This is going to be more of a personal reflection.
When Prakash Somosundram mooted for XSQ to curate Singapore Blockchain Week and take this international stage by the horns in June, especially working with government support with the relevant agencies, i thought — hey that’s a very good idea. Singapore while always being a hub, we’ve always been a bit more conservative and I was a little afraid we cannot pull it off.
First off, who are we? and the government agencies here locally have always been shying away from association with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Indeed, they never worked with XSQ. Secondly, who are we? In the blockchain space, comparatively to our friends and partners, indeed — we are minnows.
Personally, with the markets going south, i was then again afraid, do we have enough funds? There were rumours on the ground XSQ is broke, we are not investing anymore, there was a personal attack on me and my leadership. That is this space, it is toxic, character assassination thriving to put others and people down.
I started early in July during our trip to Israel to just tell strangers we met in this blockchain space — “guys, we are going to do this”. No websites, no event programs/schedules no speakers no sponsors. We just spoke to everyone we met — one conversation at a time, one meeting after one meeting. I came up with a simple powerpoint and called for partnerships — only a few friends responded. I started to question myself, can we really do this?
Notwithstanding 2 weeks to this week, rumors of Consensus was going to be cancelled. For sure, Singapore isn’t Seoul, neither are we New York. I thought, are we still going to do this?
FUD. I seldom use this term. Fear, unknown and doubts. I really hate to use this term. Because I am naturally a positive person.
I begun to campaign, from the basement, XSQ’s allies and partners. I only wanted one thing — I wanted the world to be in Singapore. First we went around locally, XSQ never wanted to clash with any of our top tier friends and their events. We started to band together locally first within Singapore. We needed to be UNITED. Not the bullshit of FUD and rubbish when the world (which i was doubtful at this stage) will turn up. I went to Korea, and we spoke to the boys at Hashed, Seojoon Kim and Seok Won Hong just told me — Let’s do this. With that we started planning for the 17th. My dear brother, Ran Neu-Ner came thru and asked me “do you want CNBC in Singapore?”. And i thought a blockchain week without CNBC will never be a blockchain week. At this time, there was still no website, no program only one event without even a venue. Next up, we spoke to Kenetic in Hong Kong, and Jehan Chu stood up and supported this right away. Japan came through and supported our pursuits with Mai Fujimoto helping us spread the fire in Tokyo. One of the most powerful influencer group Wolf Crypto told me — “just go ahead and plan and go for it brother, we will ping the world on your behalf”. Our boys from FirstDAG Ran Goldshtein and Alon told us we will get there. The girls of iCapital Agada Nameri, Shelly Hod Moyal and Adi tirelessly giving assurance they will be there.
Our dearest brand guardian — Gilbert Quek came up and asked me — eh zhuang do you need a website? or some marketing colleteral?
Still I doubted, how do we curate a blockchain week? We went on to immediately plan for 4 events fearing there will not be enough content to go around for a whole week. I told myself — this is for Singapore. XSQ decided to not headline, therefore every event should be free, it should be of good content, it should showcase not only the blockchain and cryptocurrencies but it should overall showcase Singapore. As we pressed on, I began to hear the folks from all over the world, taking up venues, hotels room, flight bookings and overall, i saw the online chatter — is there something in Singapore?
Now that we’ve come to the end of a 6 day blockbuster content in Singapore. On hindsight, in this deepest of winter we heard XRP pumping, Eth jumped at the end of Singapore Blockchain Week — of course its definitely not at our doing. I was too pleasantly surprised, the world turned up for us. I hear people travelling 90hour flight journey across the world to come in, Countless of “how i avoided the Typhoon” stories were shared, the mad scramble of everyone to get packed in this tiny place I call home. The Jewish community — because of our trip to Israel, made preparation in their new year and in Yom Kippur to stop work on the 19th but told me “zhuang we will be in Singapore, after the sunsets, we will be with you”.
We chose the tagline — Forward, Stronger Together. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all and that being in itself an understatement. Thank you all for going stronger with us. This industry needs more positivism, thank you all, for turning up for us in Singapore. More than 2000 people turning up for XSQ’s events, top tier folks from this industry came along. For the local boys at QCP, Darius Sit, Ho Zhe Joshua, Jin Li Lim, the godfather John Ng of Signum, the up and coming youngstarts of WhaleBlocks Goh Yeou Jie. We made it. Throughout the week I saw the madhouse of crypto in Singapore. I’ve always attended these elsewhere, but now happening on home ground. We did this without government support, we started a spark and it became a fire. and most of all, we in Singapore stood against the tide of this market. we chose to showcase yet the powers there be of what Singapore can be. Without the hype, and the pomp of the monies that’s mostly burnt in this space at this point. I dare say, the sheer numbers of people here — crushed the Formula One the week before.
To my friends, who when there was no semblance yet at the early stage and just put their blind faith into me and into XSQ. You know i am in your corner. I will go all out for you. To the government of Singapore, we managed to pull the world into this island with the right content and strong narratives that we learnt in our education in Singapore. To the folks who are feeling down and depressed because of these negative forces, there is always a rainbow.
Most of all, to my wife Liew Fion LY, thank you for the understanding and defending at home while we did something for this nation.
