The first summit in Việt Nam on blockchain technology and digital money, called Vietstock Blockchain Summit begins in HCM City on Sunday. — Photo vietstock.vn

HÀ NỘI — Blockchain, a new technology to help explore the various forms of crypto-currencies, could open up new attractive environment for all businesses and investors, said Nguyễn Đức Cường, head of consultancy division at Vietstock – a local financial-business media.

Cường made the statement at the first summit in Việt Nam on blockchain technology and digital money, called Vietstock Blockchain Summit. The event was held in HCM City on Sunday by Vietstock and FundYourselfNow – a Singaporean organisation that helps startup businesses to raise funds for their initial coin offering (ICO).

Vietnamese investors have caught up with the world trend and turned blockchain and crytocurrencies into a “hot” investment trend. For example, bitcoin and other cryptocurrency-related key words were among the top search targets on Google in Việt Nam last year.

This means that local businesses and investors have a great demand to learn and access the new technology and cryptocurrencies.

The digital ledger, in which transactions made in various types of cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly, can open up new trends in the different fields of finance, banking, retail and telecommunications, Cường said.

He added that being considered as the foundation of the industrial revolution 4.0, which was spreading around the world, this was the time for blockchain technology and digital money to provide additional cryptocurrency products.

The prospects of blockchain technology and technology-based digital money had become brighter as the technology could help firms replace traditional legal documents, which were handwritten and compiled on computers, with encryption.

Therefore, blockchain technology could minimise the chance of identity theft and strengthen personal data security. Recently, government agencies in Singapore, Canada, Switzerland and Estonia had started developing national identification systems using blockchain technology.

According to Kennett Tan, chief technology officer of FundYourselfNow, blockchain can remove the need for a centralised server to verify ownership and deals. He said the technology could help financial and banking businesses process their transactions faster without asking for assistance from any intermediary units. This would save time and costs.

In addition, blockchain technology could help businesses retain intellectual property rights and registrations, Tan said.

Liu Yusho, CEO of Vinaex.com, a bitcoin wallet service that assists customers to buy, sell and secure bitcoin, said that the total capitalisation of the cryptocurrency market was only US$2 billion a few years ago with bitcoin accounting for 90 per cent of the market value.

The numbers had increased to $550-600 billion with nearly 1,500 types of crytocurrency. Bitcoin now only dominated 35 per cent of the market value, he said.

Liu said that there were risks for investors when they purchased digital money or assets and they should take careful look at potential risks.

Investors needed to know that as the crytpocurrency market was booming, there would be projects, websites and companies trying to defraud them, he said.

The event was carried out to help investors, businesses and the public understand the nature of blockchain technology, its applications, how cryptocurrencies are managed and the nature of the world’s quickly rising cryptocurrency market. — VNS