Vespernaut Stories: Cindy Wang
Get to know Vesper’s China ambassador.
Tell us a little more about yourself. Where are you based? How do you make a living?
I’m based in Hangzhou and my journey in crypto also started here. In February 2017, I joined the Hangzhou-based 8BTC as an English editor. Co-founded by [Bitmain co-founder] Jihan Wu and a sci-fi writer, 8BTC is one of the original and most influential crypto media companies in China. Many people got their first crypto-related jobs there.
At 8BTC, I participated in Bitcoin meetups, conferences and had an opportunity to interview influencers like Vitalik Buterin, Charlie Lee and Jiang Zhuoer just to name a few. In total, I wrote 125 articles that generated over 10 million views!
Later I moved to Beijing and worked full-time for an exchange. Unfortunately, domestic regulation is not friendly to crypto exchanges. And sitting around the office all day is really not my thing so I decided to start my own business.
In 2019, my partners and I created Satoshi’s Angels. We provide tailor-made marketing services for our clients.
How did you learn about Vesper?
I learned about Vesper in February 2021 from an old friend. He is an early bitcoin adopter and started using different DeFi platforms in early 2019. He introduced me to help translate documentation for DeFi projects like Yearn and Sushi.
One day he approached me stating there was a new DeFi project called Vesper — simple and easy-to-learn. The more and more I learnt about Vesper through my research, the more I was convinced of how much of an impact Vesper could have in the DeFi world.
What is your primary motivation for you to grow Vesper in your region?
DeFi is changing people’s mindset about savings. It offers an alternative as to how to manage your assets. But it cannot grow tremendously without bridging traditional financial services as most people worldwide still choose to keep their money in banks.
Vesper works to bring DeFi to the general public by providing the professionalism that users of traditional financial services expect.
What are your biggest challenges for Vesper’s adoption in your region?
Regulation is always the first factor to consider when starting a new business in China. Take Bitcoin mining as an example — miners have been very optimistic that they will never be shut down as they pay taxes and bring job opportunities to remote areas in China. But they are wrong. And now they have to move their entire operation to other countries.
Another one is how to convince people DeFi is a good thing and people can earn more by staking in something like Vesper versus saving money in banks. Chinese media tend to report on the bad things about crypto such as scams and money laundering, so it can be very hard to change the general public’s opinion about crypto.
What are you and your region’s Vespernauts most looking forward to in terms of future Vesper projects (e.g., Earn, VUSD, more Grow pools, etc.)?
We hope that we could have chances to host live meetups and we will make that happen.
Do you have any advice for other Vespernauts who want to be ambassadors?
Be real. If you are actually not interested in the industry, it shows.
Be hopeful even in hard times. The journey “to the moon” is never meant to be easy. Be prepared for challenges on the way.
Follow Cindy and Vesper China on Twitter.
