After coming off an unprecedented and historic milestone for the Bitcoin network, ala sending retired astronaut Chris Hadfield his first Bitcoin, Samson Mow had a chance to sit down with our own, Alyssa Tsai, in discussing a concoction of questions related to Bitcoin, stablecoins, institutional adoption, and a host of other trending topics in the space. Featured as a Fireside Chat during the annual Asia Blockchain Summit 2020, Alyssa and Samson were also joined by Jonathan Leong, CEO of BTSE, as they opened up on how they first were introduced to this industry and what propelled them to be part of the movement. It’s needless to say that although Alyssa, Samson, and Jonathan work in different segments of the industry, all three are aligned in the fortuitous mission of taking the esoteric idea of blockchain and making it more accessible for further adoption.
Topics that were discussed started with Blockstream’s Liquid Network, which is a side chain of the Bitcoin network allowing users to execute transactions quicker and more anonymously. This Liquid Network has also been instrumental for BTSE’s IEO in 2019 which propelled them to sell out 1 million tokens within four hours drawing much attention to the synergies involved. Another topic that was discussed was the whole emergence of stablecoins allowing traders to trade tokens based on the value of real world assets. This in parallel to the whole notion of tokenizing everything paradigm where liquidity, transparency, and ease of access are paramount to the technology.
For those who are not too familiar, Samson Mow has been a pioneer of the Bitcoin network as part of Blockstream, who’s main purpose is to grow the Bitcoin network through their innovative technological upgrades to the code such as the lightning network and taproot. Most of what Blockstream does revolves around Bitcoin, the standard for what is coined as “digital gold”. On the other end of the spectrum, Jonathan has been a harbinger of crypto trading through BTSE’s exchange trading platform boasting products such as perpetual futures for XAUT, the stablecoin tethered to the real life gold standard, or one could also say “digitized gold”. Contradicting with befuddling nuances to say the least. But simultaneously can be harnessed in a way that both can co-exist as both Jonathan and Samson explain further during the chat.
Another interesting topic both touch on is the postulation of “when mass adoption?”. And as obvious as it is to some people in the space, mass adoption won’t happen until institutional money comes in. But as both men juggle with the question posed by Alyssa, Samson makes a stern reminder that Bitcoin would be perfectly fine if the institutional money doesn’t come in. Obvious but powerfully stated, “You could have a million new users buying $1,000 of Bitcoin and that would increase the market cap by $1 billion”.
Watch more of the recorded fireside chat titled, “The Competition of Digital Gold: The Future of Bitcoin and Stablecoin”, between Alyssa, Samson, and Jonathan at abs2020.com during the 13:10 timeslot of the Day 5 events.
Based out of Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong, PANONY is a leading media, research and consulting services team in Asia, working to bridge the knowledge and resources gap experienced by entrepreneurs and innovators in the blockchain and fintech industry. Our co-founders Alyssa Tsai and Tongtong Bee, who were both selected honorees of the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia, have led an advisory team made up of experienced industry veterans and leading experts. Our research and consultancy arm, PANONY, has to date consulted over a hundred worldwide clients spanning the entire spectrum of the blockchain and fintech industry, including both startups and Fortune 500 companies, on their go-to-market communications, PR and growth strategies to expand their businesses in Asia. On our media and communications arm, PANews is an award-winning blockchain and fintech media outlet and thinktank in Asia that produces original content with actionable insights.
The Asia Blockchain Summit 2020 is one of the largest and professional conferences for the blockchain industry. Every year the event has managed to attract the world’s brightest and top industry leaders to share their thoughts on a range of trending topics in the space albeit with the intention of further adoption of the blockchain technology. Due to the global pandemic this year, the conference was held virtually over a 5 day period featuring workshops, panels, and keynote speakers such as Chris Hadfield, retired astronaut and commander of the ISS, Abdulaziz Al-Khalifa, CEO of the Qatar Development Bank, Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain, Digital Assets, and Data Policy at the World Economic Forum, Wang Guan, News Anchor at CGTN, and many more star studded figures.
