Core Initiatives
Leveraging the cutting-edge technological research and development advantages and robust intellectual property (IP) resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the CAS Cloud Computing Research Institute in fields such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, CASA IDIFIC focuses on four key areas: frontier research in digital finance, innovative application scenarios, digital financial support for industrial transformation, and policy and regulatory studies. It aims to establish a comprehensive digital finance research platform centred on the digitalisation of real-world assets (RWA), cloud-chain synergy, and industry-finance integration as its distinctive features." This platform aims to create a comprehensive, non-governmental research institution dedicated to digital finance innovation, integrating academic research, technological development, technology transfer, talent cultivation, and policy consulting.
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The goal is to establish a world leading digital finance innovation research and application platform. Through breakthroughs in key technologies such as cloud-chain synergy, privacy computing, and dynamic compliance, the platform aims to promote the efficient circulation and value reconstruction of real assets, drive technological innovation, business model innovation, and policy regulatory innovation in digital finance. In the future, it will further explore deep integration with digital payment interoperability to establish a new paradigm for cross-border RWA asset circulation, aiming to become the core hub for domestic digital finance policy formulation, technological innovation, and industrial collaboration, as well as an internationally leading research and practice base for digital finance (RWA) innovation.
Technological Innovation
Integrating cloud computing elastic computing power with blockchain smart contract technology to establish a comprehensive technical framework for the entire process of tokenising, registering, and trading RWA assets.
Scenario Empowerment
Combining the new technologies, business models, and operational paradigms developed by digital finance with traditional industry application scenarios to drive the deep integration of technology, capital, and the real economy. Focusing on scenarios such as digital assets, digital securities (bonds, commodities, carbon credits, real estate investment trusts, etc.), supply chain finance, cross-border trade, green assets, intellectual property, and data elements, we promote the digital circulation and value realization of real-world physical assets.
Leading Global Standards
Collaborating with regulatory authorities and industry associations to establish classification, valuation, and compliant transaction standards for RWA digital assets, and establishing a global benchmark for the RWA ecosystem.
Ecosystem Building
Establishing an industry-academia-research alliance to collaborate with financial institutions, technology companies, law firms, and others to build a "industry-academia-research-finance-application" collaborative ecosystem, and promoting the ecological and commercial development of digital finance (RWA) innovation research.
Real World Asset Tokenization
The Tokenized Industrial Internet Ecosystem (TIIE) is a new initiative that leverages Real World Asset Tokenization (RWAT), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Regulatory Technology (Regtech), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a seamless, compliant, and highly liquid digital ecosystem for industrial assets and data. This initiative aims to revolutionize industries such as commodities, supply chain, and Industry 4.0 by unlocking the value of physical assets and data, making them more fungible, accessible, and interoperable across networks.​
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Real World Assets in physical assets such as commodities, machinery, supply chain outputs and data assets generated by IOT and Industry 4.0 are tokenized, representing a fractional ownership or value claim on the underlying asset, enabling fractional ownership, trading, and collateralization. Tokenization frameworks are built with embedded Regtech solutions to ensure compliance with local and international regulations (e.g., GDPR, MiCA) while smart contracts manage access control, ensuring only authorized parties can interact with sensitive data or assets. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is integrated as a additional layer allowing the assets to be interoperable with other traditional finance, blockchain, DeFi and Web3 liquidity pools such as FX, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stablecoins, CBDCs, Layer 2 Tokens, etc. to provide liquidity for traditionally illiquid assets like machinery or data.
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The IoT, industrial internet and supply chain devices collects real-time data from industrial processes, which can be then tokenized and stored on a blockchain, not only ensuring data and product integrity, traceability, and immutability but also allowing them to be traded on a data exchange/marketplace where the tokenized data can be purchased, rented, traded, licensed, or used in other applications through an underlying access control system. The tokenized industrial data is used to train industry-specific LLMs for applications such as predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and quality control, even allowing for originally siloed data to be aggregated with original sources retaining the future economic benefits.​ AI models and insights can then be further tokenized and made available on decentralized marketplaces, creating a new ecosystem for AI-driven industrial solutions. This creates a completely new and revolutionary asset class, allowing companies to monetize their industrial data while maintaining control over access and usage.
Universal Digital Evolution Charter (UDEC)
The Universal Digital Evolution Charter (UDEC) represents a proactive approach to providing developers and users of the rapidly evolving three most important Web3-technologies, namely DLT, AI, and Quantum Computing, with critical legal roadmaps to navigate the fundamentally changing business landscape. The purpose of the UDEC is to outline the minimum legal requirements that Web3-projects (and/or the Metaverses) must meet to enable users for their services to conduct legally valid and compliant digital transactions. This is a crucial prerequisite to assess the operational risk of any Web3-business.
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Since Web3 merges the legacy/physical world with the digital world in such a way that a person experiences seamless and interchangeable rules regardless of where he/she transacts. By providing such a structured Web3 legal framework, UDEC aims to ensure the widest possible extension of existing national (including international) laws for the legacy/physical world to digital transactions in Web3. This leads to fair outcomes, mitigate risks, and instills confidence in legal-based transactions within Web3. This initiative sets the stage for future technological advancements, where UDEC will provide the core requirements for a UDEC as a legal framework that ensures that applicable laws provide the legal certainty essential for building new markets using the benefits in these emerging technologies.
