Being a Woman Entrepreneur In China's Get-Rich-Quick Crypto Culture
Sa Wang has co-founded several successful companies in the tech and blockchain space, first at popular Chinese self-service kiosk startup Dora, and now at top 50 crypto project and blockchain protocol IOST.
We hear a lot about women (or the lack thereof) in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
Confirming what many of us already suspected, CoinDesk's Q2 2018 State of the Blockchain Report found that only 4 percent of crypto investors are women. In tandem, reporters regularly call the "blockchain bros" on the carpet for elbowing women out of yet another lucrative emerging industry.
But this has been a predominantly West-centric conversation, casting the spotlight on gender inequality and underrepresentation at Western crypto companies, Western blockchain conferences, and Western meetups.
Thus far, news articles, Twitter threads, and Medium posts have largely neglected the diversity of female experiences in other parts of the world, such as China, South Korea and Japan, where the crypto space is equally — if not more — dynamic and growing.
Take China, for instance. Despite banning ICOs and bringing bitcoin trading to a virtual standstill, in 2017, China was responsible for over half of the world's blockchain-related patent applications — with the U.S. coming in a distant second. The top three cryptocurrencies by market cap launched in 2018 — Zilliqa, Ontology, and IOST — are all Chinese.
With such a strong Asian presence in the blockchain world, why do we rarely hear about Asian women in crypto? What can the rest of the world learn from our experiences?
Chinese women in crypto
In order to understand what it's like to be a Chinese woman in crypto, first you must understand the Chinese crypto space itself.
Despite China's ban on crypto trading, there is a ravenous appetite for crypto wealth — traders have simply started placing their bets in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The regulatory crackdowns have done little to stifle the hundreds of scam crypto projects in China (many of them deployed overseas), while newly minted bitcoin millionaires — mostly male with no education or merits necessary — abound.
In contrast to the West, where conversations are slowly evolving towards a more nuanced discussion of the merits of blockchain technology and institutional adoption, Chinese crypto enthusiasts largely maintain a single-minded speculative focus: Will this coin be listed on a Korean exchange soon? What is its market cap? Should I buy? Should I sell?
This get-rich-quick mentality makes it very difficult for serious blockchain advocates — especially females, who already have to fight for a voice — to cut through the noise and evangelize a longer-term (and much less sexy) message.
As Carylyne Chan of CoinMarketCap writes in her fascinating and detailed account of Chinese crypto culture:
"Scam cases… have engendered many tragedies, and created a more insidious impact: For those who truly believe in the blockchain, such scams are smearing the blockchain technology...
Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Just Might Have a Solution for the Crypto Funding Problem
There are free-riders in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
At least, that's the contention of a new paper, shared with CoinDesk on Monday, written by ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Microsoft researcher Glen Weyl and Ph.D. of economics at Harvard, Zoë Hitzig.
And free-riders pose a problem.
Described in the paper, free-riders are people or businesses that profit from the under-provision of public goods. And, on top of that, "the more people [these public goods] benefit the more they will be under-provided." It's an issue that plagues development even outside the cryptocurrency space, but the authors are – at least – initially focused on how the idea creates harmful incentives for the funding of blockchain projects.
Whereas currently, crypto development teams rely largely on donations, the altruistic whims of their creators, and ICOs — the paper details a new financing method to support a "self-organizing ecosystem of public goods."
Titled "Liberal Radicalism: Formal Rules for a Society Neutral among Communities," the method described – a system written in code – seeks to allow groups to allocate funds for the maintenance of public goods and services without becoming vulnerable to the "free-rider" problem.
The mechanism is similar in principle to Quadratic Voting, a form of stake-based voting championed by Weyl in a recent booked, "Radical Markets."
While Quadratic Voting allows participants to vote with crypto tokens according to how much they care about an issue, Liberal Radicalism (LR) expands the same concept to how communities contribute to public goods, such as software development, cryptocurrencies and journalism.
