Community Building Series #2: Ellena Ki, the professionals of Community Building in Southeast Asia
# Why Klaytn focuses on building a community
Dear Klaytn readers,
Building blockchain communities is one of the key elements in making the blockchain business successful. There are three reasons why blockchain companies must consider building and growing blockchain communities. In the blockchain industry, a community acts as a partner in development, a contributor to the project, and as a supporter of the project. Klaytn helps so that communities can grow stronger, since they are the most important assets in the development of the platform. In this new series of articles ‘Community Building Series’, we share interesting ideas about community building, what it means, and why we need them. We get together with blockchain community experts from the Southeast Asia region and discuss their experiences and thoughts as well as the current status of blockchain community formation.
In this second article, we share an interview with Ellena Ki, who is a Marketing Leader at Infinito Solutions, headquarters in Singapore. Infinito Solutions is a part of the esteemed Infinity Blockchain Group with offices in Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Europe.
#1. From finance person to blockchain
KJ: Hello, Ellena. It is a great pleasure to have you for an interview. Please introduce yourself to Klaytn readers about what you do as a community builder at Infinito Solutions.
Ellena: Hi, KJ and Brian. It is an honor for me to participate in the Community Building Series as the second speaker. I am Ellena Ki, and I work at Infinito Solutions in the marketing and business partnership department. My main role is to expand the Infinito ecosystem and enhance the Infinito brand by partnering with top blockchain service providers. At Infinito, the marketing team aims to establish strong branding among crypto communities and the blockchain industry as a whole. We work closely with business and technical teams so we can make better products, services, and solutions in order to improve customer experience.
We strongly believe in the power of collaboration, as we can leverage the expertise of many to enhance and deliver better value to our community. That is why our team is focusing on partnerships with industry experts. We must bring new value to the Infinito ecosystem to achieve maximum benefits for our users and customers.
Brian: Alright! I’m now curious how you entered the blockchain industry.
Ellena: I spent the past 15 years of my professional life in the finance industry, working in Japan and Hong Kong. My work centered in particular around intercontinental finance services: the flow of money across borders including fixed income, equities, funds, settlement, custody, collateral management, fund settle, and more. After years of working in the finance world, I was seeking something new. That is how I eventually ended up in the blockchain world. I realized that the transparent yet secure way of recording data means that system breaches, funds misappropriation, and lack of consumer trust will become issues of the past. I also realized that a smart contract of blockchain can optimize the cost and speed of the transaction significantly — industry leaders are gradually seeing the value of blockchain and will eventually try to utilize it.
#2. Thoughts about Community Building from Ellena
Brian: A common sentiment throughout the blockchain space is that blockchain companies regard the community as a very important part of building a blockchain ecosystem for their projects. Would you share your thoughts and opinions on why blockchain companies focus on community building so much?
Ellena: The blockchain industry is still fairly young, and the communities are not as large or mature in comparison to other industries. Blockchain technology users tend to be a niche demographic that are very tech-savvy. The average consumers, however, usually believe that blockchain products are difficult to use, prone to scams, and are not practical. Therefore, to expand the mass adoption of this technology, blockchain companies need to develop easy and safe to use products and services. Additionally, they should aim to solve the needs of real users so that they become viable in the mainstream market — where less tech-savvy users value speed and convenience above all.
KJ: Okay. Could you tell our readers what kind of communities your company is trying to build?
Ellena: Infinito has always been building its ecosystem around community needs. We support the most wanted blockchains, functionality, cryptocurrencies, and DApps (Decentralized Applications).
Our wallet expanded its functionality beyond send and receive. We included support for unique utilities of specific blockchains such as managing EOS resources, claiming NEO GAS, etc. We also collaborated with IOHK and Binance to give our wallet the best performance for Cardano & Binance Chain networks users. As for DApp support, we have been working with Ontology and EOS partners as our technology providers.
We join and host many meetups, programs, events, and charities to engage better with our communities as well as reward them for being part of the Infinito ecosystem. These include global EOS account registration campaigns, frequent token airdrops from ecosystem partners, programs for global users who meet us, and community campaigns such as referrals, bounties, and more.
Infinito will issue utility token INFT soon, which has been well-rated as BB by TokenInsight, a leading crypto project rating and analysis agency. We also organized INFT airdrop exclusively for participants who participated in many events such as Bibox Meetups. We have been and we will continue to do various AMAs with global partners such as Ontology, IOST, COSMOS, COCOS, and more. As you can see, Infinito is always seeking collaboration with the industry’s best to deliver better services to our communities.
