Proposal: Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG)

What is the impact of the current China FUD on the Chinese Market?
I read from the news that they closed down many Chinese crypto social media/platforms and some CEXes.

What is the plan if this gets worse? I would see this as an opportunity to use DEXes/DeFi products but I want to hear your thoughts as you live in China.

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I see that in a bigger frame. The imminent bankruptcy of Evergate, and the threat that many people lose their money, life savings of entire families - combined with the crypto crackdown (again) leave the questions: who has still money and where/how can they invest? DeFi and crypto are not controllable by the CCP, but banks are.

Hi Don, thanks for the question, an interesting one. So, what are the objectives the Chinese government hope to achieve through tightening regulations? I can think of three:

  1. Ban all PoW mining activities that rely on coal, as the country is transitioning rapidly into clean energy more aggressively than any other.

  2. Curb capital outflow, including money laundering, anonymous crossborder forex transfer, online casinos and funding for any other illegal activities.

  3. Put a lid on cryptocurrency speculation and financial bubble by preventing retail traders from buying $Doge perpetual futures contracts with 20X leverage.

What they do not want to happen is the death of blockchain and crypto innovation in the country. On the contrary, China is betting big on blockchain. I encourage you to listen to one of the Bankless podcasts.

Admittedly, there is considerable uncertainty with respect to future ā€œcrackdownsā€ of crypto. (Most likely there will be) But isnā€™t uncertainty associated with every government? Crypto, and especially DeFi, has accelerated way ahead of regulations in nearly every country. I do not think that DeFi and Index coop fall within any one of the three loopholes China want to close. Instead, like Chainlink, Polygon and SushiSwap, who have China as one of their prioritised markets, Index coop could potentially become a financial infrastructure protocol that operates cross-chain and cross-border.

Regarding the China FUD (againšŸ¤£), people in the epicenter have been calm and collected. Our ChainNews live event will be aired. Blockchain clubs in universities are mushrooming. I have contacted a newly set up student blockchain association in Tsing Hua University. We start hearing people talking about NFTs in bars and cafes. Literally every contemporary art gallery in Shanghai is hosting NFT exhibitions. Our partners in China, including LD, ChainNews and Odaily are supportive of our regional expansion initiatives.

RMB on-ramp channels have been blocked, and I am not hopeful of Chinese CEXs listing Index products any time soon. But there are various other opportunities we can explore.

Also, referring to an argument I made earlier during APAC internal discussions. Chinese institutions and blockchain service providers are increasingly serving global investors. A significant number of them have moved overseas to Singapore and other crypto-friendly countries. Our wallet partner ONTO is based in Shenzhen, China but their customer base is international. By ā€œChinaā€, we do not mean serving onshore Chinese investors only. We are hoping to capture opportunities in partnering with Chinese blockchain projects overseas and establishing relationships with Chinese funds, no matter where they are based.

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Hi Ronald, the Evergrande failure is unfortunate, but it probably only affects 0.01% of all households. And according to a SCMP article, the government has injected 120 billion liquidity to buffer the impact. It is estimated to drag GDP growth by 0.3% at most, as further deleveraging is expected. But at any rate, it does not change our assessment of opportunities in China.

My undergraduate thesis was about the risk of highly leveraged real estate firms in China, and it is unfortunate that nobody listened to me in the past two yearsšŸ¤£

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Incredible proposal @lee0007 - thorough analysis.

Crypto hasnā€™t really hit mainstream media in Oceania yet. An APAC WG could lead to Index COOP becoming a household name in this region as mainstream adoption ramps up.

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Really strong proposal and QnA. I continue to be strongly in support of this new WG - and look forward to seeing the results of the contributorsā€™ work.

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120 billion, and the stock went done by 80%??? Thatā€™s far away from saving a day!
Donā€™t get me wrong. We should be careful how we react to this bad news. Evergrande is not the only bad news. The crackdown on ALL crypto activities is another uncertainty. Yes, it is going on already a long time. However, so far it never got better for crypto.

How can we act to make sure we do not lose in that game?

Actually, the principal reason for us to include China as one of the initially prioritised markets in this proposal is NOT that we foresee China quickly becoming a growth engine for the Coop in the next quarter. However, it is because we see a need to serve EXISTING institutional investors, DeFi partners from China. We are hoping to reinforce our relationship with these partners and potentially engage new ones. Thus, it is most ideal to approach China market with a much more coordinated effort, supported by a network of talented contributors in APAC.

