Interview with Anndy Lian: Views on 2022 Cryptocurrency Adoption – What Is Coming Next

Interview with Anndy Lian: Views on 2022 Cryptocurrency Adoption – What Is Coming Next

Anndy Lian is an all-rounded business strategist in Asia. He has provided advisory across a variety of industries for local, international, public listed companies and governments. He is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur, book author, investor, board member and keynote speaker. Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. He is also the Chairman, Asia for BigONE Exchange.

Being an Asian, I would like to hear Anndy’s perspectives on how he sees cryptocurrency adoption for 2022.

 

Jenny Zheng: Now that the SEC appears to have dropped its resistance to (certain) Bitcoin ETFs, do you expect we’ll see increased institutional adoption of bitcoin/crypto as an investment vehicle and/or inflation hedge?

 

Anndy Lian: It’s certainly welcome news to exchange-traded fund managers with the launch of the first Bitcoin futures ETF this week, with the ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF, to first and foremost provide their clients with the option to diversify their portfolio with cryptocurrencies, a testament to the maturation of the market.

 

Plus, the news that Interactive Brokers announced they will empower Registered Investment Advisors across the United States to invest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies means hundreds of billions of dollars can now enter the market more easily.

 

It’s true that big institutional investors have been looking for a regulated way to trade Bitcoin for a while, and that’s all the more so considering the real concerns about high inflation, and the debasement of the dollar due to the US Fed’s quantitative easing program.

 

Part of that crypto adoption process however is being able to convince the regulator, the SEC in the US being the prime example, that proposed funds will be able to cover the risks for investors. For example, Bitwise, which originally filed for regulatory approval for a bitcoin ETF in 2019 before withdrawing the application after an initial rejection, has been revising its filing for more than a year.

 

But it’s also clear that since the recent Chinese mining and crypto ban the US has become a little more receptive to crypto regulation. Certainly, regulators in other countries have approved ETFs, Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which started trading in February, ballooned to more than $1bn in assets under management in less than two months.

 

Jenny Zheng: 2021 was notable for witnessing El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. To what extent do you think 2022 will involve more nations following such an example, or will at least involve more nations/governments using crypto in various ways?

 

Anndy Lian: The rollout of Bitcoin in El Salvador certainly captured the headlines worldwide, It raised the profile of the country and has no doubt attracted the attention of other countries. By the same token, the speed at which it happened, without the opportunity to enlighten citizens across the country as to the pros and cons of using the cryptocurrency will also have given them food for thought. This caution is supported by the case of Panama, which while also passing a law to increase the use of bitcoin and Ethereum as a payment option did not decree that businesses had to accept cryptocurrency.

 

In 2022 however, the real crypto push from governments will be more likely to come in the form of central bank digital currencies, most notably in China. There the central bank is looking to use blockchain at the issuance layer for its digital yuan system, which is centralized. The Chinese version of the CBDC is not yet a distributed approach due to issues around performance and scalability; though the wider ecosystem does provide solutions in the form of sidechains and oracles to enable off-chain data to connect with blockchains this seems unlikely to be adopted any time soon.

 

However, the real impetus to action by the government whether in South America or Southeast Asia may come with the rollout of Facebook’s Novi wallet later this year, with the Diem cryptocurrency to follow shortly after. The reason being that most deserving of crypto aims, to service the ‘unbanked’ citizens who lack banking services. If the Facebook initiatives take off then this could spur governments to action, if not creating their own digital currency, in supporting the growth of private-sector solutions with improved regulations and support.

 

A good example of this approach is in Ukraine, which voted almost unanimously to legalize and regulate cryptocurrency just a day after El Salvador’s official bitcoin adoption. As reported in Yahoo Finance: “This is with hopes of developing a new industry that will attract transparent investments and boost the country’s reputation as a high-tech state.” No doubt this model for adoption will prove attractive to other governments in 2022.

 

Jenny Zheng: Lastly, the end of 2021 seems primed to witness a renewed bull market. However, do you think 2022 will witness an increase in people actually using bitcoin and cryptocurrency to make payments?

 

Anndy Lian: The trend towards greater use of crypto for payments has already started, with the recent news in the US that US-based cinema chain AMC will soon be accepting cryptocurrency payments. It comes just a few months after PayPal decided to allow US consumers to use crypto to make purchases and news that Mastercard would be supporting cryptocurrency payments across its network.

 

While in the retail sector, Walmart and Amazon’s crypto recruitment announcements have raised awareness that these retail behemoths may be planning to open their doors to cryptocurrencies. At Amazon, it appears the plans are well advanced, as a “full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work,” according to a City AM report.

 

While there are certainly challenges in accepting Bitcoin for payments, especially when the price volatility is factored in, more and more merchants are looking to add crypto purchasing to their business. According to a survey last year by BitPay, “up to 40% of customers that pay with crypto are new to the merchant. Second, purchase amounts are twice that of credit card purchases. Third, crypto is less expensive than credit cards, and lastly, there are no fraud-related chargebacks”.

