Tech That Change Will Crypto’s Future: Jason Lau – Ep. 115

Episode 115 of the Public Key podcast is here and in this episode we speak with Jason Lau (Chief Innovation Officer, OKX) who was fresh off of a global tour, where he attended conferences in New York, Paris, Dubai, and Brazil and provided a regulatory summary of his travels. Jason also shows us technology that could shape the future of crypto including inscriptions, new layer 2 blockchains and interoperable crypto wallets. 

You can listen or subscribe now on Spotify, Apple, or Audible. Keep reading for a full preview of episode 115.

Public Key Episode 115: The Future of Exchanges: Balancing Centralization and Decentralization

When we started this podcast just over 2 years ago, Bitcoin ordinals and inscriptions weren’t even born yet and centralized crypto exchanges releasing their own wallets sounded like fanciful thinking at best.

But here we are as these new and evolving technologies are leading the evolution of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry at large. In this episode, Ian Andrews (CMO, Chainalysis) sits down with Jason Lau (Chief Innovation Officer, OKX) who shares his insights and observations from his recent global tour, where he attended conferences in New York, Paris, Dubai, and Brazil.

Jason highlights the growing momentum and enthusiasm in the crypto and Web3 space, as well as the importance of localizing products and services to cater to diverse user bases.

Jason also discusses OK Group’s focus on self-custody and the launch of their OKX wallet, which aims to empower users to explore the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).

Additionally, he touches on OK Group’s Layer 2 network (X Layer), their foray into inscriptions (NFTs on Bitcoin) with a new marketplace and their efforts to cater to institutional clients.

Quote of the episode

“We want people to use their crypto. They can certainly use the exchange to gain access, hopefully learn and buy the first or make some trades there. But ultimately, there’s a whole world that we envision will come about and we collectively call this Web3.” – Jason Lau (Chief Innovation Officer, OKX)

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

2 | Global crypto enthusiasm and regulatory conversations from NYC, Dubai and Brazil

4 | OK Groups International expansion and broad customer base  

7 | Advancing transparency and self-custody in crypto exchanges and understanding the evolution of the proof of reserve audits 

11 | Embracing Web3 through user-friendly crypto wallets and building a L2 blockchain (X Layer)

16 | The evolving role of crypto exchanges and the impact of DeFi Regulation

22 | Exploring the impact of inscriptions on the Bitcoin network and whether NFTs are Dead
25 | Innovating institutional crypto trading and custody solutions 

28 | OKX’s upcoming Web3 initiatives with McLaren F1 and Manchester City FC

Related resources

Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.

Speakers on today’s episode

• Ian Andrews * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) 
• Jason Lau (Chief Innovation Officer, OKX)

This website may contain links to third-party sites that are not under the control of Chainalysis, Inc. or its affiliates (collectively “Chainalysis”). Access to such information does not imply association with, endorsement of, approval of, or recommendation by Chainalysis of the site or its operators, and Chainalysis is not responsible for the products, services, or other content hosted therein.

Our podcasts are for informational purposes only, and are not intended to provide legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. Listeners should consult their own advisors before making these types of decisions. Chainalysis has no responsibility or liability for any decision made or any other acts or omissions in connection with your use of this material.

Chainalysis does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or validity of the information in any particular podcast and will not be responsible for any claim attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies of any part of such material. 

Unless stated otherwise, reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Chainalysis. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Chainalysis employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the views of the company.

Transcript

Ian:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Public Key. This is your host, Ian Andrews. Today, I’m joined by Jason Lau. He is Chief Innovation Officer for OK Group. Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason:

Thanks for having me.

Ian:

Now, you’ve been on a whirlwind tour. You and I saw each other a few weeks ago as we’re taping this at the Lynx Conference in New York. You went from there basically around the world. What have you picked up as you visited Paris and Dubai? We’re now talking, I think you’re down in Brazil, having just come off of Web Summit, what’s the state of the world of crypto and technology as you’ve taken in this global perspective over the last few weeks?

Jason:

Yeah, you’re right. It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind. By overall takeaway broadly is that, there’s a lot of momentum and there’s a lot of enthusiasm across the world. As we said around what’s happening in crypto and Web3. We were in New York, it was actually less than two weeks ago, right?

Ian:

Yeah.

