Bitcoin In Asia

Our guest this week is Ahyke Otutubuike, a technical writer and Bitcoin user based in Nigeria. Nigeria has been in the news this month as its central bank issued a directive, prohibiting regulated financial institutions from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges and companies that touch crypto, essentially unbanking them. Ahyke had a piece in Bitcoin Magazine this past week explaining the situation and adding context for the Bitcoin’s place in Nigeria’s economy overall, and we get additional analysis from him here. We discuss the momentum for Bitcoin in Nigeria and its main use cases, national economic factors behind the central bank’s move and what he sees as the main driver of the move, and what comes next. Ahyke’s Bitcoin Magazine article Follow Ahyke on Twitter @AhykeCop

Our guest this week is Alejandro De La Torre, Vice President at Poolin. Alejandro and Poolin are managing taprootactivation.com to improve on the communication and transparency of the Taproot activation process specifically. Poolin has also recently launched hashrate backed token, one that represents 1 Th of hashrate in their own mining operation and is already trading. Alejandro has been in Bitcoin data and mining space since 2014 when he founded SendChat, later acquired by wallet and data service Blocktrail, where Alejandro led BD until it was acquired by Bitmain. Inside of Bitmain, Alejandro cofounded BTC.com, and led their European office during the Segwit upgrade process. Now back with former BTC.com colleagues at Poolin, Alejandro leads their global BD. We discuss Poolin’s hashrate backed token and why it is gaiing traction as a novel market entrant and the progress of taprootaxtivation.com and what comes next in the activation process. Alejandro also shares his thoughts on recent news in North America around DCG’s Foundry and Blockstream as well as Bitmain’s split and how he sees the prospects for each separate entity.

After a little holiday break we are kicking off 2021 with a quick hitting episode. Our guest is Molly, head of marketing at HashKey Hub. Molly was Bitcoin Magazine’s first employee in Asia and combines that early Bitcoin experience with a lot of success rolling out Bitcoin products in Asia with Hashkey. This is more of a rapid fire episode with Molly’s perspective on mainstream media coverage of Bitcoin in China, the growth of Bitcoin interest products, the Asian view of GBTC and more.

Our guest this week is Niall Ferguson. Niall is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of 15 books, including The Ascent of Money and has at least two in the works in the upcoming Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe as well as part two of his excellent Henry Kissinger biography.  Niall also writes a regular column for Bloomberg Opinion. In this episode we dig into Niall’s recent Bloomberg piece “Bitcoin Is Winning the Covid-19 Monetary Revolution” and discuss the history of financial evolution, including how the current iteration of that evolution is playing out between China and the US and how he views Bitcoin in that context. We also discuss the qualities that make Bitcoin a significant advance and the broader importance of decentralization and sovereignty. Find Niall online at niallferguson.com and on Twitter @nfergus

Our guest this week is Lixin Liu head of hardware at Cobo and creator of Cobo Vault out of Shanghai. Lixin’s background in hardware and international product development made him Discus Fish’s choice when F2 Pool decided to get into the hardware and security game. We talk about building out Bitcoin hardware from the ground up, why it is valuable to the Bitcoin network to have increasing competition in the hardware product space, the difference between what Chinese miners and western retail users want in hardware products, trends he is seeing in institutional custody interest in Asia and more.

Our guest this week is Alejandro De Le Torre, Vice President at Poolin. Alejandro and Poolin have launched taprootactivation.com to improve on the communication and transparency of the Taproot activation process. Alejandro has been in Bitcoin since 2014 when he founded SendChat, later acquired by wallet and data service Blocktrail, where Alejandro led BD until it was acquired by Bitmain. Inside of Bitmain, Alejandro cofounded BTC.com, and led their European office during the Segwit upgrade process. Now back with former BTC.com colleagues at Poolin, Alejandro leads their global Business Development. We talk about lessons learned in the Segwit and blocksize debates, bitcoin upgrade activations and taprootaxtivation.com specifically, operating in the mining pool space and more.

