美证监会首届金融科技论坛：区块链成为主流应用的障碍是什么？

文 |  ETHNews

翻译 | 零壹财经 徐晓梅

11月14日，美国证监会（Securities and Exchange Commission，美国证券交易委员会，下称“SEC”）在华盛顿举办了其首届金融科技论坛（下称“论坛”），讨论金融服务行业的技术创新。SEC称正在积极主动地探讨区块链技术及其在金融服务行业的广泛应用。 

SEC主席Mary Jo White表示，“金融科技创新有潜力改变金融服务行业的面貌，在这次论坛上，我们将探讨和这些突破性技术相关的各种问题和挑战。投资者和我们的市场有机会从金融科技发展中受益，我们必须与行业一起研究如何确保我们的法规跟上快速变化的创新。”

论坛由四个分论坛组成，分论坛成员被邀请讨论诸如区块链技术、智能投顾、网贷和众筹等问题，以及如何影响投资者。

论坛的第二个分论坛，即近期金融科技的创新对交易、结算和清算活动的影响，其侧重于讨论区块链技术及其改变金融服务行业各个方面的能力。该分论坛由SEC分布式账本技术工作组组长和SEC执法部助理主任Valerie Szczepanik主持，与会人员包括以下专家：

1.Brad Peterson，纳斯达克执行副总裁兼首席信息官/首席技术官

2.Chris Church，数字资产控股（Digital Asset Holdings）首席业务发展官

3.存托及结算公司（Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation，DTCC）全球公共政策主管Mark Wetjen

4.康奈尔大学Emin Gun Sirer教授

5.Grillne McNamara，普华永道资本市场团队的负责人

该分论坛首先简要介绍了区块链技术及其许多使用案例，其中包括实时金融传输、艺术品登记、证券交易、投票、医疗/临床试验记录保存、供应链和能源视可视网络。来自数字资产控股的Chris Church强调，他不认为区块链会消除整个行业的工作，他认为更重要的是要了解某些行业不会过时，而只需要改变角色或程序以适应新技术。他认为，那些失去竞争力或者变得不那么有竞争力的公司是因为他们不做出改变或努力了解这项技术。

随后与会人员又讨论了监管机构应该将注意力和专业知识集中在哪些方面，以便最有利于为区块链相关公司制定规则。康奈尔大学的Sirer教授将经济学和计算机科学列为可能的两个学术领域，但也鼓励监管机构使用基于社区的资源，同时注意到在这样一个新发展的领域，很可能找到不可信的资源或者没有适当的文件。Chris Church补充说他的看法是，当解读区块链技术的问题以及如何最好规范它时，监管机构应该相互交流。创建多层次的法规或相互冲突的规则对鼓励增长和创新或保护消费者没有什么作用，因为企业在做业务时几乎没有指导。

也许整个专家分论坛最迫切的问题是当前阻碍区块链技术成为主流应用的因素。

普华永道Grainne McNamara提出了包含四个“P”的应用曲线，区块链技术可能必须经历这些阶段才能看到她的公司或客户采用它：概念证明（proof of concept），原型阶段（prototype phase），试点阶段（pilot phase），最后是生产应用阶段（production application phase）。大多数涉及区块链技术的使用案例都处于初级阶段，随着时间的进行它们会变得更主流，不是因为它们缺乏实质意义或重要性，只是它们尚未经历所有这些阶段。

Chris Church指出了三个主要元素，他认为任何项目成为主流应用之前必须要看网络效应（network effect）、标准（standards）和监管（ regulations）。他指出，“标准”很大程度上掌握在区块链社区自己手中，例如在ICO时保持高标准会阻碍区块链走向主流。Sirer教授补充说，隐私和安全也是区块链成为主流应用要考虑的问题。

该分论坛的每位成员都看好区块链技术，看好它在货币金融服务部门的许多积极用途，以及看好它的增长和最终被更大规模应用的能力。在分论坛讨论的最后，Valerie Szczepanik坦率地告诉她的客户，并不是一切都需要在区块链上，它最适合的行业是：多个人共享、验证和更新数据时，中介增加了复杂性和/或使业务慢下来时、数据或事务是对时间敏感的，并且工作流程需要依赖多方。该分论坛在一种共识中结束：区块链的应用只是一个时间问题，它只关乎“什么时候（应用），而不是“会不会应用”。

相关英文原文：

http://www.ethnews.com/sec-fintech-forum

Earlier today the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) hosted a Fintech Forum (“Forum”) at its Washington, D.C. headquarters to discuss technological innovations across the financial services industry. The SEC has taken a proactive initiative to explore blockchain technology and its vast uses in the financial services industry. SEC Chair Mary Jo White is a supporter of fintech development stating that “fintech innovation has the potential to change the face of the financial services industry and through the Commission’s Fintech Forum, we will explore the various issues and challenges surrounding these groundbreaking technologies. There are real opportunities for investors and our markets to benefit from fintech developments and, together with the industry, we must examine ways to ensure our regulations keep pace with these rapidly evolving innovations.”

