6 Questions for Chen Li of Youbi Capital – Cointelegraph Magazine

We ask the builders in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry … and throw in some random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week our 6 questions go to Chen Li, the co-founder and CEO of Youbi Capital, a venture capital firm investing in blockchain technologies and disruptive decentralized applications.

Chen Li is the co-founder and CEO of Youbi Capital. He has a Ph.D. in chemistry and worked as a scientist for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he won two awards for his contributions to the development of pioneering antibody drugs. In 2015, he was introduced to Bitcoin mining by his roommate in college, then co-founded Youbi Capital in 2017. Chen built the foundation of Youbi’s thesis in blockchain infrastructure and led investments in Algorand, Avalanche, Polkadot, Flow, Kadena, Chainlink, Debank. and others. He was also an advisor to JP Morgan’s blockchain team.

1 – What is the main obstacle to mass adoption of blockchain technology?

The main obstacle to mass adoption of blockchain technology is now still its infrastructure, specifically, scalability and security of layer 1s. We’ve all seen that the watershed moment for Axie Infinity was not the game-to-win movement that began in early 2020, but the migration of the game from Ethereum to Ronin in mid-2021, which caused a boom in players and revenue growth immediately . .

But Axie was just one application, and so can be easily adjusted on a dedicated chain, while for the DeFi protocols – which are highly composable and already interconnected – we still don’t have layer 1 for the whole set of DeFi protocols to migrate. finished without starting to block its traffic. Solana might be the closest to achieving this goal, but it is not horizontally scalable for mass adoption.

There is still much to be done to lay a solid foundation for the blockchain application.

2 – What will happen to Bitcoin and Ethereum over the next 10 years?

Bitcoin has successfully extended the consensus on its value as a decentralized store of value for everyone from individuals to a large group of institutions in this cycle. It is only a matter of time before it is universally accepted. In addition, under the global inflation background, Bitcoin could also have the opportunity to become a widely used currency in international settlements. There has been a lot of speculation about the value proposition of Bitcoin broken down according to its usage in different categories.

In terms of technology, the community has deliberately kept the progress of Bitcoin slow to avoid introducing any uncertainty. While I believe this is the right strategy for its use cases, Bitcoin will still be limited in support of smart contracts for the next 10 years.

Ethereum, on the other hand, is going through a much faster iteration by transitioning to proof of interest and possibly sharding in the near future. All EVM support chains are also in the Ethereum ecosystem, contributing value to the base layer. Due to the strong network impact, the Ethereum ecosystem is likely to remain a dominant force in the DeFi space for the next 10 years.

3 – When you tell people that you are in the blockchain industry, how do they react?

I remember when I first talked to outsiders about Bitcoin in 2015 – they either kept quiet and gave me awkward looks as if I was trying to persuade them into some kind of scam, or in some cases, enthusiastically challenged me whether Bitcoin has any value. Bitcoin mining was more than a business that people could understand, but it was extremely rare to find someone who was open-minded about the cryptocurrency itself.

Now more and more people are experimenting and engaging in blockchain technology and crypto. I’m often not the only person they know in the industry. I was asked a lot of basic questions about blockchain. But now people who are not blockchain professionals sometimes share their perspectives first when they know I’m in the industry.

They have a much more diverse perspective on the blockchain industry now. In addition to keeping a crypto in their portfolio, several people are NFT collectors or even landowners in blockchain games. They see blockchain as a technology for publishing and transacting NFT assets as well as infrastructure for the Metaverse, but are more attracted to NFTs and Metaverses. That’s why I’m very confident that the Metaverse will be the entry point to the Web3 era.

4 – Who makes sense to you, and who makes no sense?

Who builds a product then tells a story makes sense to me and who only tells a story or builds a product for an imaginary requirement makes no sense.

There are many great products that are carefully designed and replicated to suit the needs of the users. For example, Binance has highly effective feedback, from customer service to management. As a result, it is able to repeat its product in the right way and engage a new trend in the market. The Binance team makes sense to me. Polygon, Debank and The Graph are all great examples of products with a strong product market. All of these teams make sense to me and I see a lot of potential in the adoption of their product.

5 – List your favorite sports teams, and choose the single most memorable moment of watching them.

My favorite sports teams were the Chicago Bulls and Denver Broncos. The most memorable moment was Michael Jordan’s final shot with the Bulls winning the sixth championship.

6 – Apart from the present, in what time and in what country would you like to live?

I wish I had lived in Shanghai, China from 2012 to 2015. That was the first crypto market cycle I missed. The two main events in that time frame were the growth of Bitcoin mining and the fundraising and initial community building of Ethereum. They both took place during that time in China.

In addition, China is my home country. I love the food and the people.

Wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:

I want everyone in the community to be able to experience the ups and downs of holding on to their crypto assets.