We managed to catch the very busy Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs, on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore to get all the scoop about Binance Labs, what her team has been up to and what they plan to achieve going forward. Tune in to hear about: Ella’s very interesting background and how she came to be a part of Binance Labs Mandate of Binance Labs Three key pillars - incubation, fellowship and direct investment Fellowship - https://medium.com/binance-labs/introducing-the-binance-labs-fellowship-270521d2e99d How does the incubation program work? Season 1 of Binance Labs incubation: https://medium.com/binance-labs/season-1-binance-labs-incubation-program-buidlers-season-1-ec34b601ccd Season 2 of Binance Labs Incubation: https://www.binance.com/en/blog/342988062870470656/Binance-Labs-Reveals-13-Startups-in-its-Incubation-Program What is the investment focus and how has the team’s investment thesis evolved over a period of time How does Ella think about overall portfolio construction Drawing from the lessons of the popping of the 2000 internet bubble and outlook on the industry going forward

Decrypt Asia - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Podcast

Ep. #48: Growing the Crypto Ecosystem with Ella Zhang (Binance Labs)

Following our discussion with Matic Network, we speak to the CEO of Skale Labs which is also trying to build a layer 2 solution to solve the problem of Ethereum Scalability. Tune in to hear about: Evolution of enterprise software - on-premises > cloud > open-source Importance of community for open-source software Implications of AWS going down and how Blockchain technology plays in ensuring 100% uptime Ethereum Scalability Why Skale Labs chose to go down the side-chain path What is a network of side chains and what are elastic side chains? Consensus mechanism for each of the network of side chains Interactions between the side chains and the main chain DApps building on Skale Labs and Skale Innovator Program Plans for Asia Competitive landscape for scalability projects

Ep. #47: Layer 2 Scaling with Jack O’Holleran (CEO Skale Labs)

Following our discussion with the Zilliqa team, we decided to speak to another Blockchain Protocol that is trying to solve the problem of Scalability through Sharding. Hear Nick White, one of the co-founders of Harmony, tell us about what is unique about their Project as well as the IEO that took place recently on the Binance Launchpad.Tune in to hear about:What is sharding?Difference between Transaction Sharding and State ShardingHow does Harmony achieve State SharingHow does the overall Harmony Network look like?How does Staking work in the Harmony ecosystem, what are the rewards and what does it take to be validator?GovernanceWhat DApps are building on Harmony, what is the process to port over from Ethereum or another Blockchain to Harmony?Binance token sale and roadmapPlans for Asia

Ep. #46: Sharding with Nick White (Co-founder Harmony Protocol)

We speak to Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar, CEO and co-founder of Rootstock or RSK (https://www.rsk.co/) and RIF Labs (https://www.rifos.org/). Rootstock, most famously, is known for putting smart contract functionality on the Bitcoin Blockchain.Tune in to hear about:Diego’s interesting background and how he got into cryptoWhat Rootstock is and the concept of Merge Mining?How Rootstock helps the Bitcoin miners by generating additional returns for them (related to the concept of Merge Mining)?Why should DApps build on RSK?What is RIFOS and how did it come about?Why is RIFOS important - note, it integrates things like storage, name service, data feeds, etc to make it easier to develop DAppsRootstock’s plans in AsiaDiego’s mantra for surviving in crypto - The rougher the weather is, the calmer you have to be

Ep. #45: Smart contracts on Bitcoin with Diego Zaldívar (Rootstock)

