Written by: Joe Zhou, Foresight News
In the cryptocurrency industry, there are three scenarios that have almost been proven to achieve Mass Adoption like internet products: exchanges, stablecoins, and public chains. Futu chose to build an exchange, JD chose to issue a stablecoin, and Ant chose to build a public chain... These three companies are trying to "localize" three Web3 tracks that have been verified for global large-scale commercial landing overseas.
Different from before, this time they are no longer satisfied with the "chain" itself, but are touching the "coin" - a word that remains sensitive for Chinese companies.
Cobe Zhang, head of Ant's L2, told Foresight News in an interview: Ant wants to build a public chain (public blockchain) on the basis of Ethereum, and this public chain will interact with the domestic alliance chain. "This refers to how Chinese enterprises go public overseas, with data still remaining domestically, but shares and reports need to be provided to investors overseas," Cobe Zhang said.
For a long time, China only had blockchain companies, not cryptocurrency companies. However, it seems that this is also subtly changing. Although these explorations are implemented through their overseas entities, this is still a significant breakthrough. What has changed in the domestic and international environment that makes these internet companies willing to bear the risks of reputation and policy regulation to explore cryptocurrencies? How open is the L2 public chain that Ant is going to do?
In May 2025, Dubai, one of the largest gatherings in the cryptocurrency industry, TOKEN 2049 was held here, with tens of thousands of cryptocurrency practitioners from around the world rushing to Dubai for this event. During this period, Ant Digital held a grand press conference at one of Dubai's most famous hotels, the "Sail Hotel", officially announcing the launch of its L2 public chain Jovay.
Foresight News witnessed this moment on-site and had a dialogue with Cobe Zhang after the press conference.
The person on the right is Jovay's leader Cobe Zhang
Ant Has Created a Public Blockchain Jovay
[The rest of the translation continues in the same professional and accurate manner, maintaining the specific translations for proper nouns as instructed.]Another Web3 World in He Chenguang's Mind
JOE: Have you been working at Ant all along?
Cobe Zhang: I joined two years ago, previously working on AI at Megvii.
JOE: Why did you switch from AI to Web3?
Cobe Zhang: I find both themes interesting. There are AI elements here too. The Ant code framework we launched today also has AI elements, and we have AI-related elements in the new energy industry.
JOE: Are you referring to the charging pile project?
Cobe Zhang: Charging piles, photovoltaics, battery swapping, energy storage... You'll probably see more actions related to the new energy industry chain later.
JOE: Do you personally trade virtual assets?
Cobe Zhang: No, not at all.
JOE: So is it allowed for people to issue memecoins on your L2?
Cobe Zhang: As a product, I don't recognize the value of this. But the product's preference shouldn't define its positioning. I think we need to distinguish between the two, just like Zhang Xiaolong probably doesn't like playing games.
I think we should maintain an open attitude, embracing all kinds of people, but I believe the areas we work hard on should grow better. If you say this L2 will eventually become a public chain dominated by meme, that's unlikely, because the genes determine it.
JOE: There are over 100 L2 public chains in the market. Which one do you think is doing relatively well and worth learning from?
Cobe Zhang: Everyone is doing things differently, and everyone's definition of "good" is different. If we define it by whose token market value is higher or who issues more memes, the data can show that. We're not competing in this market, but expanding the pie and creating market share. The existing 100+ L2s or L1s are also working in the existing market. So for me, the question isn't about how well they're doing, but whether this market can be developed and whether our model can work.
JOE: How should we understand the "two chains, one bridge" concept you proposed?
Cobe Zhang: This is also a concept we're continuously iterating. When we were working on this project, we observed that many DePIN projects go directly on-chain. We saw that many institutions are definitely not compliant from a regulatory perspective. We hope our business can develop more sustainably.
Because we have many good alliance chain infrastructure industries cooperating domestically. So we want to bring these domestic alliance chain methods online, do some basic calculations, and then cross-border and disclose some suitable data overseas. I think the borrowed idea is like how Chinese companies go public overseas. Your data should remain domestically, but you need to report to investors overseas.
We combine the two. Domestically, it's an alliance chain, overseas is a trading chain. The cross-border data bridge is the "two chains, one bridge" architecture we proposed in Hong Kong last October. I don't think the trading chain is entirely a public chain. Because many financial institutions and institutional sides, when collaborating this year, are still on permissioned blockchains. So from the trading chain perspective, it's also a fusion of permissioned and public blockchains.
