Editor’s note: the companies they founded have either been unicorns, or just started the seed round, or have become household names, or have been behind the scenes for a long time, or are starting at the end of the day. However, they are the micro pulse of China’s new economy and the micro leaders and practitioners of this round of industrial and technological upgrading. Tens of thousands of their figures from different industries converge to project the torrent of change.
The “connected founder / CEO” column of the science and Innovation Board daily focuses on innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises. It takes the interview of the founder / CEO as the first-hand source to bring the growing start-ups into the public and market vision, explore the latest technology and industrial trends, and push them on time at 21:00 every Friday.
financial associated press | blockchain daily (Beijing, reporter Dong Yujia) if a company is testing driverless vehicle technology, where should a large amount of vehicle data used to train artificial intelligence algorithms be obtained? Are auto manufacturers willing to share data with each other?
The answer can be found on the auto big data blockchain trading platform built by Shanghai zero Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “zero technology”) and China Automobile Industry Association.
On this decentralized trading platform, if the data demander needs to obtain the right to use the data of other automobile enterprises, he must first obtain the right to use the data through data transaction on the blockchain system, and then exchange the original data through the data gateway service of the enterprises of both parties.
After obtaining the real original data, the data demander can verify the authenticity of the data on the blockchain node within the enterprise to see whether the purchased data is true and reliable.
In the digital age, a large number of assets will circulate in the digital world. Among them, blockchain is the “highway” for asset circulation and value circulation.
Founded in August 2016, zero technology is a national high-tech enterprise with blockchain underlying technology and in-depth application scenarios, serving in-depth digitization in the fields of automobile, finance, government affairs, double carbon and so on.
“Let data sharing and interaction, let asset circulation and trading,” said Lin Le, CEO of zero technology, which was his original intention. He said, data sharing and asset circulation are a huge industry opportunity in the context of digital transformation.
Focusing on the original intention of entrepreneurship, zero technology’s current business is based on blockchain and privacy computing technology to share and interact data in government affairs, automobile, energy and other fields, and to rely on data sharing and interaction in the financial field to cut into the transaction and circulation of assets.
In January 2022, tens of millions of pre-B rounds of strategic financing were completed by zero technology, which was invested by the state-owned holding fund Chengdu Xinyue equity investment fund. It is reported that the funds raised in this round will be used to develop new business sectors such as digital culture industry.
During the interview, Lin Le also disclosed the company’s future listing plan to the reporter of blockchain daily, “which is expected to take about two years”.
join the blockchain boom
Lin Le, who is a doctor of physics, is particularly talkative. As soon as a reporter raises a question, he can talk freely and simply describe complex terms.
Since 2015, China has set off an upsurge of “blockchain”. Since then, many blockchain alliance organizations have been established successively, and the national blockchain policy has gradually become clear. Lin Le first came into contact with blockchain in this year, and has been “galloping” in the industry for six years.
“All blockchain applications are derived from three functions.” Lin Le said.
one is distributed accounting, so as to form a trusted data environment.
second, blockchain forms an efficient value circulation network by combining asset digitization.
“Blockchain technology can support both registration transactions and payment and clearing functions,” Lin Le explained. “In the traditional capital market, these functions belong to multi-channel system. Therefore, the application of blockchain can reduce the time of transaction confirmation, greatly improve the efficiency of the whole asset circulation and further improve the efficiency of value circulation in the digital world.”
third, blockchain can also combine smart contracts to ensure that contracts cannot be changed on the chain, realize frictionless digital cooperation and form a trusted protocol execution environment.
Before joining the blockchain boom, Lin le was engaged in IPO and green finance related work in Shenzhen Stock Exchange and IPO issuance and examination by China Securities Regulatory Commission. He said that these work experiences have a certain impact and help on his subsequent entrepreneurship.
On the one hand, he has a deeper and macro understanding of the financial system after doing strategic research in Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which provides a solid empirical support for zero technology to use blockchain to solve the pain points of the financial industry.
Especially in terms of building a service platform for the financial leasing industry, blockchain has made a “qualitative” leap in the connection and integration of “three flows” – information flow, transaction flow and cash flow.
Taking energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises such as new energy electric vehicles as an example, similar capital intensive enterprises need a lot of financing, and asset-based debt financing is an important means of financing for these enterprises. In this process, the financial market needs the real operation information of assets to form an information bridge between financial institutions, capital and assets.
In the financing based on assets, blockchain is the “bridge” that plays an important role. Operation information, charging information and payment information are linked in real time, depicted through blockchain, and then fed back to financial institutions or investors. At the same time, blockchain combines smart contracts to automatically distribute asset income according to the rules agreed in advance, reducing the cost of post loan management.
