The Bitcoin Conference is already in talks to have Bitcoin Asia return to Hong Kong, ideally at the more centrally located Convention and Exhibition Centre next year. Tokyo and Singapore are also possible future locations, @mcshane said.

South China Morning Post

At Bitcoin Asia, crypto enthusiasts look to tap mainland market

A mix of mainlanders and international visitors showed up at Bitcoin Asia amid surging interest owing to a crypto bull market and recently launched...

The CEO of Tether has a new project making what he calls "unstoppable apps", just like bitcoin is the "unstoppable money". But he sees anything using relays as flawed in this respect. He had some comments on Nostr that wound up on the cutting room floor, but may be of interest here: > "The issue with Nostr, [which] has become popular, is it has relays. The relays are part of the equation. Without the relays, Nostr cannot work … There was [once] Kazaa, Nutella, Limewire – all had relays and all were shut down or all failed. The only peer-to-peer protocol that worked and could not be shut down was BitTorrent because it did not have any point of failure. So that's our benchmark. We could have taken many shortcuts to make it easier for us, but it took six or seven years to develop something that is truly resistant to the wrath of God." The new company, called Holepunch, has developed a protocol called Pear Runtime that is solely P2P. Its first flagship app is a video conferencing and chat app called Keet, and it supports Lightning wallets. I suspect Nostr at least served as some inspiration.

South China Morning Post

Stablecoin giant Tether backs ‘unstoppable’ chat app to take on Big Tech

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino’s new venture Holepunch has launched a peer-to-peer messaging app called Keet to aid the mission of ‘financial freedom...

Frustrations abound with the crypto exchange licensing process in Hong Kong so far. Joseph Wang, the astrophysicist who spoke with @gsovereignty on @npub1tr0v...qqpx back in June, offered some of his insight, having gone through the process to kind of kick the tires. He has a dour outlook, although other industry players say the Securities and Futures Commission is on the right track. Full story:

South China Morning Post

High costs cloud Hong Kong’s crypto hub dream

Getting licensed as a virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong can cost more than US$7 million, and finding success in the relatively small mark...

Another Nostr-adjacent piece I wrote recently for the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong. This was written more for other journalists, but maybe some people here will appreciate it.

An enthusiastic group of pro bono programmers strewn across the globe, including in Hong Kong, are building the open source, crypto-focused super app of Elon Musk’s dreams – but without the app. Featuring @Sherry and @gsovereignty

South China Morning Post

A decentralised ‘super app’ backed by Jack Dorsey sees rising interest in China

The Nostr social media protocol has elicited such enthusiasm in users that there are dedicated podcasts, newsletters and conferences, including in ...

Young people in China are embracing lightning travel… but not Lightning travel

Nikkei Asia

21 dishes in 24 hours: China's youth embrace lightning travel

'Special force style' trips cram maximum eating and experience into 1 or 2 days

80 Chinese crypto influencers with a combined 8 million followers were recently removed from Weibo. Have any of these people found Nostr yet?

Supply chain management was supposed to be a killer application of blockchain outside cryptocurrencies and NFTs. But the end of Maersk and IBM’s TradeLens last fall caused some to doubt the tech’s applicability – but not Hong Kong’s GSBN.

South China Morning Post

Maersk’s exit from blockchain-based logistics leaves the field open for China

Hong Kong-based Global Shipping Business Network has the largest blockchain platform for collaboration in shipping and logistics after Maersk and I...

Hong Kong's New crypto policy proposal shows its "commitment towards being the leading Web3 hub", but it also limits retail investors to big-cap coins and requires exchanges set up committees to regularly review tokens to determine if they should still be traded.

South China Morning Post

Hong Kong to allow retail investors to buy big-cap crypto tokens

Hong Kong will allow retail investors to buy big-cap cryptocurrency tokens such as bitcoin and Ether, according to the latest policy proposal by Ho...

Censorship in China has created a restrictive media environment that hampers the development of large language models.

South China Morning Post

Can China develop a ChatGPT rival given that content is such a hot potato?

Artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT has grabbed headlines but developing a Chinese challenger faces many obstacles, including costs and content...

> By attempting to cut China off from advanced semiconductors, America is incentivising China to focus on more mature forms of chip manufacturing, where the choke points are weaker and China already has a large share of the market. These sorts of chips are required in great numbers in electric cars and weapons. If artificial intelligence turns out to be less important than the American government thinks it is, incentivising Chinese firms to take greater control over commodity chips may end up looking like a mistake. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/02/08/the-history-and-limits-of-americas-favourite-new-economic-weapon