With this vision, the SEC put together this Forum to continue conversations between different players in the financial services industry. The Forum consisted of four panels featuring speakers ranging from regulators, academia, fintech companies and organizations, as well as financial service businesses. The  agenda for the forum included topics related to “financial technology innovation in the financial services industry.”  Panelists were invited to “discuss issues such as blockchain technology, automated investment advice or robo-advisors, online marketplace lending and crowdfunding, and how they may impact investors.”

The Forum’s second panel, Impact of Recent Innovation on Trading, Settlement, and Clearance Activities, focused on blockchain technology and its ability to transform various facets of the financial services industry. The panel was moderated by Valerie Szczepanik, Head of the SEC Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group and Assistant Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement. It included the following panelists:

• Brad Peterson, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer/Chief Technology Officer at Nasdaq

• Chris Church, Chief Business Development Officer, Digital Asset Holdings

• Mark Wetjen, Head of Global Public Policy at DTCC

• Professor Emin Gun Sirer, Cornell University

• Grainne McNamara, Principal in the Capital Markets team at PricewaterhouseCoopers

The panel began with a brief description of blockchain technology and its many use cases some of which include real time financial transmissions, art registries, securities transactions, voting, medical/clinical trial record keeping, supply chain, and visual grids for energy. Chris Church from Digital Asset Holdings emphasized the need to look past the initial hype when considering the many benefits of blockchain technology. Instead of buying into the general belief that blockchain will eliminate jobs of entire industries, he believed it was more crucial to understand that certain sectors will not become obsolete but just have roles or procedures altered to fit within the new technology. He opined that the companies who would lose out or become less competitive are those who do not make changes or make efforts to learn about this technology. The positive transformative changes are sure to follow, he emphasized.

The discussion then focused on what regulators should be focusing their attention and expertise on in order to be in the best position to create rules for blockchain-related companies. Professor Sirer from Cornell University listed economics and computer science as perhaps the two more academic related fields, but also encouraged regulators to use community-based resources with the caveat that in such a newly developing arena, it is easy to find resources that are not credible or published without proper documentation. Chris Church added his sentiment that regulators should speak to each other when deciphering issues with blockchain technology and how best to regulate it. Creating multiple levels of regulations or conflicting rules does little to encourage growth and innovation or protect consumer because companies are left with little guidance in what to do.

Perhaps the most pressing question of the entire panel was that of current hurdles to the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology. Grainne McNamara of PricewaterhouseCoopers offered four “Ps” of any adoption curve that blockchain technology would most certainly have to go through before she could see her company or clients adopt it: proof of concept, prototype phase, pilot phase, and lastly the production application phase. Most use cases involving blockchain technology are just in their infancy stage and it is only a matter of time before they become more mainstream—not for a lack of substance or importance, but just because they have yet to go through all of these phases. Chris Church stated three main elements that have to coexist before he believes any use cases become adopted into the mainstream: network effect, standards, and regulations. Notably, “standards” is an element largely in the hands of the blockchain community itself—by holding themselves to a higher standard when creating ICOs for example will go a long way towards the underlying technology becoming more widely accepted into mainstream application. Professor Sirer added that privacy and security are also concerns for mainstream adoption.

Each member on the panel spoke with a positive impression of blockchain technology, its many positive uses in the currency financial services sector, and the ability for growth and eventual adoption on a larger scale. Towards the end of the panel, Valerie Szczepanik stated a very pragmatic way to think about blockchain technology in her answer to a question, why the blockchain? She frankly told her client that not everything needs to be on the blockchain, but industries that it would work best for are those when multiple individuals share, validate, and update data; intermediaries add complexity and/or slow things down, the data or transaction is time sensitive, and there is a multi-party dependency work flow. The panel ended with the general feeling that adoption of blockchain technology was just a matter of time and a question of “when, not if.”

2017年1月10日，首届零壹财经新金融年会将在北京举行。本次年会，将首次公布“新金融致敬书籍”，向那些影响了新金融成长的经典书籍致敬；同时发布“2016年度十大新金融好书”，展现过去一年新金融领域最受好评的十本书籍。

哪些书籍会是“2016年度十大新金融好书”？投票点“阅读原文”！