Word on the Block | Forkast.News

In an unofficial, behind-the-scenes discussion following the on-stage conversation about the challenges of regulating cryptocurrency at Paris Blockchain Summit Week, our panelists consider how blockchain plays into each of their national or institutional interests, and how those interests relate to each other on a global scale.

In this episode of "In Conversation With...", Editor-in-Chief, Angie Lau, sits down with Yat Siu, musician-turned-Internet-pioneer, who sheds light on the infinite potential of blockchain, especially as expressed through the gaming market, which his company, Animoca Brands, aims to develop and exploit. As one of the first Internet Service Providers in Asia, Siu has ample experience and skill in detecting and growing revolutionary technologies. The next big, world-changing discovery, “much like Internet in ’96 and ’97,” Siu asserts, is blockchain.

Looking back on the impact that Bitcoin and following crypto advancements had on the financial world, a panel of heavy hitters in financial regulation discuss the need for international regulatory cooperation in the interest of facilitating financial innovation. Panelists congregated in Paris for its inaugural Blockchain Week Summit: -- Caroline Malcolm, Head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Blockchain Policy Centre -- Giles Ward, Senior Policy Advisor for International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) -- Mike Gill, Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) -- Marius Jurgilas, Board Member of the Bank of Lithuania -- Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief, Forkast.News (Moderator) France hoped the event would bring together entrepreneurs, investors, and industry specialists to make it “the first G20 country to create a business-friendly environment for [blockchain’s] rapidly growing ecosystem.” The panelists discuss their roles as regulators in the space, touching on the need for oversight, concerns regarding its implementation, the process of learning regulators must go through to familiarize themselves with new technology, and the challenge of coordinating regulatory efforts across organizations and national borders.

A month after Facebook announced Libra, its new blockchain and eponymous cryptocurrency project, the world has not only had a chance to sit down, research, and process the news, but to form opinions on it and draw lines of defense. William Pesek, award-winning, Tokyo-based journalist and author, breaks down two opposing reactions to Libra.

In April 2012, Stefan Rust bought Bitcoin for the first time, at $5. Now, 7 years later, he is CEO of Bitcoin.com, a company that aims to make Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core alike more accessible to the general public, and that is home to all manner of cryptocurrency services via its eponymous web portal. In this episode, our Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Rust to talk about the future of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Recent events including the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on Facebook Libra, President Trump and US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s pessimistic comments, and the Financial Action Task Force’s tightening regulations have been indicative of a global pushback against Facebook Libra and cryptocurrencies at large. Rust argues that this skepticism and distrust of cryptocurrency is a product of the underlying reluctance of government to depart from their traditional regulation of borders and limitations on transfer “of money, of intellectual property, of trade.” “There is, from an enterprise standpoint, a desire to engage in this new technology and in this ability to move money globally without any barriers at a very efficient cost basis. Speed is what the market is looking for, particularly as we move towards a global organization. Governments are still trying to regulate their own little boundaries and limit the transfer of money, of intellectual property, of trade. And I think that's the barrier that all of us are trying to break down.” “I think innovation is happening on two folds. One is the consumerization of innovation and the other is the depths of innovation in terms of technology, in terms of the ability to provide the technology in a “non-custodial fashion.” I can either build innovation around custody or around non-custodial services. And blockchain has enabled non-custodial - what does that mean? That basically means the control is in me, the user, and the responsibility lies with me as the individual. Innovation on a non-custodial basis is very hard to attack and diffuse.” “The value is not in intellectual property, it's in the ecosystem that I have developed that is contributing to the overall blockchain, or Bitcoin.cash, or whatever the underlying algorithm is.”

Taiwan faces an existential threat. It is a nation that is dependent on exports, but like other developed nations, recognizes that in order to survive, it needs to champion high-technology industries as labor-intensive industries leave for nations with cheaper workforces like Vietnam or China. Could blockchain and cryptocurrency be part of the answer? Jason Hsu is known in Taiwan as the Crypto Congressman (yes, check his business card, it is officially his title). He sees blockchain and cryptocurrency as an opportunity for this small island nation to become a technology force that can drive innovation -- incubate projects in Taiwan, and position the 23-million person nation globally. Hsu believes China gave Taiwan that opportunity the day it banned ICOs on September 4, 2017. Question is, how will Taiwan position itself to seize it? Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down in this candid conversation with Congressman Jason Hsu in Taipei.

