How the U.S.-China Trade War Impacted Hashgraph (Part IV)

Key Highlights

• Hedera Hashgraph will devote capital from the fundraise to grow enterprise sales and double down on regulatory
• The governing body for Hedera Hashgraph was designed to be distributed and representative of all constituencies from a global perspective

Listen to the full podcast version of this interview

Transcript of Part IV

Liquidity and market. When you’re talking about regulators liquidity is great marketplace is access, right? And then, governments that depend on the good will of people to support the politics or the direction, whether you’re talking about the US or even China. You’re going to Shanghai?

We are, we’re going to Shanghai. On this particular trip, we started in Tokyo, had great meetings there across the spectrum of different kinds of potential partners or customers or government bodies. Same thing is true here, while we’re here in Hong Kong…

Is it different here? Is it different in Asia?  

You know, it’s interesting. And when we’re talking about the regulators, the way in which they’re viewing the market and how they’re trying to make decisions about what is a security and what is not a security, those are different. The litmus test of what is or is not is different based on the historical law that is in place in a given jurisdiction. Those influence the way the regulators view the world and we’ve seen that. So we understand that that’s different. When it comes to the partners or the companies, they all want the same thing, and that’s easy, right? When we come to enterprise software sales and trying to solve real world use cases, using this new category of technology that’s the same process, no matter where we go.

China though, is in a very interesting space, I think that with the US trade wars and you take a look at the underlying economy that really props up the strength of the political structure there, the feeling, the sentiment of blockchain and certainly cryptocurrency in forms of capital control is certainly not as robust or trusting of this new technology. Are you feeling that?

Well, it’s directly impacted us. So, our governing body was specifically designed to be the most distributed or representative of all constituencies in the market on a global basis.

And what that looks like ultimately is a counsel of 39 global blue chip organizations that are representative of 18 sectors of the market and geo-distributed and term limited. So, they’re not members of the council forever, they can serve up to… 

Like the United Nations of Hashgraph.

Right, that’s right. Of Hashgraph. And we have representation from many markets today. And we did talk to some potential council members in China. But it’s not possible at this moment in time for those organizations … or at least there’s enough concern about regulatory, the regulatory situation with the Chinese government and their participation in the governance of a cryptocurrency at all has prevented us from having the kind of relationships there that maybe we’re going to have everywhere else. So, there’s been a direct impact. I don’t expect it to last forever.

It’s of course a black box. It remains to be seen what actually evolves over time. But I’m hopeful that as the market matures and the new category matures in lots of different ways that regulators will become more amenable to participation on the part of Chinese firms and something that’s global, like this.

I had a similar conversation the other day with some Hong Kong legislators. And really taking the view of Hong Kong potentially, and it was the first time I really heard it. That it is, of course, part of China, one country, two systems. It is the famous adage. But potentially the scene in Hong Kong as it pertains to technology, and start up and blockchain is this a testing ground for potentially the future of policy in China?

I’ve heard people say that. That’s part of why we’re here. We would welcome the participation of council members from Hong Kong and you know, that’s sort of the hub, if you will, of the Greater Bay Area, and maybe a representation or entry way into Mainland China. Ultimately who knows? But what we want is representation from all major jurisdictions or geographies. And until we can achieve that in a way that satisfies all constituencies and regulators etc, then we’ll do the best that we can.

Keep Watching

Part I: Mance Harmon on Why Hashgraph is a Better Alternative to Blockchain
Part II: The Advantages of Not Being Open Source
Part III: How Hedera Hashgraph Will Spend $100M
Part IV: How the U.S.-China Trade War Impacted Hashgraph
Part V: When Will We See Real-World Solutions?
Part VI: Can Hashgraph Co-Exist With Other Blockchain Players?
Full Interview: In Conversation with Mance Harmon