Blockcast: We are doing interview sessions with crypto and blockchain people weekly and it has been quite a while since we speak to Anndy Lian. He is still an intergovernmental blockchain advisor and is very active in South East Asia, Japan, South Korea and most recently in Sri Lanka.
So today, we have Anndy on the call with us. Hi Anndy, it is good catching up with you. We have not met face to face yet, my name is John, the newest member at Blockcast.cc.
We have seen your comments on a Cointelegraph article. Blockcast and a few other Korea based media companies would hope to find out more of your views on Binance’s influence over Coinmarketcap.
(Image Credits: Cointelegraph)
In your view, are the data on exchanges and ranking platforms accurate and trustworthy in general?
Anndy Lian: Thanks John for the call.
The data that is tabulated by the exchanges are certainly not the correct value. If they are accurate, bitcoin would have a trillion market cap next week (Just saying). But as of now, these data are what the industry can make do with. Many ranking platforms have their way to tabulate the scoring, mostly are based on volume. This is not good enough, that is why CoinMarketcap came up with a slightly different weightage to test it out.
Blockcast: Having said so, what is then the most effective and trustworthy methodology for ranking exchanges? Do you think web traffic is enough?
Anndy Lian: I think what CZ and CoinMarketcap did with the input of web traffic might be a good starting point but as I commented openly, this is not good enough. CZ also mentioned on Twitter that this is just the beginning.
Having said so, there is no one most effective methodology, there will still be grey area for example when the metric was purely based on volume, the volume can be manipulated. When the web traffic is introduced, with added variables like unique visitors, unique mac address, IP, etc, this can also be manipulated. So there isn’t one metric fit all approach when ranking is concerned.
There must also be a component to score based on geographical locations too. Just quoting an example based on my own opinion. The web-based model works well for the USA and European users’ market. This is reflected on the current top 100 exchanges where you see Huobi (Ranked 18th) and Okex (Ranked 6th) who have more Chinese users technically are ranked much lower. Chinese users, in particular, are doing more trading and monitoring through apps and not web. Therefore, incorporating app or API traffic could be another add on. I could be wrong, I am just looking at this from a third-party standpoint.
(Image Credits: Coinmarketcap)
To be effective, there must be a revision of the current methodology and weightage model. Firstly, the actual trading volume must be as accurate as possible, the numbers must not be washed and for this to happen, mechanisms such as taxable trade should come into the picture to beef up the indexes and create a level 1 trustworthiness for both the exchanges and retail/ professional investors. We should also adopt some of the practices that are done in the financial exchanges so to make the ranks meaningful.
Blockcast: Is an exchange rating platform being owned by an exchange an inherent conflict of interest?
Anndy Lian: To be honest, it is not ideal for an exchange to own an exchange rating platform especially in the early stages of this industry.
Take Binance for exchange, people will start to gossip that Binance is on top of the charts because they are the owners. But is this true, we are not sure.
But I believe it can be done too with proper compliance and governance and also arm length relationship would be good enough too for Binance and Coinmarketcap. They have to properly address this to all the stakeholders constantly so to assure them of the independence between the 2 companies. They can also look at having all the data stored in a decentralised platform to ensure data integrity. All the little bit helps.
People will continue to speculate and spread more rumours especially when the number 1 exchange bought the number rating platform. If you look at this from a business perspective, if you can buy the best company, of course, you will buy the best in the basket. But the future lies in how Binance and Coinmarketcap manage the governance and compliance aspects of things. This is the key.
Blockcast: What are the possible upsides for the industry with Binance at the helm of Coinmarketcap?
Anndy Lian: For Binance, I have been following CZ on Twitter for a long while. He has followed me too. So I have read many of his posts and chain of thoughts. With this as the background, I think for Binance to take the helm, it has more positives than negatives in my opinion.
They will help to set a new standard on how all the crypto companies and exchanges are ranked. I believe they will also try to have stricter criteria for companies to be listed, they can also set the standard and start to execute them on Binance using their platform for trial and error.
New standards such as companies must submit details of the top 3 personnel of the company, they should be declaring their income, background etc and be digitally proven documents on-chain etc. While these are just my wishful thinking, I believe strongly only the leaders on the very top of this industry can put together new standards. We will all see new global standards with the marriage of Binance & Coinmarketcap
Blockcast: We noted your pinned message on Twitter. My wish list for this year: 1) Help more companies to go into #Blockchain 2) Start a new project that can help the blockchain community 3) Become part of a top 20 token 4) Make a token to become top 50 on CMC. What is this about?
Anndy Lian: This is just my wish list. As you know, I invest in companies, run companies myself, founded a few companies, run Singapore oldest think tank and even done many things for the governments. But I have not gotten myself involved in top crypto companies, as in working for them.
I want to work for the top blockchain companies. I want to use my strengths to help the top maintain their status as the top or for them to move a few levels up. Maybe CZ can hire me after reading this interview (laughs).
Blockcast: I believe companies are already eyeing your talents. Do you have any other things to share with our readers?
Anndy Lian: Recently, I am also being appointed at the Chairman (Asia) for DECENT Foundation based in Switzerland. I have not visited their tech development centre yet due to COVID19 but I am very impressed with their work done on an enterprise level for the blockchain industry. Plus they have been around since 2015, which means they are mature in their business model. I hope to introduce them to some of my blockchain friends and bring them to Asia.
The COVID19 situation has not been very kind to everyone, I hope the virus can be controlled as soon as possible so to let all businesses go back to their usual operations.
This virus has also brought in some positives to the current business situation. Companies who did not believe in technology implementation are now looking at digitalising their records and sales online. And companies, who are already more tech-savvy, are exploring how to incorporate new tech like blockchain to their existing infrastructures.
This is just the beginning of a new tech era and I am very sure that blockchain and cryptocurrency have earned their position in this evolution.
Blockcast: Thank you Anndy for your time. I hope to see you in Seoul soon. If you want to interact with Anndy Lian, you can do so by visiting www.anndy.com or at his Twitter handle https://twitter.com/anndylian.
Original Source: https://blockcast.cc/interviews/commentaries-by-anndy-lian-new-global-standards-come-with-the-marriage-of-binance-coinmarketcap/