In the recent years, Blockchain has become a game-changer in the field of technology as well as the spotlight for researches, application development, and investment . All the largest technology corporations nowadays, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, have invested predominantly in this field.
Vietnam is no exception to this trend according to Decision No. 2117/QD-TTg dated December 16, 2020 of the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also approved the National Key Science and Technology Program til 2025, in which blockchain technology is ranked second in the list after artificial intelligence (AI). Large companies and corporations, such as Viettel, FPT, Tiki, TP Bank, ect, have directly involved in the development of Blockchain products and services.
In addition to the potential for wide application in many different fields of life, Blockchain also gives Vietnam an opportunity to become one of the leading countries worldwide if we can serious preparation and proper investment in Research, Training, Communication and development of Blockchain applications.
Therefore, Techfest Vietnam Blockchain Hub – under the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam was held with the vision of becoming a national gateway for managers, businesses, startups, researchers, experts, investment funds, organizations and individuals to promote training, formation and development of blockchain innovation startup ecosystem in Vietnam. Right now, let’s take a look at the highlights at the event with GFI
Event content
With outstanding features such as transparency, sharding, consensus mechanism, immutability, automation through Smart Contracts, Blockchain is the optimal solution to address ongoing problems of trust, intermediary reduction, automation, copyright, data management, etc.
Currently, this technology is still in its nascent stage and has a lot of potential for future development. Therefore, startup projects in this field always receive a lot of attention from the community and large investment funds. At the beginning, Dr. Dinh Ngoc Thanh, Apprentice Professor of IT Department, Soongsil University, Korea Cofounder, VBI Blockchain Academy analyzed the advantages and challenges of starting a business with blockchain:
- Based on the history of computing platforms, blockchain is a kind of universal computer platform capable of becoming the next generation of computing.
- Blockchain Computers structure will consist of many nodes operating on a common consensus principle of the network.
- Cost to create trust.
- The benefits of Trust Guarantee in Blockchain Computer.
- How Blockchain plays a big role in digital transformation applied in digitalizing Money, Contracts, Identifiers, Assets, Intermediaries, etc.
The Blockchain Startup Challenges:
- Like other generations of computing, blockchain computers at this early stage are limited in terms of scalability and user experience.
- Pioneering platforms and applications will improve over time, capitalizing on strengths, and gradually improving weaknesses, just like previous generations of compute.
- As a new field, without a clear legal framework, governments are still in the research phase to provide a legal corridor for this new field.
- A lack of documentation and training programs for human resources, tools to support developers.
- The market is swarmed with scams and low-quality startups. Early comers without solid knowledge and long-term vision may be easily wavered.
Advantages of startups in Blockchain Technology:
- Finance is the biggest barrier for startups. Blockchain market is still small but the amount of capital being poured in is considerable. Many top players, large Web2 and Web3 funds is injecting money into the market. Moreover, it’s easy to raise capital from the global crowd, without geographical restrictions.
- Open system making it possible to gather community resources.
- With traditional startups, it is difficult and expensive to expand to other countries due to payment integration, laws to create local bank accounts. However, with Blockchain technology, global use and independent of specific geographical location make it easy to expand the global startup.
In recent years, the world’s technology “giants” such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, etc, have all invested in, researched and developed blockchain applications. Vietnam is not an exception to this trend, leading technology companies and corporations such as Viettel, FPT, Tiki, Sotatek, etc, has also been developing products and services for the blockchain sector.
So what does this mean for our digital economy? How can that picture be visualized? Doctor. Tran Quy – Director of Vietnam Digital Economy Development Institute shared about the importance of Blockchain in the digital economy in the near future.
- Digital economy is an economic activity that uses digital technology and digital data as main inputs. It also uses the digital environment as the main operating space as well as information and telecommunications technology to boost productivity, innovate business model and optimize economic structure.
- The digital economy components include: ICT Digital Economy, Digital platform economy, and Digital sector economy.
- In addition, Dr. Tran Quy also shared about Blockchain and digital asset issues, Blockchain legality and digital asset implementation.
Seminar 1: Advantages and challenges of starting a business with blockchain compared to traditional platform
Blockchain technology industry has now been applied to a number of practical fields and industries such as finance, logistics, tourism, real estate, entertainment, etc. Beside, many businesses and big bussineses have invested in this technology. So why are big businesses making big financial moves in the blockchain field? The first seminar with the participation of Dr. Dinh Ngoc Thanh, Dr. Tran Quy, Lawyer Phong Dao, Dr. Dang Khanh Hung (Director of FPT Blockchain Lab) analyzed the ongoing trend, so that we can have multi-dimensional and more insightful perspectives on this subject.
