Interview: Tong, PANews
Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews
In the cryptocurrency industry, founders with a technical background often stand out for their deep professional background and profound understanding of the industry. Just like Xu Mingxing, the founder of OKX, and Zhao Changpeng, the founder of Binance, Han Lin, the founder of Gate.io, is also a typical representative in this field. Turning from academic research to crypto entrepreneurship, Han Lin not only wrote the early core code of Gate.io, but also led the exchange from a niche platform to one of the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platforms. Recently, during the Hong Kong Consensus Conference, Han Lin accepted an exclusive interview with PANews, sharing his mental journey from behind the scenes to the front stage, as well as his deep insights into the future development of the industry.
Han Lin's entrepreneurial story began in 2013, when he started his own business after obtaining a postdoctoral degree in optoelectronics in Canada and accidentally came into contact with Bitcoin, an emerging asset. With his technical background, he quickly understood the potential of Bitcoin. In actual purchases, he found that there was a lack of safe and transparent trading platforms in the market, so he decided to start Gate.io. From the initial code writing to today's management and strategy formulation, Han Lin's role has undergone a transformation from technology development to industry leader. Although he admits that he is not good at external communication, in order to promote the development of the industry, he has frequently appeared in various activities and interviews in recent years to share his insights with people inside and outside the industry.
In the interview, Han Lin reviewed the development history of Gate.io and revealed the latest progress of the platform in terms of user growth, product innovation and global layout. He particularly mentioned that the number of Gate.io users increased from 13 million at the beginning of last year to more than 20 million at the end of the year, with a growth rate of more than 50%. Behind this achievement is Gate.io's keen sense of new projects and continuous optimization of user experience. Whether it is the early Litecoin and Dogecoin, or the recent Meme coin and AI projects, Gate.io has always been at the forefront of industry trends and provided diversified assets.
Han Lin also shared his views on the future trends of the industry. He believes that the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable stage. Although it is difficult to see the extreme ups and downs of the past, the overall penetration rate of the industry continues to increase. He specifically mentioned that Bitcoin, as a deflationary asset, is an ideal asset reserve tool due to its security and scarcity. If more institutions and countries include Bitcoin in the reserve asset system, the market's growth potential will be further released. In addition, Han Lin also emphasized the long-term trend of on-chain transactions and revealed that Gate.io began to deploy on-chain wallets and decentralized trading platforms (DEX) as early as 2018 to cope with this trend.
When talking about industry competition, Han Lin said that Gate.io's core competitiveness lies in its deep understanding of user needs and continuous innovation. For example, with the "100% reserve proof", Gate.io always puts user fund security and asset value first. In addition, Gate.io also sponsors Inter Milan and F1 Red Bull Team to enhance brand awareness and further expand brand influence.
The following is the content of the interview:
From behind the scenes to the front stage, from academia to entrepreneurship
PANews: You rarely accepted interviews in the past. Why have you appeared frequently in various activities and interviews in recent years? What is the work that takes up the most energy at present?
Han Lin: Because I am mainly a technical person, I am not very good at external communication. In the past two years, the industry has developed very fast, and I also hope to communicate and share my ideas with everyone. Therefore, in the past two years, I have participated in more activities and discussed views with people inside and outside the industry.
PANews: I heard in the industry before that you are writing code at home when you are not in public. Is this a rumor or a fact?
Han Lin: I wrote a lot of Gate.io's code in the early days, including the website, API and other basic development work. However, that was a long time ago. Gate.io has been established for 12 years. As the team continues to grow and more and more technical personnel are employed, my focus has gradually shifted to management and strategy. At present, I am mainly responsible for daily management, formulating the direction of industry development, and ensuring the quality of product and technology execution.
PANews: What jobs did you do before founding Gate.io? Is this your first entrepreneurial venture?
Han Lin: This is my first time to start a business. Before that, I was engaged in optoelectronics research in the academic field. In 2007, I went to Canada to pursue a doctorate degree, and after graduation, I started my entrepreneurial journey. Initially, I was engaged in optoelectronics software development, and later I came into contact with Bitcoin and virtual currency, and gradually entered this industry. In April 2013, Gate.io was officially launched.
PANews: How did you get involved with Bitcoin?
