On the evening of November 4, 2020, Tencent President Martin Lau, speaking at the Hong Kong FinTech Week event, stated that many new players in the fintech market are pursuing pure scale rather than quality. Innovation goes hand-in-hand with financial risks, and closer cooperation with regulators is essential, as blind innovation could lead to greater risks.
Lau said that looking over a ten-year horizon, the world will not shift into a state dominated by cryptocurrencies. He believes cryptocurrencies have three key values: first, serving as digital gold for value storage; second, enabling software programs within their associated blockchain ecosystems; and third, offering popular anonymity outside regulatory oversight. At the same time, Lau pointed out that while there will always be strong market demand for anonymity, opportunities and scope for it will be constrained as regulations evolve.
Beyond cryptocurrency, he said blockchain is the most important and interesting aspect, and that blockchain technology will support the development of fintech ecosystems in the future. Lau said: "When I look ahead, I believe the world will always need mechanisms for value storage, but I don't think the world needs many forms of digital gold—only a very limited number of cryptocurrencies can fulfill this role." (21st Century Economy)
