IBC presents: Leonhard Weese, President of the Bitcoin Association Hong Kong.
Leonhard Weese is the President of the Bitcoin Association Hong Kong as well as a mentor for Fintech Supercharger, an asian Startup accelerator. His personal and professional interests lie with Bitcoin, IT security and online privacy.
Leonhard, how did you end up in Hong Kong?
I studied in Vienna and really wanted to get out of Europe for a year. The masters program in Hong Kong looked very attractive. The city is big and exciting, the universities are good with many interesting topics. I applied for the statistics program at the University of Hong Kong and was overjoyed when they accepted me. After completing my studies I liked it here so much that I applied for work. With a rather liberal Visa system in Hong Kong, it made the whole process much easier.
As President of the Bitcoin Association Hong Kong, you are at the very heart of the Blockchain Revolution. What were some of your highlights in 2016?
At the beginning of 2016 we organized a Bitcoin Roundtable. Developers working on the Bitcoin protocol as well as Bitcoin miners across the whole world came and discussed the next steps in the development process of Bitcoin. It’s still up for debate if the meeting would lead to another breakthrough, however it was fun to be a part of, just like last December during the “Scaling Bitcoin Conference” here in Hong Kong which we helped organize.
However, the Blockchain was a huge topic throughout the year. The finance minister of Hong Kong mentioned it during his budget statement and we received a lot more publicity from the media compared to last year.
There were of course less positive events that happened as well such as the Hong Kong based Bitfinex hack and the huge, DAO drama.
What are your expectations for 2017?
In 2017, I expect a breakthrough in the development of Bitcoin as well as Ethereum. Concerning Bitcoin, the main barrier to overcome is more political, since many people need to be convinced if there are any changes to be made. In Ethereuem there are also still a few technical details to overcome for eg. the long awaited “Proof of Stake” concept of Caspar and how that will turn out.
We had a look together at the multi-level marketing scam of OneCoin in Italy. What have you learnt from this experience?
It was a very interesting experience. I am still fascinated how professionally done this scam really is and how participants were told that they would receive a lot of criticism from friends and from the Internet. It was also surprising to see how they used apparent legitimate projects as an argument. The statement “The financial system is broken” seems to be a very well spread opinion.
Do you think cryptocurrencies could be damaged?
I don’t think so, no however I feel that there is often too little criticism regarding the Blockchain. There are too many catchy phrases and gimmicky words with less emphasis on the technology itself. In my opinion the Blockchain is a wonderful invention but it is not the solution to everything. Most of the time in presentations you can simply replace the word Blockchain with the word computer or Internet and the statement has the same effect.
Bitcoin just reached a new high, in your opinion what was the reason for this?
In the short term it is pure speculation. Bitcoin is still rather small and very volatile leading to wold speculation. Whoever wants to invest in crypto should do so with small amounts on a weekly basis and save it somewhere secure. That way a person is not affected by dramatic changes in the market.
What are the biggest risks and at the same time, the greatest potential for Bitcoin in 2017?
The biggest risk would be stagnant growth. It would not mean the end of Bitcoin, however many things we have envisioned such as micropayments and monetary transactions would not be possible with the mechanisms in place. Bitcoin would then still be practical and valuable but more for payments in developing countries.
Looking at it from a different angle, it is also possible that in 2017 we will see the emergence of the first networks enabling us to make small bitcoin transactions that are fast and reliable. All of a sudden I could be paying for good journalism per article which is simply not possible at the moment.
Segwit technology will be a deciding factor behind the growth of Bitcoin. How many Bitcoins are you willing to bet that Segwit will either be implemented or discarded in 2017 and why?
I believe that Segwit will be implemented in 2017, however I am not willing to risk more than 10 euros. A malleability fix is more important, enabling systems such as Lightning. Additionally, Segwit has other advantages such as increasing the capacity or a simpler upgrade process for signatures. But Segwit could also possibly combine this in an easy way. This would give developers the chance to convince other Bitcoiners of their malleability fix. But we still haven’t seen such a proposal yet.
Bitcoin has been around for 8 years. How will Blockchain Technology look in the next 8 years?
I am convinced that that Bitcoin will be a core part of some niche systems in the next 8 years. Everyone that is regularly using the Internet has a few Bitcoins on hand, or has the possibility to easily acquire some. For online games, booking holidays or small purchases, Bitcoin will be as widespread as credit card payments systems are today. In the next 8 years we will also see other systems that have successfully used the Blockchain to implement identity systems and processes that verify software or servers. I also believe that many stocks and investments will be based on cryptographic tokens.
What would you miss about Hong Kong?
The extremely efficient local transport, the variety of restaurants and the possibility to find almost anything you need when walking down the street. Many of my friends find the density of Hong Kong a little oppressive but for me its great. It only takes an hour by bus to get to much calmer areas such as the beach or mountain. In retrospect, we have a really nice life here.
Interview by Roland Kofler