And it works by increasing the funding of projects incrementally depending on the number of participants and the degree to which they care about the issue at hand.
"Individuals make public goods' contributions to projects of value to them. The amount received by the project is (proportional to) the square of the sum of the square roots of contributions received," the paper states.
And while the authors have ambitions for the technology that are far-reaching (including applying the code to municipal projects and campaign financing) cryptocurrency communities, with their open-minded attitudes towards experimentation, are a "particularly appropriate" testing ground for the technology.
Speaking to CoinDesk, co-author of the paper Hitzig said that interest is already building between many different groups. That currently includes about "a half dozen" cryptocurrency communities looking to potentially implement the technology, as well as "other innovators and philanthropists."
As such, Hitzig told CoinDesk:
"Once we circulate the paper we expect that experimentation will begin in earnest shortly thereafter."
The crisis of liberalism
The new paper is part of an ongoing collaboration between Buterin and Weyl since the publication of the latter's "Radical Markets" book.
As detailed by CoinDesk, the duo co-authored a blog post in May, in which the authors discussed their shared interest to "harness markets and technology to radically decentralize power of all sorts and shift our reliance from authority and to...
Litecoin’s Charlie Lee on the Crypto Bear Markets
Litecoin (LTC) creator Charlie Lee has dismissed short-term price trends as the upshot of “speculation,” stressing that long-term valuation is a truer measure of crypto’s success, in a CNBC interview August 27.
When asked to what extent price is a meaningful metric for a given cryptocurrency, and whether or not it reflects the current state of its network, adoption, or viability, Lee responded that:
“In the long-term, [price] tells us the success of cryptocurrencies, but short-term it doesn’t really tell us much. For example this year, there’s been so much adoption in Bitcoin and Litecoin, but their price has dropped 60-70 percent. It’s because it’s so volatile, it’s all about speculation these days, but in the future the price will reflect the success of the currencies.”
Lee noted that it was “hard to predict” when 2018’s bear market would turn, saying that having been in...
Etheremon Moves to Zilliqa
Etheremon, a game that brings Pokemon-style creatures to life through the Ethereum blockchain, is moving at least part of its operations to Zilliqa, a DApp platform, out of frustration with Ethereum’s scalability issues.
For the uninitiated, Pokemon is a huge Japan-based media franchise built around fictional creatures (of more than 800 species) that the human players of the game capture and train for fights.
Ethereum is still the dominant platform for decentralized gaming, with a great ecosystem of developers and community members. And at least for the immediate future, Etheremon progress and assets will remain, so to speak, on the Mothership. But the battles among the monsters will take place on Zilliqa, which will make them cheaper and faster.
Ethereum, scalability, and gaming … this combination has worried some observers since the CryptoKitties mania of November -- December 2017. On December 5, Ethereum reported that there had been a sixfold increase in the pending transactions on its chain since Axiom Zen had begun releasing its “kitties,” just a week before.
Launching “LGO Launch”
Legolas Exchange (LGO), a new cryptocurrency exchange that ICO-ed in February 2018, reached its hard cap in just a few hours. It says that it is “delighted” with the unexpected sequel, that it has continued to receive “inquiries from different entrepreneurs involved in the blockchain space from all around the world” seeking help with their own tokens.
Accordingly, LGO has announced the creation of a new agency within the LGO Group that will be specifically devoted to ambassadorial/advisory work, aimed at providing “enterprise-grade token generation services,” and known as LGO Launch.
Since the LGO brand will be involved, LGO Launch is going to be particular about the clients it takes on. The article in Medium that explains the creation of this new agency is largely devoted to outlining what blockchain entrepreneurs have to present to LGO to be deemed suitable for this assistance.
“In essence,” the article says, “we approach our potential clients the very same way in which investors would approach them. We ask the same questions that potential investors would ask, and evaluate their responses using similar methods.”