It wasn’t even on the agenda last year. Ling Wu, Founder and CEO of TBCASoft, tells us why blockchain is taking the Shanghai Mobile World Congress 2019 by storm. Wu is the Chairman of the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium, an initiative between TBCASoft and SoftBank to build a cross-carrier blockchain platform with leading global telecom operators. Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Wu to discuss how every telecom company could be a bank and why 5G is critical to mobile blockchain adoption.

Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, is one of the most influential figures in cryptocurrency / blockchain circles. From flipping burgers at McDonald’s to getting his computer science degree at McGill University, to now Founder and CEO of Binance; CZ has built one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. In this unreserved 40-minute conversation, CZ reveals how Binance was forced to be compliant, how he views Facebook Libra, and how a recent $40 million dollar hack was a blessing in disguise. He talks about the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency, and his own future at Binance.

Is Asia gaining ground in the technology race? Edith Yeung, advisor at 500 Startups, partner at Proof of Capital, and author of “China Internet Report” (link to new 2019 report: scmp.com/china-internet-report) shares why Asia is the place to be for blockchain adoption. For a VC who spends half her time in Silicon Valley, she recognizes that there is an economic hunger that drives adoption differently from Hong Kong to Singapore, Mainland China to the rest of the region. The sheer size of populations in China, India, and Southeast Asia means that adoption can reach mass scale quickly, and things can happen here in days and weeks versus months or years. Edith sits down with Editor-in-Chief, Angie Lau, in this value-rich conversation on the role of China, the impact of technology, and why there may be coordinated focus on blockchain by President Xi Jinping.

In a candid conversation, Co-Founder and CEO of BitMEX Arthur Hayes defends why BitMEX is set up in Seychelles, the promise of blockchain for everyone, why ICOs are not a problem, and why his industry is not a “scam.” This self-proclaimed “economist-history nerd” and former Deutsche Bank banker, who joined then lost his job at Citi as head trader of Asian ETFs, says that BitMEX as a crypto exchange actually protects investors by limiting the loss to only the amount put into the market. This is different, he says, than the traditional regulated system where investors can lose their entire net worth. But why crypto? Hayes says it’s history in the making. Cryptocurrency is permissionless — and that means everyone can use it. It may not be better, but “at least you have a choice.” It’s a glimpse into why people are “opting out” who created an industry with a market cap of $350 billion. For a man who lost his job at Citibank in 2013, what he and his co-founders built at BitMEX since then has turned this out-of-work banker into a self-made crypto-preneur heading up the biggest crypto margin-trading platform in the world.

In this episode of Word on the Block, Angie Lau speaks with Jason Gottlieb, attorney and partner at Morrison Cohen, on why the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing messaging app service Kik for its initial coin offering of Kin Token.

In the latest episode of Word on the Block, Angie speaks with Willie Pesek, Tokyo-based columnist, to discuss the upcoming G20 Summit in Osaka, where the world’s largest economies will discuss the planet’s most pressing political and economic issues. The Osaka meeting is of particular interest because the G20 agreed to initiate dialogue on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, sits down with Christina Lomazzo of UNICEF to discuss how blockchain can be used for social impact.

How the race to get billions of users onto blockchain has this mathematician thinking about the future of work. Could decentralization be the one thing that actually binds us together. Charles Hoskinson sits down with Angie Lau, in Hong Kong a week after Hong Kong Blockchain Week and shares his vision of how 2019 will be the year of innovation for Cardano, that will lead to scale in 2020.

Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, sits down with Karim Sabba, Co-Founder of Paris Blockchain Week, to discuss how France is trying to grow its influence in the blockchain industry.

With a rapidly aging population, low birth rate, and shrinking work force, it is hard to imagine Japan will ever recover from its economic slump. However, Blockchain technologies and investment could be precisely what the nation needs in order to stimulate inflation, and quite possibly, revitalize its economic heyday of the 1980s. In this episode of “Word on the Block,” Willie Pesek, Asia watcher and award-winning journalist, speaks with Angie Lau on the current state of the Japanese economy.

Angie Lau sits down with Caroline Malcolm, Head of Blockchain Policy Centre at OECD, at Paris Blockchain Week Summit in April 2019 to talk about recent trends in the regulatory space.

Angie Lau sits down with Kevin Kelly, Co-Founder of Delphi Digital, to deep dive on what investors should be on the look out for the upcoming quarter.