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.@zooko and I recently returned from Japan, Singapore and Korea on a Zcash related tour. A few things we did and learned...
We had more than 2 dozen meetings with regulators, developers, thought leaders, business leaders and press.
We also participated in 3 Zcash meetups and Deconomy - meeting hundreds of people who are giving all of themselves to this movement.
Hearing stories about why the security that encryption can provide is so important and real.
Face-to-face meetings are critical due to culture, language, and timezones. In order to do business in Asia, you need to be in Asia.
Digital currency use may move from speculative asset to medium of exchange without store of value ever becoming the primary use case due to potential adoption vectors (smart cards, atms, etc) and differences in investor makeup.
There appears to be less Bitcoin maximalism and greater support for Bitcoin Cash and other MoE coins in Asia.
Institutional investors are different in Asia than the US, with a higher distribution across high net worth individuals and small family offices. Investments are less ideologically aligned and more focused on trading and building wealth.
Regulators are competitive and more helpful than I anticipated. They want to protect citizens but also be seen as innovative and progressive.
Peer-to-peer OTC trading is allowed in China, with both Okex and Huobi operating p2p exchanges.
More specifics and country details to come but a key takeaway is that Asia could easily leapfrog the west in UX and adoption of cryptocurrencies as payment mechanisms. -z2z