We have very special episode this week featuring some of the godfathers of Bitcoin: Nick Szabo, Adam Back and David Chaum. This was recorded as a live panel from Seoul at Korea Blockchain Week and is laid out as a history of the ideas and events that led to Bitcoin from their first person accounts, plus their current thoughts on the experiment and what excites them about the future. From the cryptography and cypherpunk movements to David’s DigiCash, Adam’s Hashcash proof-of-work, Nick’s Bit Gold, and more. Their own contributions were foundational to the development of Bitcoin, and it was fascinating to have them together and playing off of each other in a discussion of that history. A special thanks for fact block for organizing.

Our guest this week is Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of India based Bitcoin exchange Unocoin. A tech entrepreneur who got into Bitcoin in 2013, starting a Bitcoin meetup group in Bangalore out of which came the founding team of Unocoin, Sathvik as CEO is now leading the company through a new Series A funding round led by Draper Associates. We discus how Unocoin became the market leader in India initially, what the exchange ecosystem in India looks like now, why it is a market playing catchup, and why he is bullish on what is next. There aren’t many people who have been operating Bitcoin businesses in India since 2013, and I enjoyed Sathvik’s insights.

Our guest this week is Nishant Sharma, a long time bitcoin mining industry insider in China who is now a founder and partner of BlocksBridge Consulting, a communications strategy and advisory firm focused on the Bitcoin mining sector and serving some of its largest companies. Nishant has been in the mining space since 2014, including 4 years at Bitmain in Beijing. We discuss his time at Bitmain, seeing it grow from a two digit employee company to a dominant player in the industry, trends in the mining space outside of China, state of mainstream and industry media coverage and more.

Our guest this week is Ciara Sun, Head of Global Business and Markets at Huobi Group. Ciara joined Huobi in 2019 first focusing on growth of its institutional business and in her role now now overseeing its growth and product strategy around the world, she gives a great look into what goes into running and growing a global bitcoin company with a diverse range of products. And one that is continuously rolling out new products in very cutthroat markets, including rollouts this year in the futures space, mining pool space, and more. It was interesting to get a look under the hood at how huobi operates, how they plan expansion and navigate regulation around the world and how Ciara is thinking about current trends and the future.

We are actually in South Africa this week after some newsworthy M&A there involving the Luno exchange and DCG. Our guest is Chris Becker, Blockchain Technologies Lead at Investec based out of Johannesburg. Investec is a commercial and investment bank with a significant presence in South Africa, and Chris started their blockchain practice in 2016 - he talks about Bitcoin in South Africa in that time frame, DCG’s acquisition of Luno, the landscape of Bitcoin companies in SA and trends he sees in adoption there. He also puts Austrian economics in the context of fiscal and monetary policy in SA and Bitcoin.

Our guest this week is Australian Hongkonger and Bitcoin entrepreneur Dave Chapman. Dave is the Executive Director of the publicly listed BC Group and its subsidiary OSL (osl.com), one of Asia's leading digital asset platforms. OSL recently became the first recipient of approval in principle for Type 1 and Type 7 licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, allowing them to operate a virtual asset trading platform and deal in securities. It is a significant step from Hong Kong regulators and the result of an intentional approach from OSL. Dave and I discuss that process and its significance, trends that he sees in institutional adoption and more. Dave on Twitter @IAmDaveChapman OSL on Twitter @osldotcom

Our guest this week is Leo Weese, a long time Bitcoiner in Hong Kong and a Cofounder and president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. The Bitcoin Association has been a significant advocate for and communicator about Bitcoin since 2014 as it has established one of the strongest Bitcoin communities in Asia. One of its recent initiates, an advertising campaign highlighting Bitcoin’s traits and potential as magic internet money and digital gold among other taglines has made waves. We discuss how that came to be, why the quotes and tag lines are timely, why Leo thinks we need to be thinking bigger about Bitcoin’s potential in light of monetary policy and the structure of capital flows around the world and much more. 

