Fintech meets Blockchain at the 2018 Finwise Summit, Hong Kong

by Federico Morgantini

Organized by Finwex, the Finwise Summit went live once again in Nina Hotel & Convention Center in Hong Kong on the 10th and 11th August, following a successful tour of Shanghai, Macao and Tokyo.

The Summit was enthusiastically received by attendees and the media, thanks to its rich programme and roster of highly esteemed guest speakers. After the opening ceremony, two main conferences took to the stage: “The application of Fintech in the insurance industry” and “Traditional capital meets New Economy”. Then for two full days, Finwex hosted a variety of symposia and company presentations, running the gamut from online games to artificial intelligence.

It was clear from the panel discussions that many believed that the world was entering into a revolutionary stage — as big, or even bigger than, the one brought about by Internet: the new paradigm of ‘decentralization’ ushered in by blockchain technology. With the advent of the Internet, old-school companies in the financial industry found new ways to competitively provide services by leveraging IT; thereby retaining their positions as centralized institutions and the ‘guarantors’ of all businesses in the field. With Blockchain, banks and centralized authorities are now theoretically obsolete. They are no longer a necessary model to store, transfer, or otherwise manage and regulate money. The same will happen in the insurance industry as centralization is done away with. Smart contracts and distributed ledgers will provide faster, cheaper, and more secure alternatives. Decentralization will take the world by storm.

Outside the main conference area were an array of company booths lining the aisles, with representatives from Coinscious, Cdgex, Blockshine, Aenco, Metaverse, Exchange Union, Black Star, Luxchain, Tictalk, Gate.io, and more. At the entrance stood the main partners of the 2018 Finwise HK Summit: PWC and Goldford Fintech.