Mainstream crypto adoption and DeFi were the main topics discussed at the Hangzhou International Blockchain Week

The Hangzhou International Blockchain Week 2020, one of the largest blockchain and crypto conferences in China, put a heavy focus onto mainstream adoption, with influential figures from the industry discussing the ways hundreds of millions of users could be drawn to the space.

The annual conference is organized by 8BTC, which is a leading Chinese blockchain publication.

The English speakers at the conference included Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, Messari's Ryan Selkis, and Paul Hauner, the co-founder of Sigma Prime.

Prominent Chinese speakers at the event included speakers with leadership roles at China's Digital Asset Research Institute, Ant Financial, Tencent Cloud, Bytom, BSN, Phemex, OKEx amongst many others.

The road behind and the roads ahead. The Hangzhou International Blockchain Week is an annual event held in Hangzhou with the guidance of the local Chinese government.

This year, which centered around the theme "Embrace the New Wave," saw a slew of influential figures in the industry speak on the accomplishments of the industry and the roads that lay ahead. Ryan Selkis, the CEO of cryptocurrency research company Messari, discussed DeFi and it's potential.

The term DeFi might be a bit misleading, he added, as most leading protocols are still very much centralized and would better be described as open finance than a decentralized one.

Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder, and CEO of digital currency company Circle, delivered a speech where he discussed the three phases of global digital currency adoption.

The second phase, he said, is the one the industry is currently in, where stablecoins and various other DeFi assets are seeing their popularity surge.

Continuing the discussion about DeFi was Paul Hauner, the co-founder of Sigma Prime, and the lead developer on Lighthouse, an Ethereum 2.0 client.