On Wednesday, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) joins forces with Australia’s Monash University and CollinStar Capital to establish a university-industry joint research laboratory on blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies in Hong Kong. The organization reported:
“Blockchain, a technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, has substantial potential to transform financial industry and other businesses across the world. Advances and applications of blockchain technology is therefore particularly relevant to Hong Kong, which has a large financial sector (18% of Gross Domestic Product; 6% of employment), coupled with government’s determination in developing Hong Kong into a FinTech hub of the region, leveraging especially on the latest Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area initiatives. Moreover, blockchain technology can also be applied beyond e-trading to various domains such as healthcare, logistics, governance and identity management, thus bringing transformative effects on society as a whole.”
Dr. David Chung, Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology, stated:
“The advancement of Hong Kong as a leading blockchain development centre requires concerted efforts from the industry, academia and the Government. Positioning itself as the leading research and technology advancement centre in Asia-Pacific in the focused areas of blockchain and cryptocurrency, I am confident that the joint laboratory will help foster the development of these technologies in Hong Kong.”
Alex Wai, Vice President (Research Development) of PolyU, also commented:
“By joining hands with Monash University and Collinstar Capital, we will continue to drive the advancement in blockchain ecosystem. Through this collaboration, PolyU is devoted in making the cyberspace safer, more convenient and effective for business and financial services. We believe this collaboration will make influential change to the way of business and our living in the future.”
PolyU added its research team led by Dr. Allen Au, Assistant Professor of Department of Computing, will work on enhancing the efficiency of blockchain technology while addressing two key areas of concerns, privacy and security.