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Since UDEC is designed to merge the physical and digital worlds, it establishes seamless and interchangeable transaction rules. By outlining minimum legal requirements, UDEC enables projects operating in these cutting-edge domains to conduct legally valid and compliant digital transactions. This comprehensive UDEC legal framework addresses essential elements and regulatory challenges, facilitating the integration of evolving technologies and fostering a stable environment for innovation and growth. UDEC will contain the legal frameworks that emerge from the various legal systems, ensuring that Web3 projects have the greatest possible security that their transactions are legally valid, compliant and enforceable, as users can rely on, and trust established and familiar rules of national laws based on known traditional rules and concepts.
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Creating a interoperable digital payment system - FreeFlow Finance
Our mission is to enable the friction-free flow of global trade and digital commerce in order to unite the world in mutual prosperity and provide universal financial inclusion and as a result have spun out FreeFlow Finance to achieve these objectives. FreeFlow Finance is the world’s first digital payment interoperability infrastructure company focused on enabling cross-border retail commerce using regulated digital currencies. FreeFlow is leading the world in cross-platform digital currency clearing and settlement and FX liquidity provision capabilities through our institutional-grade, vertically-integrated, and regulatory-compliant single-window API platform. Our solutions allow our customers and strategic partners to future-proof their businesses by seamlessly integrating interoperability with the Cambrian Explosion of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies that are coming into the market over the next half decade. Working with central banks, government regulators, financial institutions, Fintech innovators, and digital payment and remittance ecosystems, we are catalysing the global institutional adoption of digital finance innovation that represents the future of finance.
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United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) - Bhutan Forum
UN ESCAP is the United Nations "regional hub promoting cooperation among countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. It is the largest regional intergovernmental platform with 53 Member States and 9 associate members. Professor Sung hosted the UN ESCAP forum in Bhutan in December 2020 on Digital Finance Transformation in Bhutan.
Worked with the Bhutan government, central bank and Ministry of Finance to help Bhutan leapfrog the developed world to transform the future development of the nation by being a first mover to adopt the latest digital economy technologies (e.g., fintech/blockchain solutions across digital wallets, digital asset exchanges, cross-border payments, supply chain finance, etc.) and next digital finance trends (e.g., tokenized sovereign bonds, digital assetization of commodities, digital central bank currencies, etc.).
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To take advantage of finance digitalization, Bhutan needs to take the lead in allowing regulated digital assets to thrive in the local economy, while also augmenting its digital infrastructure capabilities to leverage the disruptive digital asset economies paradigm that is presently sweeping the globe. In this vein ESCAP has provided its technical assistance to strengthen Bhutan’s capital market since 2017 and contributed to the recent issuance of the nation’s first sovereign bond. In addition, the Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan has recently requested ESCAP’s further assistance in the digitalization of the capital market.
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Learn more at https://www.unescap.org/events/conference-digital-finance-transformation-bhutan-digital-future-bhutan-s-capital-markets
One World Blockchain Forum - World Economic Forum (WEF)
In the first year that Blockchain was substantially involved in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2018, curated, organized, sponsored and hosted three-day blockchain forum during World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland 2018 with world-renowned blockchain and crypto experts, including sessions on blockchain for art/culture/society/sustainability, globalizing blockchain, blockchain for the Belt and Road Initiative, and digital finance. Including the kick-off of the One World Blockchain Alliance is to connect the most innovative blockchain companies in the developed world to the vast opportunities of the developing world for the benefit of all. One Belt, One Road, One World, connected by The Blockchain.​​​​
Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI) 3.0 with Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)
CAS IDIFIC was the China report partner for the GSMI 3.0 report, compiling information on topics such as regulation of digital assets in China, taxonomy, technical standards, Digital Asset Landscape, university courses and programs, etc.
GSMI 3.0 builds upon GSMI 2.0 – released in 2021 – by mapping, cataloging, and analyzing data from 210  jurisdictions with regulatory developments for blockchain and digital assets, 180+ terms in a sector-specific taxonomy, 50 technical standards bodies, 2,000+ stakeholders in the blockchain and digital assets landscape, and 700+ university courses and degree programs to provide a holistic view of the industry’s global activity.
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Learn more at https://gbbcouncil.org/gsmi/
Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI) 2.0 with Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)
CAS IDIFIC was the China report partner for the GSMI 2.0 report, compiling information on topics such as regulation of digital assets in China, CDBC and e-CNY developments, industry technical standards mapping, etc.
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The GBBC in partnership with 131 institutions, released the GSMI 2.0 in November 2021. The GSMI 2.0 is an industry-led effort to map and assess the blockchain and digital asset landscape across five key areas: Legislation and regulatory guidance, Technical standards, Industry standards and recommendations, University courses and degree programs and Industry consortia.
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The GSMI 2.0 mapped, catalogued, and analyzed data from 187 jurisdictions, 479 industry consortia, 38 technical standards, and 389 university courses and degree programs to provide a holistic view of the industry’s global activity.
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Learn more at https://gbbcouncil.org/gsmi/
Global Fintech Hub Report 2023
On November 11, 2023, Beijing Frontier Institute of Regulation and Supervision Technology (FIRST), Zhejiang University Academy of Internet Finance (AIF), Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS), Zhejiang Association of Fintech (ZAFT) jointly released the "Global FinTech Hub Report 2023" at the Financial Street Forum 2023.
Based on the "FinTech Development Index", firstly released by Sinan Research Office of AIF of Zhejiang University in 2017, TOP50 cities from more than 80 cities around the world are selected to analyze the development of their FinTech industry, users and ecosystems, and to provide an overview of the global FinTech industry through a main listand three sub-lists.
Learn more at https://www.globalfintechhubnetwork.org/eng/reports/global-fintech-hub-network.html