Our guest this week is Darshan Bathija, founder and CEO of Bank of Hodlers (bankofhodlers.com), an asset backed lending and borrowing platform that I think we will be hearing a lot more of in the future. The company runs out of Singapore and Darshan and most of his team are currently working out of India. Darshan gives great insight into the lending and borrowing markets for retail and institutions in their different geographies from Southeast Asia to Europe and the Americas. He also goes deep on the retail banking sector and monetary policy in India and what his long term vision is for a Bitcoin first bank. Darshan on Twitter @darshanbathija

Description Our guest this week is Raymond Walintukan, Director of Mining Operations North America for Bitmain. His perspective as someone in charge of running and growing a separate geography for a Chinese company and for Bitmain in particular is an interesting one. We talk about that situation, the workflow, the growth strategy, and dive into how it works operationally and how it fits into the broader Bitmain effort. Raymond also details Bitmain’s North American footprint, the nuances of working with public and private utilities in the US and mining trends that he sees heading into this next Bitcoin cycle.  

Our guest this week is Dr. Youree Lee, Chief Business officer of Peertec, Co-Founder of W-Foundation, and professor at Hanyang University, based out of Seoul. Peertec is a part of Peer.com a corporate group which includes the exchange GDAC, the Korean media BlockInPress and the Deconomy conference there among other entities. We talk about regulatory developments in Korea over the last year, including Korea’s new tax plan regarding cryptocurry and additional guidance for licensed exchanges. Youree gives additional context for the exchange landscape and the nuances of operating as a fiat on/off ramp into bitcoin. We also talk about how the bear market has been in Korea and signs and trends that she is seeing as we enter a new phase. Dr Lee on Twitter @ylee727

Our guest this week is Bobby Lee. Bobby is a bitcoin and especially a China bitcoin OG as a cofounder and CEO of BTC China, later BTCC, China’s first bitcoin exchange, and presently the founder and CEO of Ballet (balletcrypto.com). He is always an insightful voice on the importance of Bitcoin and where it sits in the macro landscape. Our talk focuses on that macro landscape and the the cycles that bitcoin has followed to date. Recorded on July 27 as Bitcoin crossed $11k yet again, Bobby shares what he sees as likely points along this next bitcoin cycle, running companies in China amidst the always developing macro issues that come with that, verticals he’s worked in from exchange services to mining to hardware and more. Bobby on Twitter @bobbyclee

Our guest this week is Mustafa Yilham, Global Business Development at China based group Bixin. Mustafa was previously director of business development at Huobi and a partner at the Hong Kong based quant fund and finance firm Amber Group. Bixin is a major player in the mining space with over 300 MW and in the wallet space with one of the most popular consumer wallets in China and operates a bitcoin denominated crypto fund of funds of about 6k BTC. At Bixin Mustafa manages international allocation for that 6k Bitcoin fund of funds as well as its mining operation development outside of China and global partnerships. We discuss the differences between Asia and Western based hedge funds, risk management in allocating capital for Bixin’s varied business lines, the trends he is seeing in the mining space, particularly the decentralization of hash power outside of China, and more.

Our guest this week is Koji Higashi, a long time bitcoiner and a much sought after and followed industry expert in Japan. He has helped several large companies with market entrance and localization strategies in Japan and is a founder of Koinup. Most recently he has been focused on the Lightning Network and is building products with the team at Nayuta (https://nayuta.co). We talk about how bitcoin has trended in Japan over the past few years and really dive into product development and developer trends for Bitcoin in Asia especially what is going on with Lightning development there, current status and where he sees it going over the next two years. Koji also details the exchange marketplace in Japan and the regulations that have effected its growth. 

Our gust this week is Feng Liu, founder and editor in chief of Chinese crypto media group ChainNews (chainnews.com). Feng was the former EIC at Bloomberg Business week in China before founding ChainNews at the end of 2017. He shares his firsthand insights into the media industry in China, how coverage of Bitcoin in China happens and has evolved in both the mainstream and industry specific media there. We also get into china’s mining industry as ChainNews recently brought back the annual Spring mining conference in Chengdu, and other sector trends that he is seeing on the ground as an editor. Feng Liu on Twitter @fishkiller