Han Lin: In 2012, when I was developing optoelectronic software, I encountered a shortage of graphics cards. Through research, I found that graphics cards were widely used for Bitcoin mining. So I started to pay attention to Bitcoin, studied its white paper in depth, and realized that this is a very innovative field. Because of my technical background, I was able to quickly understand the technology and potential of Bitcoin and became very interested.
When Bitcoin first emerged, there were not many trading platforms in the market. At that time, I bought 100 Bitcoins on the forum, but the person only gave me 1 BTC and the remaining 99 BTC were not given to me. This made me realize that the industry needs a safer and more transparent trading platform. So, I decided to start Gate.io to provide users with more reliable trading services.
Innovation and growth: Gate.io's core competitiveness
PANews: Gate.io has always been at the forefront of the industry in terms of launching new projects. Recently, it has quickly launched many Meme, Ai projects, etc. Can you disclose the number of new users and revenue?
Han Lin: Discovering high-quality projects has always been Gate.io's tradition. Since its founding in 2013, it has launched many currencies, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin. The platform's user base has grown rapidly, from 13 million users at the beginning of last year to more than 20 million at the end of the year, with a growth rate of more than 50%. Revenue has also increased significantly.
PANews: The MEME craze has caused many trading users to migrate to the blockchain. Is the blockchain a long-term trend? What technical and strategic preparations has Gate.io made?
Han Lin: On-chain transactions are undoubtedly a long-term trend. Compared with centralized exchanges, the advantages of on-chain transactions are that users can manage their own assets independently, transactions are faster, and there are more opportunities to make money on-chain, especially for experienced users.
In the early days, the on-chain infrastructure was very poor, GAS was high, there were few suitable wallets, and the trading platform was not very good. However, in the past two years, the on-chain infrastructure has been built very rapidly, and the user experience of DEX has gradually approached that of CEX, attracting more users to move to the chain.
I have also tried trading on the chain. Gate.io started to develop on-chain wallets and decentralized trading platforms (DEX) as early as 2018, and launched a multi-currency wallet that supports the storage and trading of various crypto assets. By the DeFi Summer of 2020, it also actively developed a comprehensive platform that provides a variety of services including trading, wallets and asset management.
At first, my idea was more centralized, and I thought that transactions were the main entry point, but later I found that in Web3, wallets were the main entry point. Assets were stored in wallets, and on this basis, other functions such as transactions, conversions, and pledges were performed in wallets. So I started to change my mindset and make Web3 wallets.
We have been continuously developing the Gate Chain public chain. The idea started in 2018, and the GT token was launched in 2019. At that time, many projects simply cloned existing projects such as Ethereum or Cosmos to launch new public chains, but we wanted to innovate and build a chain that focuses on asset security, so we invested a lot of energy. An important innovation of Gate Chain is that in the event of asset theft, users have the opportunity to recover their lost assets. We designed a transfer lock period function for the public chain, during which users can apply to transfer stolen assets.
Later, as market interest gradually shifted to EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), we upgraded Gate Chain to make it compatible with EVM. After that, our focus turned to how to further improve the performance of the public chain to meet larger-scale needs and support more application scenarios.
PANews: Gate.io attaches great importance to the security of user funds. What is the starting point for launching proof of secure fund reserves in 2020?
Han Lin: We are one of the first trading platforms to launch the "100% reserve proof". At that time, many users doubted the security of the exchange's funds and worried that the exchange would misappropriate their assets. In order to dispel users' doubts, we borrowed the Merkle tree algorithm in the Bitcoin blockchain and used technical means to publicly prove that the user assets held by the platform are fully matched.
Initially, this technology was not supported by zero-knowledge proof, so we invited an independent auditing firm in the United States to verify it. Although we called on other platforms to join this action, it was not until the FTX incident in 2022 that more platforms began to pay attention to proof of fund reserves.
PANews: Which products on Gate.io are users’ favorites?
Han Lin: In addition to wallets, spot/contract transactions and financial products, social functions are also popular with users, such as live broadcasts, dynamics and chat rooms, where users can communicate and interact with other users on the platform. For most users, asset trading and financial products are still the most commonly used functions.
Globalization and regulatory challenges
PANews: In which regions are Gate.io users currently mainly distributed?
