I have a bold statement: all Chinese exchanges are essentially a "digital version of the Forbidden City." Exchange bosses can be treated like "emperors," and all exchange drama can be understood as "court politics."
Some emperors, like Jiajing, were devoted to Taoism and well versed in imperial power. They let two gangs of people under them check and balance each other, turned a blind eye to internal corruption, and were willing to share some power. If one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit.
Some emperors emphasized absolute loyalty, were decisive in killing, and would not allow anyone to bargain. Once anyone tried to seek more benefits or challenge his authority, they would be eliminated.
Let's briefly talk about the topic of court politics within crypto exchanges. This is purely fabricated and is for entertainment purposes only.
Power Struggle
To understand court politics, we must first get rid of a naive idea that there is no absolute distinction between good and evil, loyalty and treachery.
In "The Ming Dynasty 1566", although Yan Song was denounced as a treacherous minister by later generations, he relied on his extraordinary political skills to stay in the position of Prime Minister for many years and landed safely, and to a great extent helped to enrich the national treasury; however, after the Qingliu came to power, they cracked down on corruption and the Ming treasury became even emptier.
Where are there purely loyal and treacherous ministers in the world? There are only those who are useful to the emperor at the moment and those who are useless, as well as those who struggle to gain power and those who fail in the struggle.
Wherever there are people, there are struggles.
Power requires personnel to be implemented. The core of the struggle between Yan Song and Xu Jie lies in the competition for personnel power in the Ming Dynasty court. Whoever can place his own people in the six ministries and nine ministers can grasp the actual power and influence the actual operation of the court.
The same is true of the power struggle within the exchange, which is essentially a fight for key positions.
For example, the core departments of currency listing, finance, investment, etc. There are too many people and too little porridge, so people from all sides will inevitably fight each other.
As a boss, I am often happy to see my subordinates fighting with each other.
When subordinates compete with each other, it is difficult for them to form a strong enough alliance, eliminating the possibility of challenging authority.
The fight between the two parties gives each party an incentive to provide the boss with negative information about the other party, allowing the boss to obtain more comprehensive and multi-angle internal intelligence and also get a handle on the subordinates.
Of course, such infighting among subordinates must be kept within a controllable range. Excessive infighting will lead to waste of resources, inefficiency, and even endanger the overall stability of the organization.
When one party's power is too large and even threatens the boss's authority, the boss will use certain "imperial tactics", such as promoting someone internally or introducing a professional manager from outside and giving him great power to clean up the other party's people.
The core issue facing Emperor Jiajing was: How to choose absolutely reliable ministers in a court where it was difficult to distinguish between loyalty and treachery?
Exchange bosses still have this problem.
Suppression from competitors and sudden regulatory raids are visible dangers, but in the eyes of exchange owners, the biggest dangers are often lurking around and are not easy to detect, such as betrayal by those around them. As a result, nepotism has become the best solution at the moment - key positions are often held by the founder's relatives, friends, classmates, and even family members, even if they lack professional ability.
It turns out that nepotism or mom-and-pop shops are the safest in the crypto market.
Corruption and Anti-corruption
The struggle for power is inevitably inseparable from corruption and anti-corruption. The two are two sides of the same coin and both are means to gain power.
The key to court politics is how to judge the situation and take the right side.
In order to form an alliance, a "bond" is often needed, such as being from the same hometown, going to the same school, having the same professional experience... These can all become a connection point, but more importantly, interests. Relationships such as regional classmates also rely on money to maintain.
How to gain the trust of “Big Brother”?
In addition to giving emotional value, what is more important is actually to give some evidence and actively expose weaknesses. "Brother, here are all my problems. You can do whatever you want to me. I will follow you from now on."
Therefore, bribery or participating in collective corruption is actually the most effective way to show loyalty, and it is also a way to test whether a person is loyal or not. If you tie several people together through money, can they not work together and help each other?
When it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges, internal corruption, insider trading and other issues are difficult to eliminate for two reasons.
First, whether it is cryptocurrency trading or working, the vast majority of people enter the cryptocurrency circle for only one purpose: to make money.