Our guest this week is Charles Yang, head trader at Genesis Block out of Hong Kong. Genesis Block (https://genesisblockhk.com) is a leading OTC trading center in Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong and with operations throughout the region and additional physical locations in Thailand and Korea. It also operates the largest network of Bitcoin ATMs in the region, and its founders have their roots and continuing operations in bitcoin mining. As head of trading, Charles oversees Genesis Block’s OTC flows and prop trading strategies and is thus a great source of insight into current market dynamics in Asia. Topics Competitive landscape of OTC business in Asia Arbitrage history for different BTC/fiat pairs and current market dynamics ‘Nuances and risks of the OTC business in specific Asian markets like Thailand and Korea Trends in new customer interest in the region Growth of trading products available Genesis Block’s plans to grow into the next cycle. 

Our guest this week is Mo Li (Molly), head of marketing at Hashkey Hub. We take a look at items that have been in the news coming out of China over the past week, and she shares her on the ground perspective. Topics: Covid update Mining industry trends coming out of the Chengdu mining summit Severe weather in Sichuan Mining manufacturer competitive landscape and recent developments Bitmain internal situation Bank account freezing related to USDT and BTC OTC usage

Our guest this week is Igor Runets, founder and CEO of BitRiver (bitriver.farm), a large scale mining data center operator in Russia with over 100MW in the irkustk region of Siberia. Igor founded and ran a traditional data center business Servers.Global out of university focused on setting up cloud infrastructure in more difficult parts of the world for western clients and then found bitcoin while getting his MBA at Stanford and wend on from there to found BitRiver. We talk about his going full steam into bitcoin mining, spending some time in Beijing and then setting up operations in Siberia, the infrastructure and regulatory issues at play for energy access in Russia and the CIS region, trends he is seeing in demand for mining from institutional customers both from Russia and abroad and more.  Igor on Twitter @IgorRunets

Our guest this week is Flex Yang, founder and CEO of Babel Finance ( babel.finance) out of Beijing and Hong Kong. Babel Finance provides crypto-backed loans, deposit services, financing, margin trading, and other derivatives services and has grown into one of the largest commercial crypto banks in Asia. With Babel Finance Flex is aiming to build the JP Morgan of Bitcoin, and initially attacked goal by focusing on lending and other financial services targeting Bitcoin miners in China. Prior to entering the Bitcoin space Flex worked in financial services and was a founder of a credit services focused fintech Standard Financial Inclusion in Beijing. He has raised money from some of the most well regarded VCs in China including Zhenfund and Lightspeed. The first twenty minutes or so of this conversation covers Flex’s background and experience with those previous companies and his experience as a founder Beijing, and then we jump into Babel and dig into some of the specific business lines that are being built out around demand from miners, from more institutional players in China and from the dynamic of western companies and Chinese players not being fully connected. You can find Flex on twitter @moonmanflex. Topics: - Building companies in Beijing - Starting a crypto bank by focusing on servicing miners first - Risk management as one of the largest lenders in the space - Rise of Lubian with the trend of big private capital entering mining in China and consolidation - Derivatives market and new financial products

Our guest this week is Raghu Mohan CEO of IBC Media out of Bengaluru India. Raghu’s background in media and education includes time as an editor at the leading Indian tech startup publication YourStory and with Udacity. IBC Media’s products include India’s largest Blockchain events in the International Blockchain Congress and Genesis DevCon as well as T-Block accelerator. The focus of the conversation is the recent Supreme Court ruling in India that reversed what had been the status quo put in place by a prior Reserve Bank of India ruling for the past three years. Raghu puts it into context for us, clearly analyzing the rulings, the bodies involved and the implication for bitcoin businesses in India with one of the more significant implications being the way that bitcoin exchanges in India are allowed to operate. We also discuss India as a market for Bitcoin and the media landscape there.   Raghu on Twitter @pythonhulk IBC Media on Twitter @IBCMedia_ Topics: -Raghu’s Background in Media, Ideological foundation -IBC Media overview -March 4 Supreme Court of India ruling, overview of the bodies involved, context for regulatory developments over the last three years -Implications for the Bitcoin exchange ecosystem in India -Thoughts on Bitcoin in India generally. Bitcoin’s growth following the upcoming halving