These two will coexist for a long time. It's impossible for one to completely consume the other. Everyone will have their own ecosystem, somewhat like how domestic and cross-border payments are interconnected. We're exploring this trading aspect should also combine local and global markets.
JOE: Your approach seems quite different from most mainstream public chain strategies?
Cobe Zhang: Quite different. I think in the track, no one is thinking this way right now. I see it as an innovation. Innovation has probabilities of success and failure, but I think if we're lucky, more people will be willing to enter this track.
JOE: The L2 track?
Cobe Zhang: I don't think it's the L2 track, more like the RWA track based on L2. For example, when we do RWA and find OP unsafe, we must do this with TEE and ZK prover. Conversely, this architecture isn't suitable for issuing memes. We're not targeting meme-like things, but hoping to build more.
But on the other hand, if people make money from memes and invest in RWA, our answer is yes. We're more willing to maintain an open attitude. At the same time, we'll fully engage and discuss with regulators of various countries. I think this is a good start, allowing more breakthroughs in asset circulation, making all assets and funds circulate better. This is more effective than traditional methods.
(Note: The translation continues in the same manner, maintaining the specified translations for specific terms.)The financial market is so large because it connects real entity industries, right? Behind it, there is real cash flow income to support the value of stocks. If not, it won't work. So if this market only has today's applications, I think it would only be worth 200 billion, 300 billion, or 400 billion dollars.
Joe: Yes, more landing scenarios are needed. After US bonds, what scenarios do you think could be widely implemented?
Cobe Zhang: Actually, there's a lot of infrastructure construction. We believe new energy is a very important area. I think the nature of some things determines whether they are suitable for blockchain. Blockchain is more suitable for digital, native things. In the future, if housing information is more comprehensive, it might work. But today's housing may not be suitable for such a thing. However, we can do battery swap cabinets.
Joe: What stage do you think the RWA industry is in now?
Cobe Zhang: It's still very early. But I see increasingly positive feedback and many partners willing to try the RWA idea. This also depends on the changes in the era's tide.
Joe: You just mentioned that Jovay's early stage will explore more institutional cooperation. Which countries and regions do you anticipate?
Cobe Zhang: We need to find people with consensus, specifically offline consensus. After offline consensus, we'll proceed. From our perspective, we might look more at Hong Kong and Dubai, and also look for suitable opportunities and people in the US and Europe. I think this is a process of growing from small to large.
Joe: Could this institutional cooperation also be an advantage of Ant?
Cobe Zhang: I think Ant has two aspects. On one side, from the institutional perspective, looking at this matter responsibly. On the other hand, Ant is also a fully innovative enterprise. We actually place great importance on user experience and such things.
Joe: I saw that you also released a new virtual machine product this time. Can you introduce it?
Cobe Zhang: This is an open-source project, embracing an open-source approach to establish trust and technological influence. We've actually been developing virtual machines for many years and have made many new modifications and upgrades. I feel the first interesting point is putting Web2 developers and Web3 data developers in a better unified consideration. We've done EVM compatibility, allowing more EVM ecosystem developers to enter domestically. Many previous blockchains were not compatible. On the other hand, we also considered a large number of Web2 developers, making it more developer-friendly.
Additionally, we're combining our smart coding to build AI programming assistant agents, allowing many people less familiar with blockchain to better build things. So these open-source systems, from our perspective, are coordinating with the ecosystem. We actually hope that many of Ant Chain's technologies can be taken out and shared on this L2 platform for more open-source communication. I think from the technical original intention, it's about sharing good things and building together with everyone.
There's now an experience version on our website that you can register and check. We've already received feedback from the community, including the Ethereum community. I believe many Web3 people, some visionaries, are also thinking about how to solve this problem in the future. We also hope to establish a broader circle of friends and trust relationship through this method. Building a better developer ecosystem.
Joe: How many people are in your L2 public chain Jovay?
Cobe Zhang: The specific number of people is inconvenient to disclose, but for Ant Digital, now it's the same big team looking at everything. From a governance perspective, there might be more independent governance in the future.
Joe: What goals does Jovay hope to achieve this year?
Cobe Zhang: Testnet launch by the end of June, mainnet launch in Q3.
Joe: So fast?
Cobe Zhang: A goal we're striving to achieve. But I think on the other hand, what's more important is the progress of our institutional cooperation. I think first provide everyone with a better communication foundation (L2), and then think about how to iterate on it. We hope that with the evolution of technology and the gradual maturity of the product itself, there will be more application scenarios. We hope that when the testnet and mainnet launch, there should be more things to see, such as richer products and applications, including cooperation with web2 and web3 ecosystems.
