With ordinary people in Ukraine suffering as the Russian invasion continues, we find
out how the blockchain world is coming together to help.
Welcome to The Daily Forkast March 7th, 2022.
I'm Angie Lau.
Editor in chief of Forkast, covering all things blockchain.
Well, the conflict in Ukraine has entered a second week now and efforts to support people
in the country by the blockchain community are growing by the day.
Today we speak with the founder of Web3 Company Everstake on his very personal role in the
launch of the Aid for Ukraine DAO.
That plus a whole lot more coming up.
Let's get you up to speed from Asia to the world.
Join thousands of NFT traders who already start their day on CryptoSslam.
Before we catch up on the latest on Ukraine, let's kick off with a look at China's Two
Sessions meetings.
They are the country's most important annual political meetings where authorities lay out
China's economic and social plans for the year ahead.
And for the first time ever, the Metaverse is up for discussion with regulation being
the watchword.
According to local media, one delegate said that with more investment to nurture talent
and support technological development, China can take a leading position in the field.
Kong Fa Long also said issues related to data security, information protection and speculation
that emerge should be properly regulated.
While Zhang Ying, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,
or CPPCC, said the sector is still chasing key technology developments and focuses too
heavily on entertainment experiences.
She also highlighted that regulation is needed for the healthy development of the industry,
saying serious speculation is going on at the moment.
Another CPPCC member said regulation is needed to prevent systemic risks.
So all in all, it sounds like caution is the name of the game when it comes to the Metaverse
for China.
Meanwhile, Russia is facing ever tighter financial sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
After saying sanctions would be imposed early last week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore
has now provided more details.
Financial institutions have been advised to freeze assets and funds for four major Russian
banks, and digital payment token service providers are prohibited from facilitating any transactions
that could aid circumvention of the measures.
And for further clarification in the age of crypto, this also includes cryptocurrencies
and payment and settlement transactions that relate to digital assets such as NFTs.
Meanwhile, Russia's central bank has taken unprecedented measures, including doubling
interest rates to stabilize the economy and the ruble in the wake of the mounting sanctions.
You can find those stories and more at Forkast.News.
So our digital securities coming of age, the announcement just recently that the New York
Stock Exchange's parent company, Intercontinental Exchange, taking a stake in the tokenized
securities platform tZERO could certainly indicate that if so, was that coming of age
long overdue?
Who better to ask about tokenizing the world than Henry Chong, CEO of Fusang.
Fusang aims to reshape investment markets with blockchain technology, and it's great
to have you with us, Henry.
Always great to be here, Angie, and exciting to see the developments in the tokenized security
space.
I bet you've been waiting.
Well, actually, no, you don't wait around.
I mean, you're actively in the space.
But it is really interesting to see that finally, the growth in the tokenized security market
is really developing.
And more importantly, the question for you is, are there enough players out there to
support that development and where will they come from?
We certainly haven't been waiting, but it's nice validation almost to see that there's
an increasing focus on tokenized securities.
As I've always said, as interesting as crypto and NFTs are, there is still much to be done
in terms of tokenizing real world assets - shares, bonds, funds, real estate, really everything
else you see in the world.
And seeing a major player like the New York Stock Exchange and the parent company entering
the market, I think is really proof that this is imminently about to happen.
And really, my message when you talk about issuers and intermediaries would be that all
of us, Fusung included we need to adapt and innovate.
We're going to be left behind because this is what customers want.
Both issuers, they want to be able to tokenize their securities, and investors are keen to
be able to actually invest in securities tokens that represent real world assets.
I do want to ask you about the role of legacy intermediaries like investment banks.
I mean, they still play an important role.
Are they ready for the adoption of digital securities?
When you take a look at the landscape, are they ready to play?
My belief has always been that the jobs to be done in the financial industry, they're
not about to change.
You're still going to need exchanges and custodians and investment banks and brokers.
It's just that all of them better be able to adopt new technology.
And I think there'll be a lot less intermediaries that we can start to combine all of these
functions using the power of blockchain technology.
And so again, financial institutions are going away.
But if you are a legacy financial institution, as you say, that can't quite adopt the new
technology, I really do think you'll be left behind, especially because there are plenty
of firms today who are scaling at light speed.
I know we've often talked enough about this for me to know that you already envision a
day where buying shares has become as simple as online shopping.
But what does this mean for the future of capital markets?
You know, I'm convinced this isn't just a vision - that it's an inevitability because
the reality is we used to a certain customer workflow with everything we do, whether it's
buying things online through e-commerce or really buying or interacting with any company
or firm.
Today, we expect to be able to do it digitally, online and directly with the company.
We're used to being able to view information about a company's product.
Maybe we go on social media, see some reviews about it and then if we want to actually transact,
we want to be able to do that directly and online.
And this works for literally every industry in the world, and I think capital markets
will be no exception.
And capital markets need to start focusing on, Hey, what are the customer needs?
Am I really delivering my customers what they really want?
Investors want access to the most exciting investments.
Issuers, companies not only want to be able to fundraise, but they want investors who
are actually aligned with their company.
They want to be able to turn the stakeholders into shareholders and the platforms who can
help people do that, I think will win in this new market.
Henry Chang of Fusung, always a pleasure.
And finally, as the conflict in Ukraine rages on nearly 6000 miles away, unable to return
home and feeling helpless as his family and friends battle for their lives and country,
one Ukrainian is putting his computer engineering skills to good use.
Teaming up with partners in the blockchain industry to launch the aid for UkraineDAO.
Here is Sergey Vasylchuk, the CEO and founder of Everstake, a Web3 company.
In his own words.
Your parents, your friends, your employees, people that you talk to just feel it on their
phone, and everything is just sent groups, and you see what’s happening in real-time.
So after a few days, I was sitting here thinking [that] I can't just do nothing.
I need to do something.
What a human can do is just start with what he was doing before.
I'm running the company for many years so I can do just a few things.
I can fly the airplane and build crypto projects.
Flying the airplane isn't enough, crypto is something that could help.
So, that's why I just asked my partners to help us.
Probably one of the leading companies in the world will be leading 50 plus blockchains.
All those guys are technically competitors.
But in this situation, everyone was calling me and saying, "Hey, how can I help you?"
Solana is one of our partners, and I define the core team at Solana as my friends.
Anatoly Yakovenko is also my friend, he was born in Ukraine.
He moved to America, but he was born and raised in Odessa so he feels some magnetism with
Ukraine [and] people from the Ukraine.
He was the first to shake me and say, "Hey, let's do something!"
Crypto is obviously the primary source of finance.
I call banking ‘legacy finance’.
For me, it's nothing unusual.
It's just the proper tool for the most efficient solution to the problem.
If you ask me right now, I don't care how it will develop in the near future.
Until we win the war, I don't care.
It's just the tools that help me to resist while I'm here in the United States and cannot
come back to Ukraine.
So it's the tool to help my country to resist.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, we will see.
The crypto community coming together, truly powerful words from Sergey Vasylchuk, CEO
and founder of Ukraine based Everstake.
Well, that's The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia for today.
For more visit Forkast.News.
I'm Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau.
Until the next time.