Our guest this week is Jeremy Goldkorn, co-host of the iconic, China focused Sinica podcast and editor-in-chief of SupChina.com. Moving to China in 1995, Jeremy worked in Beijing for 20 years as an editor and entrepreneur. In 2003, he founded the website and research firm, Danwei, which tracked Chinese media, markets, politics and business and was acquired in 2013 by the Financial Times. SupChina is an independent digital media company dedicated to informing, entertaining, and educating a global audience about business, technology, politics, and culture in China and covers Bitcoin developments in the context of relevance to greater China. Our conversation is mostly focused on the current corona virus outbreak – Jeremy puts it into context with the SARS outbreak in 2003 which he was in Beijing for, explains what some potential lasting effects might be, and gives his thoughts on China’s central bank digital currency plans among other topics. Topics: Background, China in the 90’s and 00’s Founding and running leading China analysis and consulting business Danwei Finding Bitcoin while running Danwei, what he thought of the interest in it in Beijing in 2013 SARS crisis in 2003, the broader context for China then vs today, aftereffects How observers should think about the information coming out of China China’s growing biosecurity state China’s central bank digital currency (DCEP) plans Resources: Jeremy on Twitter (@goldkorn) SupChina on Twitter (@supchinanews) SupChina.com Supchina Newsletter 

Our guest this week is BitBnS founder and CEO Gaurav Dahake. Bitbns is now the largest Bitcoin exchange in India by volume and their team has rolled out a number of other products focused on onboarding new users into Bitcoin. Gaurav first founded successful commerce plugin Buyhatke out of university and knows what it takes to grow in the Indian market, so this is full of learnings on the market in India. We dive into sentiment around Bitcoin generally, population segments in India that Gaurav believes are natural adopters and how Bitbns is expanding its business to pull those segments into Bitcoin. We clear up the current regulatory situation and the development of that situation over the past three years that led to BitBnS, which Gaurav founded less than three years ago. We also get an inside perspective on what it takes to build a successful business in India from someone who has now built two as well as a perspective on the momentum of the India FinTech scene and its key drivers. I learned a ton here and hope you’ll enjoy it. Topics: Background in India, initial entrepreneurship Founding Buyhatke, finding Bitcoin in 2012 and the market in India at the time Founding Bitbns in 2017, the initial product The regulatory environment in India in 2017 that led to a shakeup of the competitive landscape, how Bitbns prospered Why India is a ripe market, exchange adjacent products targeting new Bitcoin users (https://bitdroplet.com) Overview of regulatory bodies and current state India market insights Fintech momentum in India and key drivers Links: Gaurav on Twitter @gauravdahake BitBnS on Twitter @bitbns Buyhatke on Twitter @BuyHatke    

Our guest this week is Jon Myers, Chief Design Officer at the global exchange platform Liquid (https://www.liquid.com/). Liquid and parent company Quione are headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and serve a number of markets. John has had a distinguished career in product design, most recently in South East Asia working on fintech and banking platforms and now with Liquid. We got together in Ho Chi Minh where Liquid has a large operations center. Our discussion focuses on that topic of design: his career, current state of product design in Bitcoin, how he thinks about and implements UI UX decisions in different markets, and building a team in Ho Chi Minh.   Follow John on Twitter @jonmyers Follow Liquid on Twitter @Liquid_Global Notes from the show: Jon’s background and introduction to Bitcoin Joining Liquid, Liquid’s growing product offerings Designing for Japanese users, how he analyzes and implements product design for different markets Design trends in Fintech and positive examples Building a team in Saigon, Vietnam as a developing market    