We speak to Dan Shin, Co-founder of Terra (https://terra.money/). Prior to Terra, Dan is most notably known for being the Founder and Chairman of TMON (http://www.tmon.co.kr). TMON or Ticket Monster is a Unicorn out of South Korea which was started in 2010 and had a mobile first approach to e-commerce. Now Dan is launching a stable coin that aims to drive adoption through his experience and networks in the e-commerce industry. Tune in to hear about: Going on the mainnet and what that’s like (funnily, we spoke a couple of hours after Terra hit mainnet) Different kinds of stable coins why Terra took the algorithmic route How Terra is trying to drive REAL ADOPTION How Terra maintains price stability and the role that Luna token plays in that What is Seigniorage and how Terra is benefiting from it Go-to market strategy through Terra Alliance comprising Carousell (https://sg.carousell.com/), Qoo1o (https://www.qoo10.sg) etc. + incentives to use Terra How the user journey for using Terra token would look like on e-commerce platforms Tech aspects - Building on Tendermint (https://www.tendermint.com/), on boarding validators Dealing with Regulatory aspects including the failed Basis project (https://www.basis.io/) Partnerships with Tomochain (https://tomochain.com/), Klaytn (https://www.klaytn.com/) etc

Ep. #44: Stablecoin adoption through E-Commerce with Dan Shin (Terra)

Given the recent conversations about the Government of India banning Crypto again (https://www.coindesk.com/indian-government-again-discussing-ban-on-cryptocurrencies-report), we decided to speak to the co-founders of Blockchained India (https://blockchainedindia.com/), an organisation trying to spread the word of crypto and drive conversations around crypto-regulations Tune in to hear about: How Blockchained India came about and how it’s structured What are the chapters and what are their mandates What is India DApp Fest and how that came about Key projects based out India including Nuo (https://www.nuo.network/), InstaDApp (https://instadapp.io/), Matic (https://matic.network/) Update on crypto regulations in India and the stance taken by the Government of India and Supreme Court of IndiaNotable things taking place in the Indian Crypto Ecosystem FYI Blockchained India is also organising India Dapp Fest (https://www.indiadappfest.com/) which seems like a promising event

Ep. #43: Crypto in India with the founders of Blockchained India

In this episode, we speak top Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder and COO of Matic Network. Matic js one of the leading projects coming out of India and most notably, will be having its token sale on the Binance Launchpad (https://launchpad.binance.com/) in April 24, 2019 Tune in to hear about: Sandeep’s story and how Matic came about Digging into Scalability at the Layer 1 (Sharding) and Layer 2 solutions (state channels and sidechains/plasma) Where does Matic fit into the picture? Digging deep into sidechains, plasma including the difference between the two How does Matic’s consensus mechanism work USABILITY - big focus for Matic and how they’ve leveraged Wallet Connect (https://walletconnect.org/) - open protocol for connecting Wallets to Dapps Kind of DApps Matic foresees being built on their platform and some existing partnerships including with Decentraland (https://decentraland.org/) The very frustrating and difficult journey of being one of the first few projects coming out of India especially from a fundraising perspective What that means for Indian entrepreneurs working in this space

Ep. #42: Sandeep Nailwal from Matic Network (Scalability Solution)

Following our interview with #Hashed from Korea, we speak to another Asian Fund Manager - Jason Fang from Sora Ventures who shuttles between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Fascinating insights about how he went about setting up his fund and what’s happening in China Tune in to hear about: His background and starting his career at Fenbushi Capital Interest in crypto from Family Offices in Asia and fundraising efforts in crypto Transition from primary into secondary markets in late 2018/2019 Structuring of the fund Investment thesis and portfolio construction Focus - Gaming, Entertainment, Incubation of one project every year Concept of sidepockets in hedge funds to do illiquid investments What’s happening in China? What the brand Sora Ventures stands for? Work with https://alphaslot.io and https://mith.io

Ep. #41: Jason Fang from Sora Ventures at Deconomy 2019

Decrypt Asia aims to decode and demystify the Asian Blockchain and Cryptocurrency ecosystem by producing educational notes and interviewing investors, entrepreneurs, technologists and industry insiders on a weekly basis. We are a community of learners, seekers and doers in a post-Bitcoin world, eager to be a part of the greatest technological revolution of our lifetimes since the Internet.

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Decrypt Asia - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Podcast

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