During the Web3 Carnival in Hong Kong, Blocktempo had the opportunity to interview Cobo’s co-founder and CEO, as well as F2Pool’s co-founder, Shenyu. Shenyu shared his understanding of the industry cycle, the impact of Bitcoin halving on mining, and the current investment mentality. He believes that the Bitcoin ecosystem is developing rapidly and the exploration of new technologies is encouraging, but it is still in the early stages. The demand for AI chips and Bitcoin mining machines may compete, but not necessarily. Shenyu reminded investors to maintain a balanced mindset, avoid FOMO (fear of missing out), and think about the market from a broader perspective. He also discussed the development of the future metaverse, which he believes will store and present data and ownership through blockchain technology. Ultimately, the development of crypto needs to address real-world problems.With the development of modular blockchain narratives, the performance of blockchain will gradually be solved in the next two to three years. The ultimate possible state is that many underlying applications we use will use blockchain technology, but users will not perceive it, such as MPC keyless wallets, smart contract wallets/accounts (SCW), and passkey-based AA wallets.
When users have a seamless experience, they will have keys and in a relatively decentralized manner. With the development of keyless wallet technology and a good on-chain experience, a large number of users will eventually be able to truly use blockchain technology in various scenarios.
For Cobo, we have always focused on how to securely store and use private keys, as well as a series of risk control measures during the use. We have provided different underlying private key management methods for different stages of industry development, from the early centralized HSM (Hardware Security Module) solution for institutions to meet internal risk control and auditing requirements, as well as the permission management of multiple users.
With the industry’s development, we have also provided MPC-based multi-signature solutions to avoid institutional single point of failure and enable institutions and insurance companies to have fragmented private key and similar multi-signature solutions. At the same time, we have also developed solutions based on smart wallets on the blockchain, including user control wallet solutions.
Cobo is focused on trying and wallet innovation in the future when a large number of users enter the crypto market. From my perspective, the entry of traditional institutions will widen the path. The two core issues in the end are performance and user experience. After solving the experience of keyless wallets, we will usher in a better and truly implemented state of crypto development.
Looking back at the industry’s development, do you think the idea of “decentralization” is contradictory to the crypto industry’s “decentralized” narrative?
The development of the cryptocurrency industry has explored many technological routes in the blockchain, from the early trilemma to the performance issues of the chains, to the problem of expensive block space.
After nearly five to six years of experimentation and development, the market has finally chosen modular blockchain as the solution and has shown practical use cases. We still don’t know the ultimate state and the extent of its upper-layer applications, but this trend is already very certain. This market may be the next market with a market cap of over 100 billion dollars, so my personal focus and emphasis are on modular blockchain.
Interestingly, the interview also asked about the investment mentality and trends that Bitfish is particularly concerned about. What are the trends that must be taken seriously this year?
My style is to try some fresh and interesting things, to try and make mistakes, while observing the development of these technological routes. Today in 2024, I am particularly concerned about the development of modular blockchain.
From the scalability issues in the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2017 and 2018, to the scalability issues in the Ethereum ecosystem, it took seven to eight years, and the market finally delivered an answer, which is modular blockchain, and it has already demonstrated practical use cases. We still don’t know the ultimate state and the extent of its upper-layer applications, but this trend is already very certain. This market may be the next market with a market cap of over 100 billion dollars, so my personal focus and emphasis are on modular blockchain.
It is interesting that the interview also asked about the state of mind when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies. Are you still experiencing FOMO?
FOMO is definitely something everyone experiences because groups have emotions, and the underlying biological principle is to experience FOMO. The best thing I did in 2023 was to spend more time reading and reflecting on the pitfalls and areas where I didn’t do well after the market turned bearish. The biggest gain in 2023 was reducing the FOMO mentality.
Sometimes all you need to do is a thought experiment. For example, when you see something new and exciting, you can think about it for a day or two, and then the excitement will pass, and you may not actually execute or try it.
You just need to understand what its core value is, what value it can capture. Then you may not do it because you understand that it may only be a short-term thing.
Expanding your perspective from a local view to a higher level and looking at the entire market, you will find that many actions are actually meaningless. You won’t do those short-term experiences that may look good, sometimes they give you a lot of motivation and make you feel good, but in the long run, they are actually harmful. When you get used to thinking from a bigger and farther perspective, you can escape that FOMO mentality at that time.