Our guest this week is Tyler Yue, cofounder and COO at Bixin a leading Bitcoin wallet and services provider out of Beijing. Tyler is a well-known builder and thought leader in the Chinese Bitcoin community. He is also a polymath with accomplishments outside of the Bitcoin space including as a scholar with a public role in the Austrian economics community in China and as a creator in the music space, making a name for in the Chinese rap scene. @DistRiggs and Tyler talk about his ideological formation and schooling in Austrian economics in Spain, his return to China to cofound Bixin (then HaoBTC) and run the “Chinese Bitcoin Talk” in the early days of Bitcoin in China, grinding through bear markets as a Bitcoin company and unique funding methods Bixin employed, the 2017 hard fork as it was perceived by the Chinese community and finally the development of the rap scene in  - Seemingly successful career with a multinational in Beijing to finding Bitcoin and deciding togo to Spain to earn a Masters in Austrian Economics - Returning to China to Cofound HaoBTC, HaoBTC’s early business models and unique funding methods - How Bixin thinks about the Bitcoin wallet’s function and value, growing the business to be the most popular custodial wallet in China - Austrian Economics in China - Development of the rap scene in China Follow Tyler on Twitter @XiongTylerYue  Follow Bixin (bixin.com) on Twitter @BixinIM

Our Guest this week is Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa Co-founder & Group CEO at Bitkub Capital Group Holdings out of Bangkok. Topp previously co-founded coins.ph and built out its Thailand entity coins.th before its acquisition by Go-Jeck. In founding Bitkub Capital Group Holdings, Topp raised the largest seed round in the history of start-up funding in Thailand and launched as a part of its portfolio the cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub, now Thailand’s largest by market share. We talk about what it took to go from sub-par high school student to one of the most successful founders in Thailand, the trials along the way in building multiple successful Bitcoin companies in Southeast Asia in an era of skepticism from regulators, how the role of a CEO evolves as a company grows, and the current state and future of Bitcoin in Thailand. Topp on Twitter @toppjirayut Bitkub (Bitkub.com) on Twitter @BitkubOfficial Topics and Timestamps:  1:00 – Topp’s background in Thailand, New Zealand, and the UK 5:00 – Investment Banking in Shanghai and finding Bitcoin via Marc Andreessen’s blog (2013) 8:00 – Deciding to move San Francisco to be closer to the tech boom and spending the month in between in the Philippines, meeting PayPal exec Dan Schatt and thinking about working with (Philippines cofounders) 12:00 – Moving to the Philippines to cofound Coins.ph, opening the Thailand office (Coins.th) out of his bedroom in Bangkok 15:00 – Early struggles, being doubted, and the process of growing Coins.th 22:00 – Explaining the business to the authorities, working through having employees lose faith 24:00 - Blockchain not Bitcoin phase of Thailand (2015) 27:00 – Deciding to exit Coins.th, Bitcoin is legal in Thailand (2017) 32:00 – Deciding to found a Bitcoin company, the founding team, closing largest seed round in Thailand to date 34:00 – Early Bitcoin meetup scene in Thailand 36:00 – Bitkub Capital Group overview, initial strategy and growth plan 40:00 – Milestones in growth of the Bitkub exchange over its first two years, regulatory milestones 47:00 – Current focus and how the role of a CEO evolves as a company grows 53:00 – Current state of Bitcoin in Thailand and what is important for its future growth    

Our guest this week is Richard Bensberg, a long time Beijinger and the newly appointed Director of Sales and Integrations at Blockstream where he is focused on their Liquid product. Richard got his start in Bitcoin in the early days of OkCoin where he was managing compliance before leaving in 2015 to found Remitsy, a money transfer business using Bitcoin that was later acquired by Wyre. Richard then ran Wyre’s Asia business before recently joining Blockstream, still out of Beijing. We cover topics including the early days of Bitcoin in Beijing, OkCoin company culture, founding a Bitcoin company out of Beijing, the benefits of building a team that is aligned ideologically on the importance of Bitcoin, and the current state of Bitcoin in China. Richard on twitter @richardbensberg Blockstream on twitter @blockstream Timestamps: 00:00 – Running a Regtech company out of Asia and finding Bitcoin 9:00 – Deciding to pursue Bitcoin commercially, connecting with OkCoin and moving back to China full time, Bitcoin scene in Beijing (2014) 13:00 – Working at an early Bitcoin company in China and the Beijing Bitcoin meetup 17:00 – Managing compliance at OkCoin, competitive landscape of Bitcoin exchanges in China at the time 21:00 – Star Xu as a CEO, OkCoin Mafia, and the company culture 28:00 – Context for CCP involvement in tech companies and OkCoin at the time 34:00 – Leaving OkCoin to start Remitsy, development of Richard’s thinking about Bitcoin 41:00 – The business of Remitsy and running a company with an aligned view of Bitcoin, current thoughts on use cases for Bitcoin 45:00 – Decision and process of Remitsy’s Acquisition by Wyre 49:00 – Running Wyre’s Asia business 52:00 – Joining Blockstream, the current focus 57:00 – Thoughts on the current state of Bitcoin in China 1:01:00 – Beijing Recommendation, getting in touch