Lin Le said that the relationship between the financial field and blockchain is complementary. “Finance is one of the most important application scenarios of blockchain, and with blockchain, finance has really entered the era of deep digitization.”
On the other hand, Lin Le, who once worked in the IPO examination of the CSRC, has a deeper understanding of how to promote the steady development of enterprises through the combination with capital.
So far, zero technology has experienced five rounds of financing, with tens of millions in each round. Lin Le described this as a way of “running fast in small steps” and “this may also be the most suitable way for the early development of an industry”.
Based on his previous experience and knowledge of technology and finance, Lin Le began to devote himself to the entrepreneurial boom of blockchain.
at present: multi-point flowering business, striving to be the forefront of the industry
In fact, at the beginning of its establishment, zero technology is a blockchain enterprise focusing on the digital field of green finance and green economy. It is also the first batch of enterprises in China to layout the “energy blockchain”.
After years of deep cultivation, zero technology has made a good achievement in the combination of blockchain and energy.
In December 2021, 17 ministries and commissions including the central network information office, the Central Propaganda Department and the general office of the State Council announced the publicity on the list of national blockchain innovation and application pilot projects. Zero technology joined hands with Willfar Information Technology Co.Ltd(688100) to be selected into the list of pilot projects in “blockchain + energy” characteristic fields. The two sides will jointly build a comprehensive energy service platform based on blockchain technology.
Lin Le believes that as the only private enterprise consortium, it is more meaningful to win the first batch of national blockchain pilot projects together under the background of China’s progress towards the “3060” dual carbon goal, but it also represents responsibility.
He told reporters that the application of the service platform will focus on the data sharing and interaction of assets. taking photovoltaic power generation as an example, the data of photovoltaic power generation is linked in real time, and then the formula of carbon dioxide emission reduction is combined with smart contract to calculate, so as to form a credible and transparent data calculation environment, so as to make the generation process of carbon market credible, transparent and efficient.
“The original name of the company was’ energy chain technology ‘. Most people in the early energy field knew that blockchain started from us.” Lin Le said that although the business territory of zero technology has been continuously expanded to several major fields, including military, government affairs, automobile and Inclusive Finance, “you will still ask me repeatedly, how is your energy blockchain doing?”
After using “energy chain technology” for five years, the company completed brand upgrading in September 2021 and officially unveiled “zero technology” with a broader meaning.
“Zero” has a special meaning. In binary, it is a concept of infinity, “we hope to have infinite development prospects in the digital world and let customers have zero distance from the digital world with the technical support of the company.”
The zero technology of “multi-point flowering” in business can still be briefly summarized as data sharing and interaction in military, government, automobile and energy based on blockchain and privacy computing technology, and cutting into asset transaction and circulation based on data sharing and interaction in the financial field.
In the different fields mentioned above, the company has accumulated many solutions and typical cases. In terms of government affairs, it cooperates with the Department of natural resources and planning of Hainan Province to build an online trading integration application system for mining rights, and cooperates with the third Institute of the Ministry of public security and Zhongzhi aiaitong to create a digital identity (trusted professional identity) platform.
The same is true in the automotive field. Focusing on the three aspects of data supervision, transaction and interaction, zero technology has realized its applications in many aspects, such as automotive data trusted storage certificate, automotive data sharing transaction, automotive maintenance data sharing transaction, automotive detection data sharing and mutual recognition, power battery traceability and so on.
It is understood that zero technology has more than 40 partners, including China Automobile Industry Association, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, environmental development center of the Ministry of ecological environment and so on.
future: continuous exploration
Taking the opportunity of a new round of financing in early 2022, zero technology has officially entered the field of digital culture.
In Lin Le’s view, this field that has created many business volumes in the short term is a “very good exploration point”. He hopes to extend the company’s existing business system to the “digital asset transaction” in the cultural field.
He said that helping customers to build a digital collection trading platform in a SaaS way will be the early development direction of the company in this field. At present, the company has contacted partners including Tsinghua Academy of fine arts and Central Academy of fine arts.
Referring to the concept of “meta universe” that has been wildly hyped in the market, Lin Le believes that no one can accurately define it at this stage. “The future of meta universe depends on our digital companies, including artificial intelligence, Internet of things, interactive technology and blockchain, to shape it step by step.”
It is certain that blockchain will play an important and huge role in the meta universe, that is, through data credibility, transaction credibility and mechanism credibility, so as to create a trust environment and economic foundation. The economic foundation in the meta universe will undoubtedly focus on the safe and reliable sharing of data and the orderly and efficient circulation of assets.