I am not a fortune teller. I am not able to predict the magnitude of future crackdowns. To the best of my current knowledge of the market, the potential benefit of engaging Chinese partners outweighs the risk of financial or reputation damage to IC. We are not opening a new office in China or hiring at a large scale. So there is not much overhead cost. Budget for China represents only a fraction of APAC budget. Also, to be frank, I have had trouble understanding how a defaulting real estate developer could downsize opportunities in the blockchain space.

I agree with Ronald that we should exercise caution over this initiative. I take responsibility for my words and judgements, but they could be wrong. It seems that the last three discussions/challenges, which are always encouraged, centered around China. If there is a broader consensus in the community that we should realign APAC priorities to avoid risks associated with China, Iā€™m happy to help with amending the proposal. It is an Asia-Pacific WG proposal after all.

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More broadly framed, developing product marketing content and events for mandarin speaking communities serves a global audience, not just China. I 100% support this priority.

Agree, thereā€™s unforseen risks in this business and so I 100% trust our business development leads and teams to navigate and mitigate risk in the best interest of the coop.

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Also MAJOR budget changes coming to bring our budget request inline with what similar sized working groups proposed Q3 - which might swing the focus of conversation. Almost doubled to reflect:

  1. The number of core contributors we have delivering full-time/part-time equivalent workloads
  2. Ad hoc and job boards rewards to drive outreach efforts
  3. Surplus requests for co-funding ,translation work w. LOWG
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Hey @anon10525910,

First off thank you for this thought provoking questions and seeking clarification. Always appreciate your insight and your curiosity nature. This is the very thing that drives growth!!

I believe most of the questions has already been answered by @lee0007 , @Tudou and @Elmit. Though Iā€™ll chime in and provide my thoughts on the below questions;

Personally I see APWG is redefining how a Working Group should operate. Weā€™re basically the most diverse group of Owls ever assemble in Index Coop. Given that Asia + Pacific count for almost 50 countries the world and being the most populous region (more than half of Global Population; Asia and Oceanic ) .

That means with so many cultural background, across multiple sub regions, How we approach a Working Group should reflect thatā€¦ from what I see it will run by being lean & flexible. Heck The Coop itself is already on the bleeding edge of culture building in the DAO is the ā€œfuture of collaborationā€

What @Tudou mention below really hit home the above;

and what @lee0007 below shows that weā€™re really living the DAO wayā€¦

To end this, even I donā€™t have all the answers. But I do believe in the team iā€™ve assemble for APWG will get the job done. In the end itā€™s the progress & process that inevitably create impact to the whole Index Coop protocol.

p.s. The last paragraph is a rally call to all APAC Contributors!!! Time to grind & letā€™s show what weā€™re made off!!! :fire: :fire: :fire:

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Elaborating and adding to reflect my comment on the call, in no particular order:

  1. Geography-specific functions (like translation and country BD) make a lot of sense to allocate to a WG, but would benefit by leveraging the knowledge and resources of the functional WG.
  2. Coordinating between WGs takes time, energy and management, so APWG should be conscious about taking over responsibilities and their overheads.
  3. Iā€™d suggest a tighter scope, and simpler approach (do we need 4 geographical hubs within APWG?) with fewer, clearer actions - once up and running effectively, it can be widened.
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Thank you for this feedback @Cavalier_Eth I have a few questions

The opening summary states that we are looking to operate in consultation with global working groups, and this is repeated several times throughout. We 100% require the knowledge, experience and insight of leads and contributors throughout the coop.

Can you point to any specific information that indicates otherwise ? And Iā€™ll look to clarify our position as collaborators within the global community.

Agree, additional references to coordination & communication were edited out due to length (still a very long proposal). In terms of overheads, the actual budget is double the placeholder provided in this post. I have attempted to account in some detail for time, relative to the current composition of our APAC community .

Can you clarify/specify which ā€œresponsibilities and their overheadsā€ it appears we would be taking over?

Iā€™d happily agree to remove Oceania until Q2 2022. & gamification of the onboarding process was hopeful but given what Iā€™ve seen accomplished, possible for Q4. I will scratch these items

With those two items removed, the rest of the work outlined reflects the current work in progress. And at least one of the listed activities looks set to be completed before the official proposal thanks to POCā€™s @bradwmorris and his brilliant work for global onboarding processes.

Keen to hear if there are there other specific items that we should look to ā€˜narrowā€™

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