We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!
This week, our 6 Questions go to Ming Duan, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Umee, a cross-chain DeFi hub that allows decentralized interactions between different blockchains.
Ming Duan’s knowledge of the crypto and blockchain world goes back to 2014 when she initially learned about the emerging industry through the first-ever blockchain course taught at a business school. Since then, she has developed extensive crypto investment knowledge through hands-on practice. Duan brings unique insight to Umee, having experience as both a crypto investor and builder in the ecosystem. Her goal for Umee is to build a platform where individuals can interact with different tokens and chains all in one place. While propelling Umee forward, Duan leads crypto investments at Argonautic Ventures and Fenbushi Capital. She graduated from Duke University and received her Master of Business Administration degree in 2016.
1 — What is the main hurdle to mass adoption of blockchain technology?
Simply put, blockchain technology is too hard to use.
When it comes to mass adoption, it’s really about comparing what blockchain technology can bring to users through existing solutions. The challenge is that, most of the time, our existing solutions work. When wearing my investor’s hat on a new project, I always like to ask about whether blockchain is really necessary to achieve the goal for the product. From a user’s perspective, if the target audience is not already in Web3, blockchain is oftentimes not needed because a centralized solution is already faster, cheaper and easier to use.
So, why are we here? Well, it’s because of the potential that blockchain-based applications can be as fast, cheap and easy to use as existing solutions while creating new solutions: new ways of looking at economic coordination, new ways of looking at finance, from both an open-source as well as open-access perspective. There is also that little extra element of being decentralized. We’re getting there.
2 — From smart contracts to DApps to NFTs to DeFi, we have seen so many of the next “killer apps” for crypto, but none have really taken off just yet. What will stick?
The idea of a decentralized digital world will stick. It’s too early to say what will, or what has already, taken off when it comes to crypto experiments. Crypto follows market cycles, and it takes time for people to understand this new industry. We will be seeing new ideas and new experiments, and a lot of them will fail, but some of them will leave an impression on people that will push it to evolve into something new. This process is completely expected and healthy. Crypto is both a technological and social paradigm shift. We can’t get it right in one attempt and we have the luxury of a promising future to make trial and error. The promise of such an uncoordinated and distributed mechanism to run a digital world will stick in individuals’ heads. It will spur questions designed to challenge the status quo, and attract more talent to join the space and build out this decentralized digital future.
3 — What are the top five Crypto Twitter feeds you can’t do without, and why?
Umee_CrossChain needs no explanation — it’s our bread and butter! I find such joy and excitement when seeing Umee’s latest updates via our Twitter feed. Plus, just seeing Adora the octopus’s smiley face every now and then makes everyone feel happy, right?
Zhu Su is your cheatsheet to being a crypto insider. He helps you zoom out and understand how crypto fits into the broader social and economic picture while paying attention to the macro trends. Oftentimes in the crypto space, we get too deep into the weeds and forget about the bigger picture, but grasping the bigger picture is what sets the foundation for solid long-term success.
Samczsun is the reason why everyone should hold a healthy sense of paranoia when it comes to software security in crypto. His habit of generously sharing security vulnerability and hack reviews is extremely beneficial even to non-technical readers.
If you are looking for an alpha or trying to land on the right side of the bell curve of the crypto crowd, I would recommend following ASvanevik. He is a founder as well as a talented data scientist who has shed much-needed light on the dark forest of blockchain data. Alex has Ieft me with a lasting impression since the very first time we spoke.
Bond_dog_51 is my partner in crypto, so his Twitter feed is an important follow for me. As the chief executive office of Umee, we work side by side to make this platform all it can be. I enjoy following his unique insight on the industry through his feed, and I love reading his retweets.
And a sixth one, just for fun! Weird_AnimaIs is one of the few Twitter accounts I follow that have nothing to do…
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