Fan Wenzhong, Executive Director of the Chinese Society of Finance: We are at the moment of transition from traditional money houses and pawnshops to modern banking, and decentralized intelligent agent economies will reshape the future.

ChainCatcher on-site report: Fan Wenzhong, executive director of the Chinese Financial Society and former chairman of Beijing Financial Holdings Group, delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. He pointed out that we are currently at a historic turning point similar to the transition from pawnshops and bill brokers to modern banking industry. AI is an advanced productivity in the physical world, Web3 is a new form of production relationship in the digital world, and their integration will give rise to a decentralized intelligent agent economy (DAE).

He analyzed that AI agents have execution capabilities but lack independent identity, accounts, and trust mechanisms, while Web3 addresses these pain points through smart contracts, on-chain identities, and programmable currencies; conversely, AI agents also significantly lower the barriers to using Web3. He proposed that DAE has four main features: sovereignty and 24/7 operation of intelligent agents, high-frequency atomic swaps, collaborative mechanisms based on technological trust rather than moral or legal authority, and organizational evolution from companies to DAOs to decentralized AI companies (DACs).

He warned that this transformation will impact the labor market, with white-collar workers being displaced before blue-collar workers. AI quantitative funds have already achieved returns far exceeding retail investors. He recommended that the government proactively promote social security reforms. Finally, he suggested that Hong Kong develop autonomous and controllable high-performance public blockchains, pilot limited digital persona registration, attract Web3+AI talent, establish a digital financial industry fund, and promote collaborative innovation between the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin and digital RMB.