Analyse Asia 212: Why China bans exchanges & ICOs with Neil Woodfine
Editor’s note: This originally appeared on Analyse Asia, a weekly podcast hosted by Bernard Leong, dedicated to dissecting the pulse of business, technology, and media in Asia. The podcast features guests from Asia’s vibrant tech community.
Neil Woodfine, growth manager from Wyre & organizer of Beijing bitcoin meetup joined us in an interesting conversation on bitcoin, blockchain & cryptocurrencies where we examined some of the popular misconceptions of the industry. We discussed why the government of China has decided to ban cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs and where it will go from there.
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Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):
- Neil Woodfine, Growth Manager, Wyre & organizer of Beijing Bitcoin Meetup (@nwoodfine , LinkedIn). [0:38]
- How did you start your career? [1:18]
- The story of Remitsy and how it was eventually acquired by Wyre. [2:58]
- What’s your current role and coverage in Wyre? [4:35]
- In your career journey, what are the interesting lessons that you can share with my audience? [5:10]
- Why China banned cryptocurrency exchanges & ICOs [6:08]
- Can you briefly describe your understanding of these three terms [6:21]
- Cryptocurrency
- Bitcoin
- Blockchain
- In your opinion, what are the common misconceptions of the cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and blockchain? [13:05]
- Can you discuss from your perspective on how bitcoin, blockchain and subsequently cryptocurrencies have evolved in China? [15:06]
- Why is China important to the whole cryptocurrencies and bitcoin markets globally? [17:38]
- Can you describe what an initial coin offering (ICO) is? [20:13]
- ICOs have been seen as an alternative approach to raise funding for startups or non-profit software foundation, what are the pros and cons of that? [24:00]
- In your opinion, why has the Chinese government decided to step in and ban ICOs? [28:14]
- Are there any precedents in which the Chinese government has banned something and subsequently relaxed? [29:22]
- Will all the bitcoin exchanges in China for example, Huobi, BTCC & OkCoin close down in the next few months? [32:02]
- What has the media picked up correctly or wrongly in discussing this controversial move? [34:54]
- What is the impact to the Chinese cryptocurrencies which has undergone an ICO in China? [36:20]
- Where do you see the movement of ICOs and the whole bitcoin, blockchain & cryptocurrencies market heading in China? [38:21]
- Can you briefly describe your understanding of these three terms [6:21]
- Closing
- Can you recommend anything (and that can be in the form of a book, podcast, movie) that you find interesting in your work or life recently? [40:06]
- Neil’s recommendation: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute’s crash course in bitcoin political economy
- BL’s recommendation: Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper: “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System” dated 31 Oct 2008.
- How can my audience find you? [41:15]
- Can you recommend anything (and that can be in the form of a book, podcast, movie) that you find interesting in your work or life recently? [40:06]
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