I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 715 Two Major Camps in the Field of Distributed Ledger

The first Cloud Ledger Alliance meeting and Cloud Ledger Forum Summit was held on January 14, 2016, at the Sicarton Hotel in the Shanghai International Financial Center.

Leaders of financial enterprises from more than 20 countries and regions, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, as well as international financial representatives from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, participated in the summit.

Following discussions at the conference, the Cloud Ledger Alliance adopted a decentralized management structure, with its management committee and leaders varying depending on the specific business alliance.

A Marco Polo Network Trade Finance Business Alliance Management Committee was established, focusing on trade finance platforms based on Cloud Ledger, including accounts receivable discounting and accounts payable financing. Members include the five major state-owned banks and Jinghai Bank, among others.

The Digital Financial Business Alliance Management Committee is a global digital letter of credit network based on Cloud Ledger, with members including Jinghai Bank, WeBank, and others.

Insurance B3i Business Alliance Management Committee: A blockchain alliance for the insurance and reinsurance industry. Members include PICC (People's Insurance Company of China) and CPIC (China Pacific Insurance).

To this end, a series of rules and regulations have been established, including coordination mechanisms, decision-making mechanisms, and member application mechanisms, and the status of ordinary members and observers has been set up.

Zhiyun Technology is responsible for the overall strategy, development, and commercialization of the Cloud Ledge platform, but does not directly manage the day-to-day affairs of the various specific business alliances.

Surprisingly, HSBC Holdings and JPMorgan Chase from Hong Kong announced that they have joined the Cloud Ledger Alliance and become founding members.

The news caused a stir in the financial world, with major financial media outlets rushing to report it, and it shocked Wall Street.

"Traitor! Disgrace!"

In the chairman's office on the top floor of Goldman Sachs' headquarters in Manhattan, Chairman and CEO David Solomon was throwing a tantrum.

It's no wonder he was so angry. It turns out that senior executives from several Wall Street investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, had privately agreed that each of them would send the heads of their branches in China to participate in the Cloud Ledger Forum Summit to be held in Shanghai.

This way, they can maintain their status and prestige as founding members of the Corda Alliance, while also giving China face. After all, each company has a large amount of business in China, and no one wants to lose this market.

Unexpectedly, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, personally flew to China to attend the forum summit and announced that JPMorgan Chase had joined the Trade Finance Business Alliance Management Committee, becoming one of its founding members.

When the news reached Wall Street, David Solomon was furious.

"HSBC Holdings is registered in the UK and headquartered in London, but the real controlling shareholders are no longer British. Ping An Insurance and Hong Kong Central Clearing (Agents) Limited hold a large number of shares. Most of their business comes from Asia, so I can understand their close ties with China. But what about JPMorgan Chase? Its main business is in North America and Europe! Why is it in such a hurry to join the Cloud Ledger alliance?!"

President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron sat calmly on the sofa opposite him, sipping his coffee.

“David, you don’t need to be angry. JPMorgan Chase entered China a long time ago and has invested a lot of resources in cultivating local teams and government relations. They have a good relationship with China, especially their current chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, who is a China expert.”

"Moreover, the annual JPMorgan Global China Summit held in Shanghai is an important indicator for business leaders and investors to understand China's policies, and this in itself is a gesture. Now, the most important question is, what should we do?"

"Should we continue to stick with the Corda alliance, or should we be like JPMorgan Chase, playing both sides?"

Hearing this, David calmed down.

Yes, anger solves nothing.

Currently, two major camps have formed in the field of distributed ledger technology based on blockchain. Although the Corda Alliance was established earlier, the Cloud Ledger Alliance has come from behind and is open source!
It is conceivable that in the near future, countless Cloud Ledger-based applications will be used in trade finance, insurance, digital assets, supply chain and trade, government and public sector, and so on.

“John, what’s your opinion?” David looked up at his partner.

“We can apply to join just like JPMorgan Chase. This will not affect our status in the Corda Alliance. We don’t have to choose one over the other.”

“NONO,” David shook his head: “Although it is very likely that the two major alliances will coexist and develop in the future, I still hope that Corda will take the lead, so that Goldman Sachs China can join the Cloud Ledger alliance!” One is the headquarters, and the other is a regional institution; David’s attitude is obvious.

John shook his head helplessly, but didn't say anything.

It was already quite an achievement to get David, a stubborn American supremacist, to compromise.

“OK, I suggest we hold a high-level meeting soon to discuss this matter, and invite Goldman Sachs China Chairman Fan Xiang to attend,” John said.

“John, you’ll be in charge of making the arrangements.” David agreed, but then added angrily, “Don’t let that bastard Fang Qingye get away with it!”

Fang Qingye didn't feel like she had gained much advantage.

After the summit concluded, he returned to Nanxin.

Before leaving, I had a closed-door meeting with Xin Tiejun and other senior executives of Zhiyun Technology to clarify their role: Zhiyun Technology is only responsible for the overall strategy, development and commercialization of the Cloud Ledger platform in the alliance, but cannot interfere in the daily affairs of the various specific business alliances.

"Remember, Zhiyun Technology serves the Cloud Ledger Alliance! Not the administrator! Finance and politics are often intertwined, and there are some aspects that are beyond the reach of private technology companies like ours!"

Don't get too cocky.
Don't become like Ant Financial, another financial institution.

Of course, Fang Qing didn't say that.

“I understand. We just need to set up the stage and watch the financial institutions put on their show, while also maintaining the stage and selling more tickets, right?” Lin Tao suddenly blurted out.

“Yes, that’s exactly what it means!” Fang Qingye said, then joked, “Lin Tao, I didn’t expect that you, a typical engineering guy, would understand it so well.”

Everyone chuckled.

Fang Qingye returned to Nanxin on January 19th, which was the 10th day of the twelfth lunar month.

With the Spring Festival fast approaching, banks are especially busy.

With a surge in demand for cash withdrawals, peak periods for money transfers, social security pension payments, corporate fund settlements and payments, and year-end accounting and reporting, banks have had to increase manpower and work overtime, and Jinghai Bank is no exception.

Although Fang Qingye, as the bank president, wouldn't be involved in the day-to-day operations, as the top leader, he was still busy listening to reports, reviewing statements, attending meetings, and studying documents.

This afternoon, as soon as she started work, Fang Qingye made herself a cup of tea and began reading through various official documents, some issued by the bank system and others by the county—a whole stack of them.

In fact, many documents have no practical significance for the organization; many are just to let you know that something exists, especially official documents issued by the county.

Jinghai Bank is not a government department, nor is it an implementer or inspector as required by the document; this is just to let you know that such a thing exists.

Fang Qingye would write "read" on these official documents and then have them filed by the General Office's archives.

Suddenly, a red-headed document issued by the county government caught Fang Qingye's attention: "Notice from the Office of the People's Government of Nanxin County on Issuing Several Measures to Promote Enterprises to Employ Disabled Persons in Accordance with Regulations."

Fang Qingye picked up the document and looked at it carefully.

(End of this chapter)