Algorand Ecosystem AMA with Bitpie Wallet
By: Bitpie Wallet
Tags: Algorand, Algorand Foundation, Bitpie

Daniel

here it is AMA time! Introducing @Chao Wang — COO Bitpie Wallet and @Kong our ambassador from China! AMA Duration: 35 minutes Rounds: Team Round (first 20 min) and Community Round (last 15 min)

Chao Wang

Thx Daniel About myself, I heard bitcoin in 2013, started buying and a little bit mining by end of that year. And of course, I lose a lot of money during the market collapse in 2014–15, just like a lot of friends just suffered in the past weeks. Luckily, as a hodler, I didn’t sell any coin during bear market and most of those coins are still in my wallet until today. In 2017 I joined Bitpie. Prior to that, I have been in the traditional IT industry for more than a decade. During my 15-years career, I have worked for organizations including online service company, big data company and IT services company. Responsible for IT system, product R&D, business management and has been stationed in the United States to manage a series of project cooperate with IT giants such as Microsoft and Cisco. My last role before joining Bitpie was the general manager of a business division at one of largest IT service companies in China, managing the solution business related to new technologies such as cloud computing and AI, also got some chance to work with partner for business-oriented blockchain PoC projects. It is a tough time for everyone, it is my great honor to have the opportunity to meet and learn from you guys at this special moment.

Kong

Hi, all. I am Kong from Bitpie Wallet. Also ambassador of Algorand Beijing. I have been working for Bitpie since 2018 and now mainly in charge of marketing job. Tonight, Mr Wang chao will bring us his presentation and I will help answer questions if needed. Long for Bitpie and Algorand

Daniel

Thanks a lot for sharing your introduction @Chao Wang @Kong! Seems you have been in the industry since a long while! Glad to have your experience and support for Algorand! Really appreciate Bitpie as a global partner of Algorand and you have also supported ASA these days. Could you tell us more about Bitpie Wallet and what do you think about the cooperation with Algorand?

Chao Wang

Bitpie is an industry-leading non-custody wallet with very high market penetration in Asia area. We have been focused on the blockchain wallet for more than six years. As a professional wallet service provider, we have 3 wallet products. Bitpie Wallet — a multi-chain wallet with DeFi and DApp portal along with a lot of other crypto-based scenarios. Bither Wallet, a bitcoin.org recommended open-sourced bitcoin wallet. BitHD — an open-sourced multichain Hardware cold Wallet. Among 3 products, Bitpie is the most famous one. Our products helped millions of global users manage dozens of billions of US Dollars’ worth of cryptocurrencies in the past 6 years with 0 security accident. We are also very proud of being a contributor to the early blockchain community for we introduced a variety of novel technologies in the field of cryptology and security. The cooperation between Algorand and Bitpie began in 2018 when we met Professor Micali and Steven for the first time in Beijing. The conversation was very pleasant and soon determined willingness of both parties to cooperate. In 2019, with the launch of the Algorand mainnet, we have 360-degree cooperation with Algorand in technology, network, marketing and ecosystem support. With the launch of Algorand 2.0 and ASA assets, great innovations are emerging on Algorand blockchain. We are very happy to participate in this process and look forward to more cooperation in the future.

Daniel

Thank you for the detailed introduction about Bitpie and your cooperation with Algorand! Do you have large market share for BTC, USDT or any other currencies in Asia?

Chao Wang

Yes, we are the most popular BTC wallet in Asia, and for stable currencies, we are probably the wallet with №1 volume in the world 🙂 I would like to say more about USDT.

Daniel

Sure please go ahead!

