Author: Zhang Lili; Source: Zhang Lili's Digital Economy Research
After the outcome of the US election was finalized, the global cryptocurrency and digital asset market has received a new round of high attention. Of course, in the era of the digital economy, the status of "digital assets" is rapidly and comprehensively upgrading, and in the future, digital capital will be greater than financial capital.
Modern currency is dependent on debt or credit, so the "anchor" of currency is essentially what the borrower behind the bank is guaranteed by and what income they rely on to repay the loan. We all know that the scale of the digital economy is constantly expanding, and this is not only happening in China, but is a global characteristic. Among them, industrial digitalization accounts for 90% of the global digital economy, which is the absolute main battlefield of the digital economy. Therefore, under such rapid digital economic development, it is normal for the asset form circulating in the economic system to change, and new asset types are rapidly emerging and naturally integrated into financial activities. Almost the entire world has focused the "anchor" of the next-generation currency on "digital assets".
Since 2020, the global encrypted digital asset industry has entered a period of explosive growth. The main reasons for the explosion are three: first, the expansion and layout of investment institutions in this field; second, the rapid rise of decentralized finance, which is the internal driving force for the promotion of encrypted digital assets; and third, the gradual clarification of regulatory policies on encrypted digital assets by various countries. From the development speed of legal digital currencies, it has basically been in a state of full-scale acceleration since 2020. The Chinese digital renminbi has experienced multiple rounds of pilot tests in multiple regions, leading the world. So how will the encrypted digital asset industry develop by the end of 2024? What are the future trends?
First, the digitalization of data assets and the digitization of assets are constantly expanding the boundaries of assets. There are two concepts here, simply understood, the digitization of assets is easy to understand, it is the traditional assets appearing in digital form. Data assets or data asset-ization refer to the various transaction data and behavioral data generated on the Internet, which have also become a new category of assets. For example, in the entire catering industry chain, we can now obtain data on food preferences, age, income, credit, social relationships, etc. through digital information technology, and these real data can be used as vouchers to serve as a new "anchor" for asset-ization.
Since the birth of Bitcoin, there have been more than 20,000 large and small digital asset trading platforms. Overall, these platforms should all be considered as attempts at innovative solutions. At present, the data assets generated by data and data elements are mainly from the vast public service data of industries, culture or cultural and creative industries, and digital cities.
The global digital asset market has the following three new characteristics that are worth noting.
First, the agglomeration effect of the encrypted digital asset market is significantly enhanced. First, the market capitalization of the current encrypted digital currencies is already occupied by Bitcoin and Ethereum, accounting for 70%. Secondly, it is noteworthy that the computing power of the cryptocurrency industry is accelerating its concentration. Computing power is a very important link in cryptocurrencies, and to obtain the right to record blocks, the corresponding energy industry, data center services, and computing power will increase, after all, the greater the computing power, the higher the security factor of the entire blockchain network.
Second, mainstream business institutions are accelerating their layout in encrypted digital assets. Looking directly at investment in encrypted digital assets, a representative case is that Tesla accepted Bitcoin as a payment method for purchasing cars in 2021. Of course, direct allocation is also increasing, through enterprises engaged in encrypted asset lending, hedge funds, mutual funds, family funds and other traditional capital market institutions.
Third, the impact of encrypted digital assets on the traditional capital market is accelerating. With the increasing amount of virtual data generated by social data, natural data, and the metaverse, the marginal effect of the data mineral resources is continuously amplified, on the one hand, it is accelerating the catalysis of various new financial products, the decentralized finance mentioned earlier is a representative. In addition, under the constraints of securities law and financial regulation, there are already many successful cases of financing through the issuance of securitized tokens, which has brought a lot of imagination space to the traditional capital market. Especially the digital artworks of the consumer industry, games, digital works of the cultural industry, the protection and trading of intellectual property rights for artworks, virtual and personalized tourism, and the deep integration of education industry resources and skills, etc. Of course, games, advertising, new media, as well as new manufacturing industry product brands and supply chain collaboration are also in the process of accelerating.
The long-term challenge for the global development of digital assets is compliance, security and professionalism. After all, how to balance regulation and innovation, and how to promote the healthy development of the market is a difficult problem. I am more concerned about professionalism and compliance. Digital assets are after all a new thing, and for most people, including professional investors and regulators, their professional capabilities need to be improved. Compliance is also closely related to professionalism, and the current global cases are not so abundant, and the consensus also varies by circle and region. We need to learn and exchange more together, maintain vigilance and flexibility.