Dominik Weil and Bao-Phuong (Paige) Nguyen are cofounders of Bitcoin Vietnam and Vietnam’s Bitcoin meetup Bitcoin Saigon. Bitcoin Vietnam (https://www.bitcoinvn.io/) was founded as an exchange service in Ho Chi Minh in 2013 and it's business lines now also include an expanding ATM network, inbound remittance services, and payments services. We walk through the history of the Bitcoin market and community in Vietnam from 2013 through today. Insights around operating inside the Vietnamese market abound. Please rate and review the show! Follow Bitcoin in Asia on Twitter @BTCAsiaPod Follow John Riggins on Twitter @DistRiggs  Follow Dominik on Twitter @DominikWeil Follow Bitcoin Vietnam @Bitcoin_Vietnam and Bitcoin Saigon at @BitcoinSaigon on Twitter.  Timing: 00:00 Finding Bitcoin in Germany and decided to go all-in in Vietnam (2012-2013) 11:00 Founding Bitcoin Vietnam – first product offerings and strategy, Bitcoin scene in Vietnam at the time (2013) 15:00 Founding Bitcoin Saigon (first Bitcoin Meetup in Vietnam) 18:00 Business lines of Bitcoin Vietnam 22:00 Remittance market and competitive landscape (2014) 25:00 Focusing on building the Bitcoin ecosystem in Vietnam vs Asia more broadly 30:00 Lobbying regulators and realities of opening a financial services business in Vietnam 38:00 Bull market and navigating the excesses and consequences of the ICO market in Vietnam (2017-2018) 45:00 Regulatory developments since 2018

Our guest this week is Constance Yuan, currently the founder and CEO of financial services company unbanking.io out of Shanghai. Constance is an early Bitcoiner in China whose background combines five years of working in and founding Bitcoin businesses including time at the first Bitcoin exchange in China, BTCC. We cover: The experience of being an early bitcoin startup founder in China and the atmosphere/support system in China for startups generally; The experience dealing directly with regulators and central bankers in China in the context of operating Bitcoin businesses; The mining ecosystem in China and the need for tailored financial services for operators. Social Constance on WeChat - “littlebuddhasoup.” John Riggins on Twitter as @Distriggs Minute Marks: 1:00 - Finding Bitcoin for the purpose of moving money cross border and starting money transfer business BitNexo 6:00 - Operating as a bitcoin startup out of Shanghai and the general startup environment in China (2014-15) 14:00 - BTCC - Competitive landscape of the exchange business in China (2015-17), compliance process and experience dealing with regulators and central bankers 40:00 - Mining industry in China and the need for tailored financial services

Our guest for this inaugural episode is Jack Huang, Founder and Managing Partner at One Block Capital. We cover: Jack’s current “elevator pitch” for Bitcoin Experience in traditional finance at Rothschild and the World Bank Group China Central Bank’s digital currency initiative and Libra Jack’s commercial entry into the world of crypto, why ICOs took off in Asia and how early Bitcoiners in Asia reacted How Jack’s thinking about Bitcoin evolved through peak ICO mania to today, his current investment thesis Competitive landscape of Bitcoin businesses in Asia, what is working Resources: http://oneblockcapital.com/ https://twitter.com/oneblockcapital https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneblock

Hosted by BTC Media's John Riggins, Bitcoin in Asia gives listeners insight into the minds of the leading experts in the Asia cryptocurrency scene. For beginners and experts, each episode tackles the complex and significant topics facing the current state of Bitcoin in Asia, bridging the information gap between the East and West.