- In which sectors will Vietnam have the most strength judging on the important role of blockchain in the economy?
- The biggest challenges when starting a blockchain business in Vietnam.
- The most meaningful advantages for Vietnamese startups and comparing Blockchain with traditional startups.
- Not only startups, large corporations in the world are also investing sustantially in blockchain.
Metaverse application for business
Metaverse is a centerpiece of the puzzle and invested by many king pins. For example, there are Metaverse projects invested from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. One of them is Bit. Country – the project has been invested up to 43 million USD recently. So why is the Metaverse getting so much attention? What value do they bring to businesses and society?
Mr. Pham Thanh Tuan, Director of Bit. Country shares on the topic of Metaverse applications in business.
- Metaverse is the new generation of the internet that will bring a digital, diverse world experience where we can work, play, trade and socialize. Metaverse is also a place for community governance, the community can vote publicly. It’s where the decentralized economy of creators, developers and users resides.
- The layers of Metaverse include:
- Platform: technologies like 5G, Wifi and Clouds.
- Interaction: Phone, Laptop and VR.
- Distributed: using Blockchain technology, Edge computing.
- Economy: E-commerce, property, NFT.
- Experiences: Communities, games and events.
- Metaverse for business: thousands of global brands have acquired digital estates and are present on metaverse such as Nike, Walmart, McDonald’s, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Coca-cola, DBS, etc.
- Building a bridge between customers and businesses without giving equity, ownership of digital assets.
- Creating new revenue streams, products & services, profit sharing like NFT, land & event functions (rent, or sell). Overview of Bit.Country and Metaverse.Network.
Bit.Country is recruiting tech talent to grow the ecosystem, and working with strategic partners to help bring web3 and metadata to businesses. The project will also contribute to taxes and the local economy in the future, as well as pioneerr blockchain application in enterprises
Pioneering blockchain application in enterprises
In the next part, we will listen to the sharing of a leading e-commerce enterprise in Vietnam today. This is an enterprise that has pioneered the application of blockchain to its practical business model to improve business performance. That’s Tiki. Mr. Hoang Trung Quan – Tiki Development Director shared about the experiences of one of the pioneering enterprises applying blockchain in Vietnam.
Criteria for capital-raising success from large investment funds
To promote the development of the blockchain sector in Vietnam as well as support Startup projects in this field, the role of investment funds and start-up incubators is vital. But what do start-ups need to impress investment funds? Mr. Pham Huong – Founder of GFI investment fund shared some criteria for capital raising succes for their projects.:
- The growth of interested investment funds with more than 300 traditional investment funds participating and the participation rate of more than 1/3 of the total traditional investment funds are promising.
- Investment growth rate has increased by 713% in 2021 compared to 2020.
- Total investment in 2022 will grow by more than 20% compared to the whole of 2021. On average, each investment deal is about $ 25 million.
- Important criteria to be invested include Idea, Target Market, Business Model, Development Team and Product.
- In addition, GFI and NEAR Vietnam Hub will invest $350 million for Vietnamese startups.
Seminar 2: Seize the Advantage of Starting a Business with Blockchain Technology
The second seminar with the participation of Mr. Pham Huong, Mr. Hoang Trung Quan, Mr. Thanh Pham, Ms. Riley Tran (Director of NEAR Vietnam Hub) to “Capture the advantages of startups in Blockchain technology” along with the sharing by leading experts in the blockchain field.
- To get the advantages in starting a business with blockchain, what do startups & businesses need to prepare?
- From a more macro perspective of Vietnamese economy, how do we take advantage of these benefits to assist Vietnamese startups?
- The role of human resource training.
- The importance of having a well-organized startup support ecosystem to take advantage of this rising trend.
Techfest Vietnam Blockchain Hub
Summary
Techfest Vietnam Blockchain Hub – The outstanding advantage of starting a business in Blockchain technology tookplace successfully, marking the first successful achievement and creating a huge opportunity for traditional businesses and startups. Vietnamese entrepreneurs and young people, who want to learn in-depth about this field, seize the opportunity for innovation, and together build an innovative startup ecosystem in Vietnam’s Blockchain industry.