Google Shuts Down Its Crypto Ban Rumor Mill
Google is making a lot of headline news in the crypto space as of late, and there’s at least one area that deserves particular attention. It entails Google’s AdWords, which, as of this week, is called Google Ads. Since this name change, reports are surfacing that suggest Google’s anti-crypto stance doesn’t apply to this service.
It does.
Google slap
Google has taken several steps that observers see as the tech giant’s attempt to avoid the dark side of the crypto space. For example, this week it removed MetaMask—a browser-based Ethereum wallet—from the Google Chrome Web Store. The move sparked a panic inside of the community, and even MetaMask tried...
Cryptocurrency Retail Investor Capital Is Not Dead
With major events unfolding in the cryptocurrency space surrounding institutional investors of late, little attention has been given to the retail investor.
Andreessen Horowitz stole the spotlight with its recent debut of a $300 million cryptocurrency fund, but meanwhile, it’s done little to prop up the bitcoin price, which continues to trade in the doldrums. Meanwhile, naysayers have been doubting that retail capital will ever find its way back into this space again.
If you ask Bart Smith, who spearheads digital assets at Susquehanna, a wave of retail capital will serve as the next catalyst to ignite a crypto rally. Smith told CNBC:
“Frankly where you have seen demand is from retail investors in the U.S. Coinbase, Gemini, Circle — all those people are servicing retail investors.”
First-Mover Urgency
Smith recalls the recent SEC decision that the No. 2 cryptocurrency Ethereum should not be classified as a security and therefore won’t be regulated by the Wall Street watchdog. But other coins, he pointed out, don’t have...
Florida Is Creating Its Own Crypto Czar
Florida's taking the crypto lead with a new State position.
Florida is set to have its own cryptocurrency czar.
The Sunshine State's chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, said in a statement Tuesday that he has created a new position to supervise the state's cryptocurrency industry. He explained that the new overseer will be tasked with enforcing applicable regulations to protect investors from potentially malicious actors.
"Florida can no longer remain on the sidelines when it comes to cryptocurrency. I have directed my office to create a position that will oversee how current securities and insurance laws apply to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrencies as well as shape the future of these regulations in our state," Patronis remarked.
Similarly, Patronis said that...
Peering Through the #FUD About #Crypto
Bitcoin has thrust cryptocurrencies into mainstream consciousness by shaking up the financial world in the past 9 years.
Since its inception in 2009, the preeminent cryptocurrency has thrown a spanner in the works of traditional banking and financial institutions and has paved the way for the creation of a plethora of industry-shaping virtual currencies and blockchain-based innovations.
With that being said, it’s been far from smooth sailing for Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. Dramatic highs and soul-shattering lows have been part and parcel of the past nine years.
The volatility of cryptocurrencies has created more than a few detractors and we’ve seen a number of headlines exclaiming the ‘death’ of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
These obituaries have come from a wide variety of industry experts and commentators. While they’re almost always subjective, they portray a negative, fear-mongering mentality that detracts from the technological breakthroughs that have been sparked by blockchain technology.
Let’s take a look at some of the instances that have led to mainstream media outlets signaling the death of Bitcoin and examine where the industry is at midway through 2018.
It’s not difficult to find articles slamming Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies — just look at 99bitcoins.com, which has a compendium of Bitcoin obituaries that has now surpassed the 300 mark.
The earliest headline heralding the end of Bitcoin, according to the website, is an article entitled ‘Why Bitcoin can’t be a currency’ published in a blog entitled The Underground Economist in 2010. In essence, the writer pointed to Bitcoin’s constantly fluctuating value as the main reason why it shouldn’t be considered a currency.
“While Bitcoin has managed to bootstrap itself on a limited scale, it lacks any mechanism for dealing with fluctuations in demand. Increasing demand for Bitcoin will cause prices in terms of Bitcoin to drop (deflation), while decreasing demand will cause them to rise (inflation).”
