Polkadot ambassador in China：What will change in Web 3.0 ？
Someone has decided for us: “People are willing to give up privacy for convenience. Yes, they do.”
Xiao Zhang : Technical ambassador, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, Shandong Technology and Business University, CEO of Glacier Blockchain Technology.
1. Why did you want to be a Polkadot ambassador?
Xiao Zhang：In 2011, I was still a PhD candidate at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. At that time, I was doing research on highly reliable distributed data processing chips. I studied the main technologies behind bitcoin from the perspective of distributed system, and I was deeply impressed by its ingenious design. After that, I have been tracking the development of bitcoin and Ethereum technology.
In 2018, I cooperated with ECF (Ethereum Community Fund) on University blockchain education, and assisted ECF in some community project reviews. As the Web3 foundation is also a funding member of ECF, I participated in some Gavin’s workshops in China. After we had several talks, I felt that Gavin was very nice person. When talking about engineering issues, he was very engaged and passionate.
In 2018, we established Glacier Blockchain Technology company in Yantai to do research and development of blockchain technology. At that time, the project we at our hand was not well solved by Ethereum, so I did some research on side chain and cross chain, and found that Polkadot’s technical solution was really a good direction.
In 2019, I saw the information of Polkadot ambassador program, and I signed up immediately. One of the main reasons was that we can interact with Polkadot’s international community directly, which was helpful for us to learn Polkadot’s technologies. Second, in Yantai, we also have some friends of Web companies and university student associations, who have the will to learn Polkadot technology. As an ambassador of Polkadot, I can better help them with diving into Polkadot’s technology ecosystem.
2. What have you done during the Ambassador Apprentice period?
Xiao Zhang：In 2019, we give more than 10 talks and presentations on blockchain technologies, specifically on Polkadot and Substrate in China.
At the end of 2019, with the support of PolkaWorld and the government office of the Yantai High-tech Zone, we organized a blockchain technology workshop “Blockchain Technology and Substrate”, and more than 100 professionals from various industries participated in the event. In the process, we were also exposed to many product requirements, such as digital identity, blockchain certification and supply chain finance-related projects. Polkadot’s unique advantages further strengthened our determination to use its technology to serve the market.
3.How do you like the communication with the Web3 Foundation or Polkadot team?
Xiao Zhang：I have known the Polkadot and the Web3 community for nearly two years, and I truly feel that this is a group of people who love what they do. They advocate open source and sharing, and they can fully respect people from different cultural backgrounds; the ability to collaborate across cultures and regions is impressive. Chat rooms in the Riot are always lively, and Gavin often comes out to answer questions in detail.
In addition to the Polkadot community, we were also cooperating with the KILT Protocol team using Substrate in Germany. We have ZOOM video conferences every month. I feel that everyone was very nice and friendly, willing to share and help all the time. In addition, I have to say that Berlin has now become one of the world’s largest blockchain technology centers, and the technology and related ecosystem have developed very well. I personally look forward to more cooperation with Polkadot team and the community in 2020.
4. What do you think is the most powerful part of Polkadot？
Xiao Zhang：From the perspective of blockchain technology, Polkadot’s technology is world-class. Its consensus mechanism, scalability and interoperability … There were articles discussing these in detail, so I will not go into it. I recommend reading the article by Dr. Yaoqi, Technical Director of Parity Asia, which is a very nice introduction.
What I appreciate most about Polkadot is actually its vision: Web 3.0, which is the decentralized Web. This is a disruptive direction, and I personally think it will dominate the development of the Internet industry in the next 20 years. What is Web 3.0? If you have watched the latest season of “Silicon Valley”, you should remember Richard Hendricks’s exciting speech: An Internet that is of the people, by the people and for the people.
One IT celebrity in China announced a few years ago that we have entered the DT era from the IT era, which is the era of data technology. But what he didn’t tell us was that it was the DT era for Internet companies, not for common people. Don’t forget, in the Internet era, individuals hardly “own” any data on the Web. What we have is the right to use some data. Our personal data is stored in centralized databases of Internet companies. After analysis of various machine learning algorithms, they are used to push advertisements for us, recommend usury loans to us, and let us go to the X department of an expensive hospital… People receive many advertisements for selling houses, cars, furnishings, every day, but we have no idea who had leaked our privacy. Don’t think too much, someone has decided for us: “People are willing to give up privacy for convenience. Yes, they do.”
Internet giants have a large amount of user privacy data, making it almost impossible for startup technology companies to compete with them. People can only continue to contribute data to these giants, thereby further consolidating their monopoly position and making them even richer. Do you remember the human batteries in Matrix? Same story today.
What will change in the Web 3.0 era? Your personal identity and personal data will be collected in your own cell phone and backed up in an encrypted manner. Without your explicit authorization and permission, no one can see or use your private data. You can monetize your own data in a secure and private manner. The Internet will have native currency and financial functions. Talking about DeFi, today you can only use your cryptocurrency as collateral to get a loan. In the Web 3.0 era, you can collateralize your on-chain data and credit to get loans without leaking any personal privacy.
The vision of Web 3.0 is not only supported by the Polkadot community. At present, there are many forces worldwide jointly promoting this vision, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. There is no doubt that the unique scalability and cross-chain interaction capabilities of Polkadot will become a very powerful booster for Web 3.0.
5. From your perspective, what kind of things do you think will help Polkadot develop better?
Xiao Zhang：Developers! Developers! Developers! The growth of a blockchain ecosystem is inseparable from an active developer community. In all fairness, the Substrate team has done a good job on tooling and documentation. However, from the perspective of teaching in Chinese universities, programming language such as Rust or Typescript, or a blockchain development tool such as Substrate, are unlikely to be included in university curriculum of computer science education in a short term. And the related teaching materials are also missing.
A more pragmatic method is to find new developers from the blockchain clubs in universities and existing computer and Web industry practitioners, and include them in community projects. This also requires the Web3 Foundation to increase their funding and support for small and micro entrepreneurial groups, including direct financial support and application requirement matching, company incubation and other help. This way the development of the Chinese Polkadot community can be accelerated.
Apply for Polkadot ambassador here：https://medium.com/polkadot-network/announcing-the-launch-of-the-polkadot-ambassador-program-ba381808ca70
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