 

A clear use case for cryptocurrency also comes with international money transfers, for example, with low transfer fees and fast transfer speeds, and anyone can use it. “However, Bitcoin has become less attractive for remittances due to the increasing cost of Bitcoin transactions. Some competing cryptocurrencies, such as Ripple and Dash, are also targeting the remittance market with substantially lower fees,” suggested a recent report in Investopedia.

 

Jenny Zheng: Any final words?

 

Anndy Lian: Well, the year 2022 seems to be the best year for cryptocurrency adoption. If you looked at the crypto innovation curve that I have shared on Twitter. You have not missed anything. Crypto is still young.

 

by Jenny Zheng @jennyzheng.Early crypto advocate | Investor | PR Expert | Cofounder of Blockcast.cc

 

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/interview-with-anndy-lian-views-on-2022-cryptocurrency-adoption-what-is-coming-next

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Anndy Lian Shared his views on the role of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrencies at Singapore Cloud & Datacenter Digital Summit

Anndy Lian Shared his views on the role of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrencies at Singapore Cloud & Datacenter Digital Summit

Anndy Lian moderated a session on Fintech Market Analysis: The Impact of Interconnectivity in Singapore at the Singapore Cloud & Datacenter Digital Summit on 26 November 2020. In his speech, he shared his views future of the Fintech market and the role of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrencies (CBDC).

“I think at the right time, and when there is a demand for cryptocurrency payments is there, it will drive the market towards crypto adoption. CBDC is the start of another evolution.” Anndy Lian commented.

Joel Yarbrough added, “Personally, I think the most compelling use case is CBDC. The digitalisation of currency helping cross border trading 24/7 with transparent foreign exchange is incredibly powerful.”

Anndy shared further that he is still advising governments in the region on blockchain matters and the more innovative ones are looking at using core crypto coins, e.g. XRP, BNB, LTC or stable coins to act as a bridge asset to exchange digital fiat aligned to their CBDC initiatives. He also highlighted separately that blockchain and cryptocurrencies companies must take the first step to showcase how their coin and technology can help the formation of the future CBDCs.

This session came at the right time where the pandemic COVID19 accelerates Singapore’s digital push. The drive for digitisation is more substantial than before and behind the powerful force is Singapore’s Government taking the lead and setting aside more than S$500m to assist Singaporeans and local businesses manage the crisis through digital transformation. Today at another media interview, Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore mentioned that year to date, there are already $1.3 billion of Fintech investments made.

The panel lead by Anndy Lian (Hyundai DAC Technology) and with panellists Khuan Yew Lee (Fave), Joel Yarbrough (Rapyd) and Varun Mittal (EY) discussed topics like:

1. What’s driving the growth of contactless payments in the digital transformation of Singapore?

2. Fintech is an ever-evolving industry, with its mandate broadening with each iteration (1.0, 2.0 and now 3.0). At the same time, early fintech players like Paypal are at no risk of going out-of-date due to the evergreen necessity of payment platforms. Where do you see the most significant potential for fintech expansion in Singapore?

3. Many estimations are putting the adoption rate of digital payment platforms at an all-time high. Even for cloud-native companies, this presents capacity challenges. How do you deal with speeding up deployment to match this demand?

4. How do you see the embrace of blockchain influencing the fintech market (more than it already has)?

Singapore Cloud & Datacenter Digital Summit has brought the top 200 IT and data centre professionals to hear from industry leaders and new entrants on what to expect from a hub market, the downstream opportunities to the edge markets, and the innovation of technology in the space of Cloud Computing, connectivity, cybersecurity and data centres. Other speakers include: Daryl Pereira (KPMG Singapore), Palaniappan Muthuraman (Piller Power Singapore Pte. Ltd), Clement Goh (ST Telemedia Global Data Centres), Atul Babu (PCCW Solutions Limited), Anthony Hodge (Standard Chartered Bank)

BLOCKCAST reported this session. BLOCKCAST.CC a broadcasting news source for the blockchain community founded in Singapore.

About Anndy Lian:

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial blockchain entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author “Blockchain Revolution 2030” and currently the Advisory Board Member of Hyundai DAC Technology. He plays a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organisation committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region. Anndy is also part of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Blockchain Special Committee, Government of Republic Korea, together with industry experts such as Brock Pierce. You can read more about Anndy’s work at www.anndy.com

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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Anndy Lian’s Views On Second-Tier Exchanges: “They are too small to be on the radar so they can be more ‘wild.'”

Anndy Lian’s Views On Second-Tier Exchanges: “They are too small to be on the radar so they can be more ‘wild.'”

Thanks Simon Chandler for connecting me and seeking my views on the second-tier exchanges. I always like to pick my own brain and look at things from a different angle. This time I looked at second-tier exchanges being more innovative and daring. This is part of my views and is quoted on the article:

“The only advantage they have compared to the big brothers is they are too small to be on the radar so they can be more ‘wild,’” says Anndy Lian, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency and blockchain advisor and author.

“You seldom see a coin goes 100x on big exchanges but it’s still happening on second-tier and small exchanges.”

 

 

The full article can be found below or you can go to www.cryptonews.com to read it.

 

 

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Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

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