Thread by @lillianmli

1) Epic speech by Jack Ma before the IPO of Ant Groups, who started with 'I'm retired so..yolo'

He touches upon the outdateness of current financial systems (Basel III) for the future, the role of regulation and cryptocurrency.

A condensed translation:

2) China's financial system development used to follow that of Europe and the US, with the thinking that we needed to catch-up. But just because it's European or American, doesn't mean these financial systems are still relevant. We need to create the systems of the future.

3) Basel III is focused on risk management and not on growth and innovation. It's not designed for the younger generation or developing countries. We can also see how Basel III has affected Europe's development. It's a set of rules for the geriatric club.

4)Basel III is a set of rules for an established and complex financial system to avoid systemic risk. The issue for China is just the opposite. China has no systemic risk since China has no systems. Our banks are made for enterprises and not SMEs.

5) We need to build our systems to become a healthy ecosystem. Basel III is not fit for purpose for a young financial system such as ours. The needs for these two populations are very different. The elderly care about hospitals, while the youth care about schools.

6) Innovation always comes with sacrifice. It is our responsibility as innovators to face these. The problems we face can only be solved with innovations, and to face these we will have to venture into the unknown. We will make mistakes.

7) The key thing isn't to not make mistakes. Ihat's impossible. But instead it's key to course-correct and keep innovating. There's no innovation without risk. The follies of P2P startups does not mean that all financial innovations will be failures.

8) Monitoring and regulation are separate things, we have become better at regulating but weak at monitoring. Innovations don't fear regulations, but they fear being regulated based on outdated business models. You can't use the same ways to regulate airplanes as you do trains.

9) At Taobao, we had a lot of rules and the list of things we can't do just became longer. So we implemented a rule for "Plus one Minus three". Which said for every new policy you added, the three policies prior had to be taken away. This forced people to think more holistically.

10) We confuse experts and scholars in this country. Scholars can synthesis. Experts have operational experiences. We need a combination of both. The game of the future is a game of innovations, not a game of regulations. Regulations need to encourage healthy growth.

11) The deposit and leverage form of loans is an innovation of old but it has some real issues. Companies have become over leveraged and only people who don't need money get approved for loans.

12) We need a financial system that focuses on the future, the current financial system was born in the industrial age. A system that focuses on SMBs and not enterprises. We need to make sure money finds the right people.

13) Post WWII, people had the foresight to design a system for the future. We have the responsibility today to design a new financial system fit for the future. We have the capability to do so, but we don't want to.

14) Cryptocurrencies will be the default in 30 years. We do not need it today. Developing countries and youth of today will need crypto currencies to solve the problems of tomorrow. Today's cryptocurrencies will be different from the crypto of tomorrow.

15) Our innovation centres should not be set by regulators. Since it is not a matter of technicalities but a way to solve the problems of tomorrow. Digital currencies will reinvent currencies. Just like the Iphone reinvented phones.

16) Crypto should not be  about setting standards but about creating values. It's about rethinking financial structures and setting the foundations right now.

17) Human society has reached a critical point. The pandemic's influence on us will not be less than that of WWII. It has brought our institutional issues to the surface. The solution has moved beyond pure technology needs.

18) WHO, WTO - these organisations have issues but getting rid of them will not remove these issues. We need to think about how these institutions need to evolve. New financial institutions will arise whether we like it or not so we should think carefully about the future.

Revolution needs sarcrifice. We need to make the sacrifice today so that the youth of tomorrow can benefit. That is our responsibility.

My Chinese tech newsletter: lillianli.substack.com/publish/subscr…

Also Chinese audio source: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_8dH665s8oeU…