Han Lin: Gate.io is a global platform that has been serving global users since its establishment in 2013. In the early days, because I was mainly overseas, a large number of users were also overseas users. Later, the number of users in the Chinese-speaking region gradually increased. In the past two years, we have begun to fully promote globalization and provide multilingual services. In addition, related companies under our group have applied for licenses and made compliance arrangements in many countries and regions around the world, including Asia, America, Europe and the Middle East. At the end of last year, our group acquired a company holding a Japanese license (Coin Master Co., Ltd.) and plans to launch a local compliant trading platform this year in accordance with local regulatory requirements.
PANews: What do you think of Hong Kong’s policies?
Han Lin: Hong Kong is very supportive of Web3 as a whole. The Hong Kong government has been very proactive in its policies, and the communication with Hong Kong legislators also shows that they hope more Web3 companies will settle in Hong Kong. However, from the perspective of asset trading, Hong Kong's policies are relatively conservative, and the trading categories of existing licensed exchanges are limited, which may make some users feel that there are not enough choices. Our group applied for a custody license (TCSP) as early as two or three years ago, and we are also very interested in Hong Kong's OTC license in the future.
PANews: Looking back on the development history of Gate.io, what are some unforgettable moments?
Han Lin: Gate.io has gone through many challenges in its development over the past 12 years, and has also witnessed the rapid growth of the industry.
- The early infrastructure was seriously insufficient . For example, commercial-grade wallet systems were not yet popular, and exchanges had to develop related technologies on their own. During this period, security incidents occurred frequently, and hacker attacks and asset losses occurred from time to time.
- Another aspect is the change in regulation . In the early days, regulators took a wait-and-see attitude towards the industry or did not pay much attention to it. Later, as the industry developed, regulation began to become stricter, and some countries and regions adopted a blockade policy on virtual currencies. In recent years, more and more countries have begun to require licensing or relevant registration to promote the standardized development of the industry. These changes give us hope that the industry will develop in a healthy direction.
PANews: With competition among exchanges becoming increasingly fierce, what is your killer feature?
Han Lin: Gate.io previously put a lot of energy into infrastructure and products, focusing on user needs and providing the functions and assets that users need. However, as market competition intensifies, insufficient brand awareness has become one of the factors restricting the growth of new users. To this end, Gate.io has begun to increase its brand promotion efforts since last year , because although Gate.io has implemented the "100% reserve proof" as early as 2020, many people have not yet realized its importance. In order to enhance its brand influence, Gate.io has further expanded its brand awareness by sponsoring Inter Milan and F1 Red Bull Team.
In addition, Gate.io has also made large-scale optimizations in product experience . In the early stages, the platform focused on improving functions and assets, but now, as functions are gradually completed, users are more concerned about whether the user experience is smooth. Based on this, the platform has invested a lot of resources to optimize the user experience and strive to create a smooth and efficient trading environment.
PANews: Does Gate.io have any plans regarding mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of shareholders?
Han Lin: The main purpose of mergers and acquisitions is for strategic considerations, such as obtaining licenses. Although Gate Group started early in the license layout, due to the long license application cycle (usually 1 to 4 years), mergers and acquisitions or investments in related licensed entities are also a good choice.
As for introducing strategic shareholders, although this is an important means for many companies in the early stages of development, Gate.io does not have such a need at this stage, and the current equity structure remains independent.
Industry cycles and future trends
PANews: The industry used to follow a "four-year cycle," but this round seems to be different. Has the four-year cycle theory failed?
Han Lin: I don’t think there is a so-called fixed cycle . There was indeed a four-year cycle in the early days, but that was mainly because virtual currencies, especially Bitcoin, were still a very niche asset class at the time. At that time, market fluctuations were mainly affected by internal events, such as the Bitcoin halving. The halving was a major event in the industry at the time, which attracted a lot of attention and caused market fluctuations, so people thought there was a fixed cycle.
But now the situation is completely different. The market value of Bitcoin is now close to 2 trillion US dollars, and the total market value of the entire crypto market is close to 4 trillion. It is already a very large asset class, even exceeding the market value of most of the top listed companies. The market value of Bitcoin is already higher than that of silver, but smaller than that of gold. This size makes the crypto market closely connected with global economic activities. For example, the daily rise and fall is highly correlated with the trend of US stocks, which have a great impact on the crypto market. Therefore, it is now difficult to use a fixed four-year cycle to measure market fluctuations.