Since then, the number of headlines suggesting that Bitcoin was doomed to fail has increased year on year. In 2017, there were a total of 118 Bitcoin obituaries articles.
These obituaries are any articles that predict the demise of Bitcoin, based on assumptions or quotes from a wide range of commentators. This includes mentions of fraud, ponzi schemes and money laundering and frankly anything that is negative enough to cast aspersions on the future of Bitcoin.
While the sheer number of articles that have predicted the death of Bitcoin may be humorous, a glance down the list of headlines from various publications tells a different story altogether.
Small scale blogs like the one that is credited for the first Bitcoin death article have a limited reach and aren’t likely to have a profound effect on the sentiment of a large group of people.
However, as the number of these articles increases, so too has the caliber and profile of the publications producing this content.
Mainstream mania
CNBC has covered cryptocurrencies extensively over the last few years, with content that is fairly objective in terms widespread coverage of both positive and negative sentiments towards the industry,
With that being said, CNBC has been the source of numerous interviews quoting various sources that have labelled Bitcoin a bubble and ponzi scheme, while speculating on how it would crash.
The most telling example of this was JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon comparing Bitcoin to the Dutch Tulip Mania before predicting it would blow up on CNBC. Perhaps more telling was the effect Dimon’s statements had on Bitcoin’s value, which fell after the American executive’s comments:
"It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed. Currencies have legal support. It will blow up."
In November 2017, Bloomberg published an article that speculated on a number of different factors that could potentially derail Bitcoin as it headed to that $20,000 high in December.
The article quoted several sources that point to the number of altcoins, regulations, cyber attacks and the launch of derivatives as pitfalls to Bitcoin’s rise in price and popularity.
Bubble talk
The Guardian published an editorial in November 2017 that labelled Bitcoin’s price as a bubble, and pointed to the costs of mining, slammed the endorsements by celebrities and made strong statements about Bitcoin’s primary use as means to buy drugs and pay ransoms online.
Forbes contributor Jay Adkisson wrote an op-ed which went on to describe the way Bitcoin is currently sold as a scam. The writer boiled down Bitcoin to a core existence as a number, without an intrinsic value.
He went on to suggest that cryptocurrencies lack ‘uniqueness,’ pointing to the sheer number of cryptocurrencies in existence.
The Telegraph also published a number of articles last year, drumming up ‘bubble’ rhetoric as the 2017 wound to a close. Abhishek Parajuli took a mighty swipe in his own op-ed on the platform, citing wild volatility, poor utility as a medium exchange as well as slow transaction speeds:
“So, hype aside, Bitcoins are lottery tickets. They have no underlying utility. When the music stops, those left holding them will be burned.”
Wall Street Journal contributor James Mackintosh weighed in on the value of Bitcoin in mid-September 2017. In essence, the writer delved into the notion of Bitcoin having become digital gold as a store of value.
Going on...
Fintech Chamber in Uruguay to Propose Crypto Regulations
TheTokener recently reported about the hardships South America’s crypto community is facing. This region of the world is desperately seeking for certain regulations. There will be a lot of potential for Fintech companies and crypto-related businesses in South America as people are beginning to realize new opportunities that might arise from these innovations. In the midst of confusing banks and governments actions towards crypto space, Uruguay might bring new regulations that could serve as a spark for other countries to regulate their crypto space, creating one fully regulated crypto market consisting of all South American countries.
New Uruguay Regulations
As BNamericas reports, fintech chamber in Uruguay is about to form a special committee which will have a task to propose certain cryptocurrency regulations in the country. This committee should work with the authorities in the area of laws in order to find the best solution for growing crypto community.
Sebastian Olivera, Uruguay fintech chamber founder, and their former president stated that new cryptocurrency drafts will need to pass through established institutional channels. Olivera also said that they realize that there cannot be any activity developed outside of the reach of the regulatory sphere, especially regarding...