Our soon-to-be-released INFT token is designed to encourage community growth, specifically for the Infinito ecosystem. With features such as staking to receive benefits, voting for Infinito product roadmaps, rating for service quality of ecosystem DApps and etc., we aim to accelerate growth in the number of blockchain users and developer communities in our ecosystem. This will help us achieve the final goal of mass adoption.
Brian: Can you give us the pros and cons about community building in your country? Also any thoughts on your government’s stance on blockchain (in general / cryptocurrency / development, etc.)?
Ellena: Our country, Singapore, is very open to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. All blockchain and crypto businesses operating in the country must comply with the official laws set by the government. Thus, it is less complicated to build a community in Singapore compared to less open-minded countries, where laws are unclear. On the other hand, due to the market being so open, there is more competition not only now but also in the future.
Currently, Infinito ecosystem users come from many different parts of the world and have a diverse array of needs. This is why the products, services, and solutions of our ecosystem must cover a wide range of demands. And this is why one of our top priorities is to always understand and serve the different needs of the community.
The Singaporean government is open to blockchain technology and many blockchain projects on the market. Quite a few of them are even supported by the government itself. This is why Singapore is currently regarded as “the heaven of blockchain” — the country understands how much impact this technology could have to our society. We believe that Singapore is on the right track, and we believe that is is crucial for more countries to recognize the immense potential of blockchain: daily lives can be much improved using this new technology.
Vietnam is one of the key markets Infinito is focusing on. There are many reasons as to why Vietnam’s economy is rapidly growing. The government and the public have a high level of understanding in fintech, a large number of crypto users, as well as a skilled blockchain developer community. For these reasons, Vietnam is being regarded as a high potential market for many blockchain companies.
We organized many rewards for Vietnamese users. INFT airdrop at ‘Cointime Summit 2019’ event is one of them. The most notable event was last year’s “Junction x Hanoi,” in which our team had the honor to lead a team of young Vietnamese developers to gain global recognition. Infinito is also looking forward to collaborating with blockchain companies in Vietnam. We will build a strong network and promote Vietnam as the blockchain hub of Asia.
KJ: We know that you are a blockchain enthusiast who is building blockchain communities in Southeast Asia. Please share your experiences so we can understand more about the community building, even though we have not experienced it directly. And lastly, you mentioned that it is very important for blockchain companies to create communities and collaborate together to make a better blockchain ecosystem. Could you share your personal thoughts on that regard?
Ellena: Communities are developing high interests in the practical use cases of blockchain technology. The most notable one is DApp services — especially fiat gateway — and security tokens. This is something that we have foreseen. We have geared up to support security tokens as well as focusing on expanding our ecosystem of services and developing the new payment platform, InfinitoPAY. A seamless experience will be the main selling point. Service providers will need to prioritize this aspect to effectively develop their products and grow their user base.
Infinito is always open to collaborations with global blockchain players. In fact, we have formed strategic partnerships with leading blockchain players such as Binance (China), EOS Block Producers and Block Producer Candidates, Ontology, IOST, and many more. We work with big players like IOHK — the company behind Cardano blockchain (Hong Kong), ONTology (China), prominent tech companies, media, and DApp partners worldwide such as Kyber Network, Changelly, ETHFinex, and etc.
In the past, we have successfully collaborated with EOS community leaders and achieved over 12,000 users joining the rising EOS blockchain. We also have them access EOS DApps. Infinito was one of the first names in the industry to support Binance’s assets and services including BNB Coin and Binance DEX (decentralized exchange) on our ecosystem via official collaboration. At the moment, we are talking to various global partners such as Sofitto, CryptoWolf, Wisepass, EOS Account Creator, DEXEOS, and many more companies for an upcoming membership program, which will provide premium benefits and incentives to our ecosystem members.
Brian: For our last question, could you give our readers some final advice regarding gathering people to build blockchain communities?
Ellena: It would be best to really learn and know about the market. Then you can target the right partners. Understanding the demands and expectations of your target community will help you more than anything when you are trying to build one effectively. Having a strong partner network, and I recommend prominent regional players, can significantly boost your branding as well as help you gain trust from communities. Aside from technical collaboration, there are many valuable areas of cooperation that you can explore, such as events and community programs. Be ambitious!
