SMU Associate Professor of Information Systems Zhu Feida was one of the participants in the REAL Blockchain Summit, held in Singapore on 22 March, which was attended by nearly 100 industry experts from China and Southeast Asia. Associate Prof Zhu, who is also founder of Symphony Protocol, analysed the role of blockchain in data privacy from the perspective of big data in his speech “Blockchain: Enabling Digital Assets and New Economies”. He noted that the development of data has evolved from accessory to rare resources owned by a few people, and future data will become a shared asset for all organisations. He also said that blockchain can bring about transparent and complete data history, credible data control mechanism and well-designed data and identity protection measures