The second phase of the ChainCatcher "Zhen" series event was successfully held, where Chinese builders discussed the changes and opportunities in the new cycle of cryptocurrency

On April 16, the second session of the "Zhen" series event hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData was held in Hong Kong, with the theme "New Cycle and New Narrative." The event invited several industry builders, including Wu Ming, co-founder and CTO of Conflux, Matt, CEO of Blofin, Nicole Zhang, partner at LIF, Bree, market partner at dappOS, Jordan, co-founder of UXUY Protocol, Tian Hongfei, founding partner of Yuanwang Capital, and Vince Yang, co-founder of zkLink, to explore the changes and opportunities in the new cycle of cryptocurrency.

At the beginning of the event, Hunter, a partner at ChainCatcher, delivered a speech expressing gratitude for everyone's attention and support for ChainCatcher and its crypto data platform, RootData. RootData, as ChainCatcher's latest crypto data platform, is building a reliable and rich project database for the crypto industry, helping users comprehensively understand project teams, financing, news, and other information. It has already become one of the most highly rated data products in the industry. Next, RootData will continue to enrich project data and provide more diversified high-quality products and services around the goal of productivity tools.

Hunter, Partner at ChainCatcher

The first keynote speech was delivered by Wu Ming, co-founder and CTO of Conflux, who introduced the development of Conflux under the theme "Conflux: Next-Generation Digital Economy Infrastructure."

Wu Ming mentioned that since its launch on October 29, 2020, Conflux has established over 1,000 POW nodes across 26 countries and regions worldwide. The total number of on-chain accounts is 9,879,487, with over 62 million transactions processed; 6,008 smart contracts have been deployed on-chain. Conflux has been focusing on and operating communities and influence in emerging countries and regions, such as Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa), Latin America (Mexico, Chile), and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam), aiming to provide more inclusive, convenient, and smooth blockchain services locally in the long term. This year, it has particularly attracted attention from users and developers in Europe and the United States, with user growth reaching 150%.

In addition, Conflux's test data has reached the level of centralized operations comparable to VISA and is ahead of international distributed systems like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Libra. When Facebook released its distributed system Libra white paper in 2019, Conflux was defined as its competitor as the only distributed system project from China. Conflux's unique gas payment mechanism allows users to interact on-chain without needing to hold native tokens in their wallets to pay for gas, providing significant convenience for attracting traffic.

In terms of ecological development, Conflux has formed over 150 Web3 ecosystems, including Xiaohongshu and iQIYI, and has partnered with over 700 brands, including China Youth Daily, Xi'an Museum, Tsinghua University, Taobao, and McDonald's, and has issued over 7.1 million compliant digital certificates/collectibles.

Wu Ming, Co-founder and CTO of Conflux

Regarding the impact of the macro economy on the crypto market, Matt, CEO of Blofin, shared his views under the theme "Opportunities and Challenges in the Crypto Market in the Post-Rate-Hike Era."

Matt stated that the current breakthroughs in AI technology have brought new opportunities to the crypto market, and the blockchain-based crypto market will provide relatively fair and secure infrastructure for resource and wealth distribution needs. Concerning Hong Kong's position in the crypto market, Matt pointed out that Hong Kong's advantages in fiat currency channels, talent reserves, and policies give it the potential to become a new cryptocurrency hub.

Regarding the impact of changes in the macroeconomic environment on the crypto market, Matt mentioned that the interest rate hike cycle is coming to an end, and liquidity is returning to the crypto market. New liquidity entering the crypto market due to banking crises and geopolitical crises has also brought new opportunities. In response to the new opportunities and challenges in the crypto market in the post-rate-hike era, Blofin will continue to innovate to meet users' diverse needs in value storage and asset trading.

Matt, CEO of Blofin

In the crypto bear market, what new investment strategies do venture capital funds have? Nicole Zhang, partner at LIF, shared LIF's investment direction through her keynote speech titled "Breaking the Web3.0 Cannibalism."

