Web3 is currently experiencing a somewhat subdued bear market, and the NFT market is notably lacking short-term momentum, severely denting holders' confidence. Does NFT still have a future? How can Web3 overcome these biases? How can one quickly assess the quality of a project? What actions should be taken during a bear market?

In the third dialogue, we are very pleased to invite KK, the chef of Maodao & the founder of Hash Global, share his insights on Web3 and NFTs. What do investors think of Web3 and NFTs from their perspective?

In the third dialogue, we are pleased to invite Maodao Chef & Hash Global founder KK to share his insights on Web3 and NFT. What do Web3 and NFT look like in the eyes of investors?

Q：Please introduce yourself first, KK.

A: Hello everyone, I'm KK. I previously worked in the traditional financial markets, including roles at asset management firms both in the United States and China. After 15 years, I shifted my focus to equity investments and in 2018, I founded Hash Global. Our primary focus is on investing in early-stage projects within the Web3 industry. Currently, we manage two funds – a VC fund and a parallel fund. To maximize our expertise, we concentrate on Chinese Web3 teams. To date, we've invested in over 60 Chinese Web3 entrepreneurial projects. We recently completed the acquisition of the MaoDao PFP project, which serves as our foundation for establishing a Web3 Chinese community. Furthermore, we've embarked on initiatives to develop Web3 products within China, with the goal of facilitating mass adoption of Web3 technology (based on the alliance chain) in the Chinese market.

Q:How does KK view the current NFT market? How do you think NFT will develop in the future?

A: We are very optimistic about the NFT market and have been investing in entrepreneurial projects in the NFT field. I explained NFT and Web3 to many Web2 friends on many occasions last year. One internal resource that I find particularly effective for providing explanations is titled: NFT is the cornerstone of the next generation of the Internet. In my opinion, NFT is not just digital collections and PFP, it is actually "Everything". It can be data, a mapping of the physical world in the virtual world, it can be a carrier of asset securitization, and it can also be combined with the real economy. It can also show its talents in private domain traffic management. Therefore, we have seen that many Web2 companies around the world, such as Starbucks, Nike, etc., are trying to use NFT to further build their own membership systems and brand culture.

If we restrict the concept of NFTs solely to avatar-like items or art, then the current market performance may appear as a normal correction in value. I, too, have invested in NFT that have seen significant declines in value. I also care about making or losing money, but what is more meaningful to me is that I can follow the development of the market through purchasing. Many of Web3's operating models and value presentation methods are very close to money, so people in the industry will be particularly price-sensitive and think it is a bear market; but from the perspective of technology development and application field expansion, the bottom layer of NFT is There are very big technological breakthroughs. Originally, in our Internet or metaverse world, there was no way to confirm the ownership of something. For example, a picture can be copied countless times at zero cost, and you cannot assign value to it; but after the emergence of carriers like NFT, the logic changes. Yes, a picture can also be sold for 10,000, 1 million or even 10 million Hong Kong dollars. Behind this phenomenon is actually a very large change in the underlying business logic.

In general, the narrow NFT market may currently be in a bear market; but the entire NFT market, including the application of NFT technology in the real economy and the empowerment of various industries, is booming rapidly in our opinion. The next development will be very interesting, and the market will be too big for everyone to imagine.

Q:Seeing that Hash Global recently completed the acquisition of the NFT project MaoDao and has designated it as their first priority for incubation, could we please have KK provide everyone with a brief introduction to MaoDao and MaoDao's vision?

A: We have been paying attention to PFP and Web3 native IP. Simply speaking, MaoDao will be divided into two parts. First of all, we will build a community for Web3 Chinese based on the original PFP project; if the slogan is bigger, we hope to be the spiritual home of Web3 Chinese. Our understanding of PFP may be different from that of some existing project parties. We prefer that the project can become a member club like YugaLabs rather than a specific trend culture; of course, the development path we are currently planning is not the same as that of YugaLabs. Same.

I think Web3 Chinese are the only group of entrepreneurs that can stand alongside European and American entrepreneurial teams. Whether it is entrepreneurs, KOLs, or related media practitioners, the group gathered by us Chinese must be the best group of people in the global entrepreneurial team.

Of course, our entrepreneurial ecosystem is sometimes not particularly friendly. There are often some "pseudo-Web3" events and characters that "pollute" the industry. Our mainstream media and many Web2 practitioners actually have a vague understanding of Web3, and Web3 practitioners are easily viewed with suspicion: Are you laundering money? Are you just a speculator? Are you engaging in pyramid schemes?

I think the Chinese team that really does things needs a community with positive energy to explain our understanding and vision of Web3 to users outside the mainstream supervision, mainstream media and Web3 mainstream people. And the best vehicle for such a community is PFP. Web3's PFP is not comparable to the skin or avatar of a certain Web2 platform. The difference between the two is a dimensional difference.

MaoDao now has 5,000 cats. If you own a cat, you belong to this community, you are a part of the community, and you can participate in various offline and online activities. We will rely on our resources to provide some benefits in various Web2 cultural and entertainment fields. These benefits are not the point in our opinion. We don't think PFP is a carrier of some benefits; we hope you stay in the community because the community can provide a lot of high-quality content and a lot of communication, and community members can help each other. We are even thinking about whether the community can be divided into different cohorts according to different industries and regions; each cohort has a very diverse group of people, including Web2 people, Web3 people, entrepreneurs from all walks of life, professionals, Investors, etc., so that the community can grow quickly and each member can get his or her complementary part.