This is especially true for working in a "high-risk company" such as an exchange. Many employees, especially those who have switched from traditional industries, will not have any sense of identity or belonging to the company at all. They just think about how to make the most money in the shortest time.
Second, crypto exchanges have always been a gray area. Compared with corruption in traditional companies, corruption in exchanges is easier to escape legal sanctions, and it is also easier to make a big deal out of a small matter, or just walk away, but the purpose has been achieved.
This is also a long-term employment problem for exchanges.
The Emperor's Weakness
Crypto exchange bosses and emperors share the same tragedy: the higher the position, the more powerful one becomes, the harder it is to establish a true relationship of trust.
Everyone who approaches them may have different purposes: some covet certain core powers, some covet wealth, and some have ulterior motives. In such an environment, suspicion becomes instinct and precaution becomes a habit.
This trust deficit ultimately leads to a smaller and smaller decision-making circle.
When I was a child, I watched various TV dramas and there was always a question that puzzled me: why is there always a "treacherous minister" around the emperor, and why is he favored?
Emperors are all lonely. They are not short of money or power. What they lack is love and loyalty, which is also the emperors' weak point.
Once someone contributes love and loyalty to those in power and makes them feel comfortable, even if this person has relatively average talents, he has value in existence.
In the digital Forbidden City of the exchange, technical talent is not scarce, marketing experts are not scarce, and even capital is not scarce. The only thing that is truly scarce is true loyalty.
Love and loyalty, a simple way to express it is to express your support for whatever the emperor does. The more absurd it is, the more you support him, and the more loyalty it shows.
Running a crypto exchange is not an easy job. It is physically and mentally exhausting. Not only do you have to compete with your peers, but you also have to guard against hackers and fight wits with regulators. At this time, exchange bosses are often exhausted and even have self-doubt. Some of them don't know whether the exchange has grown and developed to this day because of their wisdom and bravery or luck. At this time, they desperately need external emotional value support and spiritual healing, and they must tirelessly tell him, "You are right, it's all thanks to you, we are all grateful to you."
Humans are not plants or trees, so who can be heartless? Being recognized, loved, and needed is a natural desire of human beings.
Ordinary people also desperately need love and loyalty, but they are still at the lower level of Maslow's pyramid of needs, still struggling for life, and do not have the time and ability to pursue the value satisfaction of higher-level needs.
The Emperor's Women
The women around the emperor mentioned here are not the so-called harem in gossip, but female executives.
Exchanges tend to have a large number of female executives, which is a very reasonable thing.
A traditional financial boss who is very influential likes to use female executives. Because, in his opinion, women are more loyal than men. No matter how much salary a man is paid, he will not be satisfied in the end. Even many men who are promoted and have gained a lot of wealth and power do not have much gratitude and loyalty in their hearts. Instead, their self-confidence is boosted, and they think "I can do it too".
The essence of power is the desire for loyalty and the fear of betrayal.
In the highly competitive environment of the exchange, bosses’ biggest worry is “cultivating their own gravediggers.”
After gaining power and wealth, male executives tend to view their current positions as a springboard to higher power. They are more inclined to attribute their achievements to their personal abilities rather than the grace of their leaders. They are more likely to choose to leave at the right time and start a competing company or seek a higher position.
Female executives tend to show stronger organizational loyalty and pay more attention to long-term and stable career development rather than risk-taking entrepreneurship. They are more willing to attribute their success to teamwork and leadership development, and therefore value their current positions and organizational relationships more.
In addition, another major challenge facing cryptocurrency exchanges is frequent crisis events and communication with users. In this area, female executives often show unique advantages.
For example, women are generally better at identifying, understanding and responding to other people's emotions, which is particularly important when calming angry users, handling complaints and crisis public relations. In contrast, men are more likely to become emotional and confront users when dealing with related public crisis events.
Therefore, in my opinion, the power of women in the crypto world is greatly underestimated.
It's quite interesting, looking back at history and the present, no matter how technology develops, whether in the traditional business world or the encrypted digital world, the nature of power has never changed.
Where there are people, there is the world.
The moon waxes and wanes, the water is full and then overflows; this is the ultimate fate of all power games.
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