Chao Wang

We all know Stable coin is extremely important for a public chain ecology. As a wallet operator, our experience in this area is direct, and we have observed a lot in the past when the stable currency market and the underlying public chain were constantly changing. Before the launch of Algorand USDT, we had several conversations with foundation and shared our understanding of this market. Each public chain has unique development route, and this route also determine the market development route of stable currency on that Chain. The application-oriented blockchain is still in a very early stage, now it is difficult to determine which direction is better and more likely to succeed. But no matter which route you take, one thing is for sure, which is to increase the usability as much as possible and help users reduce the barrier. This is the main reason why erc20 USDT can take most of the market share from omni USDT. Market promotion is also very important. If Algorand has some related plans in the future, Bitpie as the direct entry point to reach users, is very willing to provide help as much as we can.

Daniel

Glad to see our goals align Chao 🙂 We wish to have Algorand- USDT as major value capture on Algo public chain! Really excited to explore more use-cases and co-marketing opportunities with you. While on the subject, I noticed you have DeFi and Dapp portal. As a leading wallet provider, what do you think is the future of wallets ? Is it DeFi, something else?

Chao Wang

Yes, DeFi and DApp are extremely important for wallet. But that not all we are aiming for. In the past, wallet is viewed as a tool that managed private keys to send and receive assets. With the emergence of various scenarios in the blockchain world, the functions integrated on the blockchain wallet today have far exceeded asset sending and receiving. Almost all major wallets on the market have integrated different forms of coin trade. Staking, voting, Borrowing & Lending functions have also been integrated into wallet. More wallets have even begun to support Dapp and DeFi based on different blockchain networks, thereby introducing more open scenarios. But we see that the users of the wallet are all users who already have crypto assets and already has some understanding of the blockchain. However, the proportion of such users in the entire society is very small, and currently there are few wallets or applications that can develop people who do not know the blockchain through their own scenarios. I think that will change in the future. There will be a variety of innovations constantly emerging, and some of them, although possibly a small part, will draw quite a lot of people from the general community to blockchain world. They are not typical crypto asset holders, and they do not understand what a blockchain is or what an oval algorithm is. In fact, they don’t need to understand. Both public chains and wallets will evolve, allowing ordinary users to enjoy the innovation brought to them by the blockchain without perception. At that time, the wallet, as a carrier of rights and on-chain identities, will be closely related to people’s daily lives. And the form of the wallet will be very different from now. For the simplest example, suppose a billion people have entered the world of blockchain. Can you imagine all one billion people are writing down mnemonic words like current wallet users? That’s not possible.

Daniel

You make quite a few interesting points Chao. Mnemonic words is an interesting one as well! Since we are running low on time, my last question would be on Algorand itself. What are your thoughts about Algorand? 🙂

Chao Wang

I have worked in the IT service industry for many years. The clients I have dealt with involve various industries, finance, manufacturing, retail, transportation, government. My major business focus was to provide them with the underlying business support systems. This gives me some understanding of the fundamental supporting of commercial facilities. In these mature business ecosystems, there is a complete and meticulous industry chain collaboration. Some are responsible for basic technical/science innovations, and some are responsible for the implementation of the underlying platform based on these innovations. Some people use their technical capabilities to design solutions suitable for the industry, and some people apply these solutions to help them expand their business. In the end, no matter how many layers are passed, it is the consumers who pay for all of this. Of course, consumers also enjoy the convenience brought by technological development and industrial chain collaboration. Blockchain system will also play the role to support business. However, blockchain technology and ecology are still very early, such industrial collaboration cannot yet be formed. Some public chains have focused on faster and more direct 2C scenarios. This is understandable, but in my opinion, industrial collaboration will eventually come, and at that time, tens of millions of people will enjoy the beauty that blockchain technology brings to everyone. Compared with other public chains, Algorand’s path is very solid, and it is constantly laying the foundation, not only the technical foundation, but also the basis of industrial chain collaboration. This process may not be that fast, but I think it is all necessary.

Daniel

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts Chao! We are really committed towards industrial collaboration. You summed it all up really well! I will be compiling a full blog-post and publishing it for those who couldn’t join the AMA @here Community Round can start now! You can ask any questions that you have! This one would run for the next 15 minutes.

Chao Wang