Approximately 2,000 members of the cryptocurrency community gathered on Thursday for Taipei Blockchain Week to listen to speakers cover topics such as the future of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the role of Llayer 1 in Web3 in 2024.
In his opening remarks, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an welcomed innovation to his city. Notable attendees included Vitalik Buterin, developer of Ethereum, and Richard Teng, newly appointed CEO of Binance, who discussed the need for regulation in the cryptocurrency industry.
Via a live broadcast Having succeeded Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) as CEO of Binance, Teng—a former regulator in Abu Dhabi—said he was "humbled and honoured" to be at the helm of the exchange and noted the continued growth of its user base, which now stands at 167 million.
He emphasized the need to both control risk and foster growth in his previous position as a regulator, saying that the latter would cause the former to be neglected.
According to Teng, even though "traditional media still associate crypto and blockchain with scams and illicit funds," the quantity of criminal funds moving into crypto is just 0.02%, according to statistics provided by the US financial crime office Chainalysis and many other research pieces.
Teng continued by saying that he is still positive on crypto, and that more institutions would join the market thanks to upcoming events like the Bitcoin Halving and, "hopefully," the approval of an ETF in the US.
Buterin Proudly Displays His Taiwan Employment Gold Card as a Special Guest
At the conference, Buterin spoke passionately about Ethereum's pipeline. Since he was awarded a Taiwan Employment Gold Card, a permission that would allow him to lawfully remain and work in the country, Ethereum co-founder Buterin has a particular relationship with Taiwan.
In a recent blog post, Buterin explained that the enshrined Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (ZK-EVM) is an architectural proposal to improve the efficiency of the main chain on Ethereum. This proposal is to integrate advanced cryptographic techniques directly into the main chain. Its goal is to make Ethereum transaction verification easier and safer in this way. In particular, it aims to enhance and optimize the functioning of apps running on Layer-2.
For what kind of market downturn?
There was no way that the Taiwanese convention center could have been mistaken for a bear market with all the free food and cake booths. On Thursday, the price of Bitcoin increased significantly, climbing to $42,777, a 4% rise. A dovish stance on future rate hikes and intense debates over the approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs have propelled this rally, with investment behemoth BlackRock reading the minutes as a "green light for investors" in the most recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
According to David Tng, head of growth at TZ APAC—the top Tezos blockchain incubator in Asia—this year, attendance has been very high. What did he say?
The expansion of Taipei Blockchain Week has astounded me. Layer 1 blockchain companies and startups creating a real-world effect are among the innovators and leaders who have convened at the event.
Tng, who flies in from Singapore to attend the event, views Taipei Blockchain Week as a chance to meet interesting people and build professional relationships; he thinks the Taiwanese artists and projects he's encountered so far are fantastic representations of the creativity happening in the area.
The akaSwap team's innovative use of gamification in product development was one of the businesses that piqued Tng's interest, he added.
