Jatin Madhra, representing BTC Wires, caught up with Ted Lin,
Jatin Madhra, representing BTC Wires, caught up with Ted Lin, the Head of International Markets at Binance, at the International Blockchain Congress 2018 in Hyderabad.
Ted heads the international expansion and research team at Binance and his vision is to grow the Binance ecosystem by inculcating more and more crypto users and enthusiasts and supporting quality projects worldwide.
Find the full interview below
Mr. Lin spoke at the Congress and he shed some light on how community management is the most important thing in ICOs right now. He understands the power of bringing the global community together and mutually sharing resources. Following is the transcript of our discussion with him:
You talked about community management and people, in your address at the International Blockchain Congress 2018, could you please shed some light on how Binance can contribute to that and get people to the crypto world?
Well, we don’t really try to manage them but we do try to encourage participation. So, as I always say, the essence of the international markets team is user engagement. So when we think of India, a population that’s close to 1.2 billion, it is by no means a very small part of the world. In fact it is so big that within India there are several states and cities that we need to take into account. So all these 28 different states, they have these different preferences, different tastes, different style choice and one of the best thing we do is that, ever since the beginning of Binance, we have this so called Angel programme. It is a voluntary programme for crypto enthusiasts and people who actually recognize Binanace values, they join us as volunteers, they become ‘angels’. They can actually help us and speak with and listen to the communities. I think that is one part we will continue strengthening and we want to recruit angels in the India market. Furthermore we will also start to recruit local marketing team. This team will have the ability to communicate and listen and learn from the local markets. I believe that will help us tremendously.in our ability to engage with the market.
So what kind of efforts is Binance, as an organization, putting towards markets in different areas. As you said, India has a huge population and according to the stock market data, around 350 million people trade in stocks and you are trying to tap this market. But what about the other global communities?
I think we have been very strong in the English speaking community. US is definitely one of the good markets for us because they are very knowledgeable and at the forefront of the blockchain revolution and when they pick up a particular topic, it kind of trickles down to the rest of the world. Aside from the English speaking ones, we also have quite a few different communities. We have Russian community, the Italians, Portuguese, the Latin American community; together we have more than 30 different language groups on Telegram. Not to mention, we also have the Facebook pages for the different language groups. So I believe all of those linguistic groups are helpful in bringing the community together and discuss what their preferences are. We have community moderators, angles or own people in those groups to listen, to learn. So that is one of the great ways for us to reach out.
That sounds great. Moving on, across the world, governments are not really supporting association of banking infrastructure with Crypto exchanges, especially in India, and it is becoming difficult for common man to trade in fiat and crypto. Please comment on the future of this scenario.
I think regulators around the world are always very protective of their people, and I think it is a good thing because it is their duty to watch out for the people that they are serving. Regulation in itself is actually very hard to define when you want to be both protective and open to new innovation. So all governments are taking turn to make sure that they are optimizing it for both and it’s highly respected. So I think sooner or later as the individual jurisdictions have a more refined and defined regulation, it will actually be good for the industry to continue growing.
Great. So like Binance invested $15 million in Bermuda in April, are you guys planning something similar in India, given that the government’s starting to become more receptive of the crypto and blockchain concepts as is evident today in this event?
We are very happy to converse with head of states and governments around the world because we have a very positive and clear view of how blockchain technology can help the humankind. So if there’s a chance to interact with the people in the government, to discuss how we can contribute, that will definitely be a welcomed opportunity. Overall I think India is going through a very transformative period, just right at the beginning of the blockchain revolution. It’s probably the first time since a few centuries the financial system is going to be having a disruptive evolution. I think it i for the better. The keyword is disruptive. If we can introduce it in a gradual manner, without it being too disruptive, I think everyone around will be more accepting; the government, the private sector and all the users around the world. How to make that as subtle, gradual and as effective as possible will be the key to the conversation moving forward.
To move to the last question, you are building an ecosystem around the success of Binance and we at BTC Wires believe that it is the way forward, especially with the ideas of Binance academy and Binance labs,and Binance launchpad. So what I am trying to understand from you is how you are positioned in the market to leverage all the brandings that you have created?
I think every new pillar, or every new part or business we create is based on amplifying and bringing symbiotic relationships, an impact to the core, which is the Binance exchange. Ultimately we want to proliferate the freedom of money so people can eventually choose what is the best way for them, the preferred way to retain value, from the value they have created in the society. What is their preferred way to receive funding for their great ideas, or project, and these are all pertaining to the freedom of money in our view. And in order for that to happen, I think we have a very big responsibility to accelerate and propagate the use of blockchain technology So you see all these pillars from Binance lab, the incubator, to Binance launchpad the initial token platform, to the latest Binance academy which is an education platform, all those relate to propagating and proliferating blockchain technology so eventually we can achieve the freedom of money for the people around the world. So I believe how we propagate the brand name should align with our vision.
So the Binance labs are currently more focused towards technology than different applications of blockchain, is that right?
At the core, Binance believes that blockchain can better the lives and human beings and crypto is one way to proliferate that freedom of money, so therefore naturally Binance labs is focusing on proliferating the use of blockchain technology. So eventually they might have a broader theme but as far as I know, currently the labs team is focusing on blockchain technology.
Thank you so much for your time.