Jason:

We were in New York and you guys put together a great conference bringing the public sector as well as the private sector together, and there’s great interaction there, learning about what law enforcement and others are doing. Then, you would go over to Paris and you see some of that conversation carry over, but more skewed towards the regulatory side.

I think there was a lot of chatter around, especially with Europe getting closer to having Mika come into force later this year. There’s a lot of chatter there. But also you saw a lot of industry folk, especially around Europe, but globally show up there too. It was a really good, well-turned-out event.

Dubai was interesting too. I went to a conference called Blockchain Life, and that was unique to me because there’s a really strong representation from the mining community there. And so, I would wager it was something like 30% to 40% attended by miners and that group.

And so, learning about what’s going on their thoughts about the halving that’s coming up later today as we record. Fascinating, fascinating also in the hardware improvements that are coming out on the mining side. And then, finally, here in Brazil, I was in Rio just yesterday, the past few days, Web Summit’s a broader than Web3 Conference, right? It’s more tech and it’s more general. But there was a Web3 specific track and it was really cool to see all the energy and vibrancy for people that were keen to learn more.

Ian:

Yeah, it is refreshing after I think 2022 sort of a down… Emotionally down year as well as maybe from an asset price perspective where I think people maybe weren’t sure where the world of crypto was going. But this is why I’m so excited to have this conversation with you, given your role driving innovation for one of the biggest exchanges in the world. I feel like we’ve got a window into the future a little bit here.

Jason:

Maybe.

Ian:

So, I’m excited to dive into all the cool stuff that OK Group is working on. But I’m curious before we get to that like, how does one become the Chief Innovation Officer? Because that seems like a cool title. I’m a little bit aspirational. Maybe one day I could take something like that on. Maybe, walk us through your story that led you to this place in your career.

Jason:

Yeah. I mean, Ian, I think I’m very fortunate also, my journey starts in TradFi was basically my initial career. I left that in about 11 years ago. I was at Barclays before out in Hong Kong, and I tried to get into tech. Me and a couple of co-founders went to the Bay Area and tried to do our own startup. This was in the crowdfunding space. I don’t know if you remember that was pretty popular back then…

Ian:

Yeah, sure. Yup.

Jason:

It didn’t work out, but was fortunate to learn about Bitcoin and all the possibilities that people were dreaming up of back then, and that unique intersection between Bitcoin and economics and game theory and all this. I think that was super fascinating.

Fast forward just a little bit, it wasn’t until 2016 before I joined OK Group. And I’ve done a whole bunch of stuff here, including BD, including institutional, including… I moved over to the US in 2018 to set up our US business, so it’s been a lot of changes. You’ve also identified crypto is volatile, right? I think for me at least, it’s being able to see through all those cycles and have gone through them and take the good and the bad, and just have that perseverance to get through it.

Ian:

Yeah. Now, setting up an exchange in the US is not for the faint of heart, the complex regulatory landscape. I’m curious today, I think most people know okay, group as being the maybe second biggest exchange by volume, but catching up pretty quickly to the folks in first place. How does that business break out around the world? Where are most of your customers and most of the revenue coming from? If you can share.

Jason:

We were founded 10 years ago, sorry, 11 years ago, 2013 in China.

Ian:

Yeah.

Jason:

And so, as a result, a lot of our users… And we’ve grown globally, and we’re now really a global company. We have over 300 people in the US alone.

Ian:

Wow.

Jason:

And so, we still have those roots where our early days were very Asian-focused, so we have a lot of Asian folk users. That said though, our journey has really pivoted to become a global company, trying to serve global users.

Ian:

Yeah.

Jason:

We’re working really hard to continue that and really deepen our roots in a wide variety of low vote jurisdictions. We just got our license in principal license in Singapore early this year…

Ian:

Congratulations.

Jason:

… in Dubai with VARA, the regulators there. And here sitting in Brazil, we launched our Brazil market and product here a few months ago, so we have a local team here in Brazil with 20 plus people and offering really customized local Portuguese products and customer support and all that.

So, I think our user base is really becoming very diverse. And I think that’s very powerful because it ties into what crypto really is all about digital first obviously, but it’s really a global community.

Ian:

Yeah. How much do the products that you offer across all those different markets vary? I mean, I know there’s different restrictions on token listing standards. There’s some markets like the US that are very restrictive on futures and…