Nicole introduced that LIF invests in the "ABC" narrative, where "A" stands for Access. LIF believes that wallets, Layer 1/2, and mobile phones cannot be considered true Web 3.0 entry points; the real entry should be middleware in the form of Dapps, APIs, and SDKs that provide users with frictionless, low-threshold access, along with convenient payment gateways. "B" stands for Better Blockchain, indicating the urgent need for decentralized storage, oracles, AI, and other infrastructure to improve underlying performance. "C" stands for Content, as LIF believes that relying solely on DeFi is insufficient to support the crypto industry; Web 3.0 needs content such as games, music, videos, and images to attract and retain users.

Additionally, Nicole pointed out that most 2C projects currently fail to genuinely attract new users to use Web 3.0. For example, the rise of StepN essentially competes for Axie Infinity community users, and this "cannibalism" is prevalent in other industry ecosystems as well. Web 3.0 needs new users to achieve healthier growth. In this regard, Nicole suggested that project teams should build communities from scratch, avoid shortcuts, use real data to analyze and interact with the community, and launch tokens that can expand the user base.

Nicole Zhang, Partner at LIF

In the second half of the event, Bree, market partner at dappOS, opened with a presentation titled "The Operating Protocol for dApps," introducing the development achievements of dappOS and looking forward to the development trends of crypto infrastructure.

Bree explained that dappOS is an operating protocol designed to lower the barriers to interacting with crypto infrastructure. Through dappOS, users can enter DApps with a Web2 experience, avoiding friction from mnemonic phrases, non-resettable accounts, and data and wallets distributed across different chains. dappOS also optimizes the seamless experience for users of Chain A when using Chain B dApps. For example, after integrating dappOS dApp front-end SDK in OP Perpetual, a user can use and receive assets on Ethereum with only 4 clicks instead of the previous 76 clicks, reducing the time from 12 minutes to less than one minute, greatly simplifying various user operations and saving time. Additionally, dappOS has launched a Mini-program Platform that allows users to view multiple assets through a unified account, complete cross-chain and other complex operations, and supports cross-chain and cross-currency merged payments within the account.

Currently, dappOS has integrated 15 dapps, including GMX, Benqi, Perpetual, Pangolin, and Kyber, as well as public chains like Polygon, Avalanche, and zkSync, with the number of addresses exceeding 10,000 and total TVL exceeding 3 million USD.

Bree, Market Partner at dappOS

After the keynote speeches, Hunter, partner at ChainCatcher, hosted a roundtable discussion with Matt, CEO of Blofin, Jordan, co-founder of UXUY Protocol, Tian Hongfei, founding partner of Yuanwang Capital, and Vince Yang, co-founder of zkLink, under the theme "For Consensus, Reverse Thinking, and Long-Termism." During the discussion on "When will the crypto market emerge from the bear market and the driving factors behind it," Vince Yang, co-founder of zkLink, believed that the crypto market could see a significant recovery this year or next year, and the development of zk technology is one of the main driving factors for a new bull market. At the same time, zkLink firmly believes that crossing the bull and bear markets still relies on product and technological innovation.

Tian Hongfei, founding partner of Yuanwang Capital, stated that based on Bitcoin's significant rise from last year's bottom to recent levels, there is a 70% probability that this indicates a bull market recovery. However, there are two practical issues worth considering: first, where are the channels for inflows into the U.S.? Second, how to drive the market when there are not enough stakers providing liquidity.

Jordan, co-founder of UXUY Protocol, believed that the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike and cut rhythm is one of the most critical factors affecting the market's bull and bear cycles, while the payback period for mining, gas fees, etc., can serve as indicators for judging the market's bull and bear states. Currently, with the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum rising, the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, along with the grand event in Hong Kong, suggests that the crypto market is at the beginning of a new bull market.

Matt, CEO of Blofin, stated that if the crypto industry only cares about prices and token returns, then there are issues with the market's development. The future development of the crypto industry depends on three factors: first, the originality and application value of industry technology. The reason AI's ChatGPT has become popular is that it significantly improves user productivity. So where are the technological innovations and breakthrough applications in the crypto field? Second, regulation; there is a certain conflict between the decentralization advocated in the crypto field and centralized regulation, which determines the survival of many players. Third, the macro environment; the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes and cuts are key deciding factors, and we need to wait for policy changes.

After the exciting roundtable discussion, the second session of the "Zhen" series event hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData successfully concluded amid enthusiastic free exchanges among the attending guests. Everyone is welcome to continue following the series of events by ChainCatcher and RootData.