Speaker: Winston Ma, Author of The Hunt for Unicorns, The Digital War, andBlockchain and Web3；Adjunct Professor, NYU Law School; former MD and Head of North America at China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Unlike many other countries, China takes a bifurcated approach to blockchains. China government has actively promoted the digital technology of blockchain and used it for the sovereign digital currency, but it strictly prohibited crypto mining and trading at the same time. Similarly, relating to the latest Web3 and metaverse developments, China’s tech companies will create a “token-less” metaverse ecosystem with unique Chinese characteristics. Using the blockchain and CBDC as an example, we may better understand China’s latest innovation policy and the post-20^th Party Congress US-China tech race, from AI and semiconductor chips to quantum computing and electric cars.

Winston Ma, CFA & Esq., is an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global digital economy. He is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CloudTree Ventures, a seed to early growth stage venture capital firm empowering interactive entertainment companies. He is currently the board Chairman of Nasdaq-listed MCAA, a European tech SPAC, a board member of International Data Center Authority (IDCA), an advisory board member of Capgemini, and an Adjunct Professor at NYU Law School.

Most recently for 10 years, he was Managing Director and Head of North America Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, Mr. Ma served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He was selected a 2013 Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2014 he received the NYU Distinguished Alumni Award. 

Mr. Ma is one of a small number of native Chinese who have worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China. A nationally certified Software Programmer as early as 1994, Mr. Ma is the book author of eight books, including The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace (2021) and The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy (2020). His latest book “Blockchain and Web3 – Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy, and Security Foundations of the Metaverse” was released by Wiley in September 2022.

Cosponsored by: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society