On February 20, 2023, the Financial Times reported on Hong Kong’s “ambition to become Asia’s premier digital assets hub” and over the past year, we have seen what seems to be a shift to Asia when it comes to Web 3.0. Web 3.0 is a generalized term to represent a new form of the Web that is decentralized or distributed and includes MetaVerse, cryptocurrencies, NFTs as art and other collectibles, and now artificial intelligence (AI).
Chat GPT was released recently and hope and hype followed with AI. While a true Web 3.0 is a ways-off, since much of what is available today is still Web 2.0, the potential for innovation and creativity is enormous as young people increasingly see opportunity and enjoyment in peer-to-peer systems and open science.
Aside from the cultural production, I think the Web 2.0/3.0 are important and can be beneficial as an underlying digital support system of verification such as with pharmaceuticals, produce, money, land, and potentially any thing. In this interview, Michael and I focus in on the innovation potential of Asia and what he is doing at Boxmining, which is located in Hong Kong. Hong Kong and Singapore are two competing city-states when it comes to finance and we touch on the rivalry. Boxmining is beginning their new season and is a go to place for education on Web 3.0.
Michael Gu, MSc, Michael Gu, Creator of Boxmining, started in the Blockchain space as a Bitcoin miner in 2012. Something he immediately noticed was that accurate information is hard to come by in this space. He started Boxmining in 2017 mainly as a passion project, to educate people on digital assets and share his experiences. Being based in Asia, Michael also found a huge discrepancy between digital asset trends and the knowledge gap between the West and China.
Layne Hartsell, MSc, PhD is a board member at the Korea IT Times and is a research professor at the Asia Institute, Berlin / Tokyo in energy, economy, environment (3E).