I think the market volatility depends more on two factors:
The first is the environment outside the circle , that is, the global macroeconomic situation. For example, the performance of the US stock market and the fluctuations of the global economy will have a direct impact on the crypto market.
The second is innovation within the industry , that is, whether there are new concepts or technologies emerging within the industry. In the past, we saw that the rise of Ethereum in 2017 brought about an ICO boom, which attracted a large number of new projects and funds into the market;
- The outbreak of DeFi in 2020 has set off another wave;
- Later, new concepts such as NFT and GameFi also drove the growth of the market;
- In recent years, new concepts such as Meme coin and BRC-20 have also sparked heated discussions and participation in the market.
PANews: There don’t seem to be many new concepts emerging in the past two years. People may be more optimistic about AI in the future. What do you think?
Han Lin: Although there have been no significant innovative breakthroughs in the blockchain industry in the past two years, the development of the industry has not stagnated.
- Maturity of infrastructure: In the early stages, infrastructure such as wallets and trading platforms were not yet perfect. For example, users needed to download the official wallet to operate. Now, multi-currency wallets are very mature, which greatly improves the user experience.
- Evolution of DeFi Platforms: DeFi platforms have evolved from the initial single function (such as Swap transactions) to a comprehensive platform with rich functions. For example, the launch of the Ethereum L2 network not only reduced transaction costs, but also improved network performance and alleviated network congestion. Emerging public chains such as Solana have promoted further optimization of infrastructure with higher performance and lower costs.
- Cryptocurrency's ability to "go beyond the circle" is enhanced: Today, Bitcoin has become an important asset class, and its global penetration rate continues to increase. For example, in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and other regions, the penetration rate of cryptocurrency has exceeded 20%, while the global average penetration rate has reached 10%.
- The driving force of Meme coin : The emergence of Meme coin has lowered the entry threshold of the industry and attracted a large number of users outside the industry. Compared with the early stage that required a lot of user education, the threshold for the public to understand cryptocurrency has been significantly lowered, which has also promoted the further popularization and development of the industry.
- Future optimization direction: In view of high-frequency trading needs, Gas fees are still a key area that needs to be continuously optimized, and the industry still has great potential to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
PANews: How do you view the future market trend? Is the bull market still there?
Han Lin: From the current perspective, the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable stage. Although it is difficult to see the extreme ups and downs of the past, the overall penetration rate of the industry continues to increase. For example, some states in the United States have begun to legislate to use Bitcoin as an asset reserve, and this move may trigger other countries and regions to follow suit.
As a deflationary asset, Bitcoin's security and scarcity make it an ideal asset reserve tool. If more institutions and countries include Bitcoin in their reserve asset system, the market's growth potential will be further released.
The innovation capability and capital flow efficiency of the blockchain industry are always at a high level, which makes new projects and tracks emerge continuously. In addition to Meme Coin, many emerging tracks and concepts are also developing rapidly. Gate Ventures continues to pay attention to these changes and actively explores projects with potential.
PANews: With the launch of Bitcoin ETF, will the expected effect be affected because funds cannot directly enter the crypto market?
Han Lin: Although there is a certain separation between traditional assets and virtual assets, the flow mechanism between the two has been greatly simplified. For example, through ETFs, traditional financial users can indirectly invest in virtual assets, while the asset allocation behind ETFs still needs to flow to Bitcoin or other encrypted assets. In the long run, these funds will eventually be transmitted to the encrypted market.
In addition, there are more and more channels for ordinary users to enter the crypto market, such as credit card purchases, bank transfers, etc. These convenient measures have lowered the threshold for traditional financial users to enter the crypto market and brought more funding possibilities to the industry. The launch of ETFs is undoubtedly of positive significance to the development of the industry.
PANews: What suggestions do you have for users in the crypto space?
Han Lin:
- For users outside the industry, it is recommended to first understand the blockchain industry. Even if you do not directly invest in crypto assets, you can deepen your understanding of the industry by participating in blockchain-related work or projects. Blockchain is a field full of opportunities, and the earlier you participate, the more advantages you will have.
- For users in the industry, especially Gate.io users, it is recommended to maintain rational investment and focus on risk control. We will soon launch some new assets, which may be a good choice for experienced users. However, novice users should adopt a more conservative strategy and avoid blindly following the trend.
