以上），所以底层并没有采用区块链技术。比特币是用区块链技术做为底层平台的。
（3）使用场景不同：DCEP是用来替代人民币现金即M0，而且支持双离钱支付，即没有互联网的情况下也可以完成交易。比特币主要用于跨境支付、资产储值、投资炒作，由于确认时间长、手续费相对较高，并不适合小额支付场景。
3.你自己觉得这个货币会怎么样？
我觉得DCEP的推出正逢其时，是中国数字社会发展，特别是数字经济的重要里程碑。
4.中国政府也很赞同区块链技术，为什么？
因为中国政府越来越认识到，我们现在正处于一个大变革的时代，所有的行业都在发生非常剧烈的变化。人类正在物理世界以外创造了一个数字世界。中国应当在人类共同的数字世界里扮演重要角色，贡献重要力量，而区块链技术正是构建数字世界的基石技术之一，同时区块链技术也中国进行数字治理的重要支撑技术。
5.你的公司在这个领域之内做什么？跟政府合作？
区块链是比较底层的技术，要跟商业应用结合中间有巨大的Gap，旺链科技是服务全球的区块链创新者，可以理解为区块链领域的Accenture，我们专注提供区块链的咨询和技术解决方案，帮助客户找到最适合的应用场景，并用定制化开发和自研的区块链产品快速实现这些方案。一些地方政府部门也是我们的客户之一。
6.你对这件事情乐观吗？
我认为区块链会改变未来人类的协作方式，并诞生新的管理理论和在这之上的新的商业组织和商业模式，对于DCEP和区块链的前景都非常乐观，未来10年区块链领域会诞生像Google、Facebook这样的巨头，我希望我的公司旺链科技，也能有一席之地，也鼓励更多有想法的个人和组织投身到这个领域当中。