In the interview, Bitfish also shared that investors in different eras have different perceptions and ways of reacting to the market, especially the rise of the new generation of investors. Bitfish noticed that especially the post-2000 generation of investors, they grew up in a digital and online environment, making them more sensitive and adaptable to market changes.
The post-2000 generation is more adapted to the development of the internet because they were born as natives of the internet.
They are more sensitive to market sentiment. As veterans in the crypto industry, we are not as good at sensing market sentiment as everyone thinks. We are aware of this characteristic, so we pay less attention to short-term changes in market sentiment.
You need to understand what kind of money you are making, whether it is money from market sentiment or from cycles.
Different types of money have different return goals.
For the new, younger generation, they may have less initial capital accumulation, but they have a lot of time and a better online experience. Under these advantages, it is more suitable for them to focus on market sentiment. This is where the difference between the old and new crypto communities lies. Many post-2000s are not playing with us anymore… (laughs)
I think the post-2000s are also great. They are more adapted to the development of the internet because they were born as natives of the internet.
In the final part of the interview, as a wallet management provider and crypto OG, Bitfish straightforwardly talks about the transformation of the industry and responds to the impact of AI on the crypto industry and wallet management. Bitfish discusses what kind of understanding the crypto community should have about AI and what the future of the crypto community using AI will look like.
I think we are now at a very good intersection because we are basically in a period of rapid development of multiple technologies. Blockchain technology has solved the performance issues in the past decade, AI technology is beginning to be widely applied, and future autonomous driving and robotics technologies are also taking shape.
What is exciting is the integration of these technologies, such as the native interaction between blockchain and AI, and the direct interaction between a large number of IoT devices and AI agents. In this direction, each terminal and AI agent may have their own smart wallets and keys, and they can autonomously engage in data purchase, transactions, and investments within the scope authorized by humans.
In the future, this cross-industry integration will require the improvement of more basic modules, including improving the accuracy of encryption technology and AI models to achieve the large-scale implementation of blockchain technology and applications.
In the past two years, with the launch of more advanced VR hardware devices by technology giants, the market’s expectations for the metaverse have gradually increased. These innovative hardware devices not only improve the quality of immersive experiences but also lay the foundation for future metaverse applications. How does Bitfish view the future “metaverse” that everyone is talking about? Will it still be dominated by Web3?
The ultimate realization of the metaverse may be different from the imagination during the previous hype period, and its core lies in the storage and presentation of data and ownership in virtual space through blockchain technology, providing users with a more seamless experience. In the past, we issued on-chain assets, speculated on assets, and then looked for their applications. But in the future, with the improvement of chain performance and the reduction of data storage costs, a large number of games and metaverse applications will store high-value data assets on the blockchain without users perceiving it.
In addition, combining the native features of blockchain such as DeFi and AMM will promote spontaneous value discovery and enhance financial attributes. Instead of relying on NFTs to find applications as in the past, it is better to do the opposite and put mature applications on the chain. This process will be driven by the development of hardware technologies such as AI and VR.
In the previous metaverse craze, many investors and users rushed to buy virtual land, which was considered valuable digital assets on multiple platforms. However, after the initial investment frenzy, many people began to question the actual value and purpose of these investments, especially when they realized that besides ownership, they were not sure how to effectively use these assets to create value. Bitfish concludes the interview by saying:
Looking back, crypto has done two things in the past 10 years: first, we issued a large number of on-chain assets, such as ICOs in 2017 and 2018. At that time, issuing a large number of assets was purely conceptual and speculative, just like the dot-com bubble in 2000. Everyone could buy a domain name and speculate. In the early days, it did promote industry development, which was the bubble period.
NFTs are the same. We first issued a large number of assets, then tried and made mistakes, and then the bubble burst. In the end, it still relies on applications. Ultimately, the internet relies on a large number of applications that truly solve real-world problems, benefiting individuals in general. Crypto’s future may follow the same trajectory. A lot of time machine rules hide opportunities. If we compare, the ultimate state may be similar.
So a technology will go through a bubble period, followed by frenzy, and finally maturity. This is the typical cycle of technological development, and crypto is no exception.
Tags:
2023 market trends
AMM
DeFi
Ethereum
Altcoin season
Bitcoin
Bitfish
Source link:
https://www.blocktempo.com/blocktempo-team-interviews-bitfish/
Note: The translation is a direct translation and may not fully capture the nuances of the original text.