We think such a community will be very valuable. We hope that when the regulators in Hong Kong, Singapore, and China talk about MaoDao, they will think that it is a community with positive energy, and they are willing to communicate with such a community. Hong Kong very much welcomes Web3 talents, and the gathering place for these talents will be communities like MaoDao. After such a community is created, because it is based on PFP, it will itself become a Web3 IP, and such IP will also be very valuable. The value it brings can also be shared by community members simultaneously. We will also set up a points system to reward members with points based on their contributions.

There are currently some great Chinese PFP projects, most of which focus on trendy brands, games, animation and other fields. I think these are all good, at least they are telling the value rather than hyping a concept, a picture or a slogan, but it is not the same as what we want to do. As an investment institution, we may have helped nearly a hundred Chinese Web3 entrepreneurial projects. We are at an aggregation point, and we have had many exchanges with many Chinese Web3 practitioners; at the same time, our team members come from traditional finance and Web2 industries. Many of our investors are successful entrepreneurs and investment experts in Web2. We are familiar with the thinking of regulators, and we hope to work with the Web3 entrepreneurial team to better meet the requirements of government regulation, so that Web3 can really replace Web2.

Our entire Web2 Internet is now compliant with regulation, so it has achieved maximum development. And we need to know that once Web3 complies with regulation, its energy and power will be greater than Web2. Because it is more in line with government requirements in terms of data privacy and data regulation. We will destroy the monopoly economic model of the Web2 platform and completely replace it. In the future, there should be no exclusive term like Web3. The Internet is Web3, and Web3 is the Internet itself.

The entrepreneurial team of Web3 needs a stronger community and a more cohesive organization to do this, which is also the plan of the MaoDao community.

Finally, let me talk about a product we are making at the same time in China-"Cat Island". "Cat Island" is something we want to do based on our understanding after we have really observed the development of Web3 in China. This product is under intensive development, and we are also designing solutions for our first batch of customers, and will soon onboard its membership system.

It is completely possible to practice the Web3 business model in China, but there are some aspects you have to avoid - you cannot have encrypted currency, you have to do it based on the alliance chain. The operator of Maodao products and the custodian of product data will be completely separated, and data and assets will be kept on a public database, that is, an alliance chain, with NFT as the carrier. So the data is public, which is completely different from the operation logic of all Web2 platforms; user experience will be greatly improved as a result. For us, this is the core point of the Web3 business model.

We hope that domestic users do not know that he is using Web3 products at all. He does not know that the ticket, fan card, or collection of a certain actor's "highlight moment" is an NFT. He only knows that he has these things, and he can even resell them legally and compliantly in the second-hand trading market. At the same time, these things can be displayed across apps, not only on the products of Maodao, but also in all apps that can read the data on this alliance chain. In this way, the user's experience will become great. He doesn't need to know that this is based on the alliance chain, and he doesn't need to know that this is an NFT. He just finds that all his "cultural footprints" have been preserved.

Q: KK believes, in the next stage, which specific niche application within blockchain is most likely to fully integrate into people's daily lives and break their biases against Web3? Have there been any similar applications emerging already?

A: We drew a picture at the beginning of the year. We believe that the next three years will be the iPhone moment when Web3 realizes mass adoption. In our opinion, there are three areas of application that will lead us to mass adoption.

One is games, one is NFT (creator economy), and the other is DePin. Since this is an exclusive interview with NFTGo, let's focus on NFT. NFT is something worth spending time and energy on. We believe that if we want blockchain to fully enter people's lives, we must make blockchain insensitive.

Friends around us, even our parents, when they use these applications, you can’t tell them that this is a Web3 application, and your collection is an NFT, let alone what chain your thing is made on Yes; he just needs to use it, and you just need to use technology to give him a better experience. After he uses it, he will feel that he is using the original Internet, but suddenly finds that this APP seems to be more friendly.

For example, the essential difference between Web3's China Eastern Airlines membership system and Web2's China Eastern Airlines membership system is that when Ctrip needs to market to users, Ctrip no longer needs to say to China Eastern Airlines: "Open the database and let me check KK Are you a Platinum member?" This is because China Eastern Airlines released the data on the first day of issuing this platinum card. Instead of saying that when a third-party service provider like Ctrip wants to come for verification, it will be authorized and opened. We know this is because the data of this card is recorded on the alliance chain, but 99.9% of people do not know and do not need to know; they only need to know that this China Eastern Airlines Platinum Membership Card can be read by Ctrip, and they You don't have to go out of your way to prove yourself anymore. Based on this, the underlying technological revolution will bring about very large changes in business logic.

In addition, we feel that the place where NFT can best show its talents is in private domain traffic management - some large hotel groups in China have already begun to do this. For any large Web2 platform such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, their public domain traffic tools must be very good, and their huge traffic distribution tools are of great value. But if some Influencers want to sell products instead of simply selling their personal traffic, they will have real needs for private domain traffic management. We have talked to many bloggers and influencers. Whenever they want to sell something, they often need to go to WeChat to create a WeChat group, and then manage, sell things or chat. Of course they can sell through platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, but he doesn’t know what the portrait of his users is through those platforms. We asked an Influencer with 50,000 followers. Although she has sold hundreds of thousands of RMB worth of stuff in the past few years (through Xiaohongshu), she doesn’t know what kind of user profile her 50,000-plus followers are. It's a huge pain point. You can try to imagine: if these things happened on the Web3 platform, would she be able to see the portraits of all her users through the NFT tool? She would also know who her real collectors and fans are. These collectors and what preferences do fans have?

We at "Cat Island" are trying to make such products. We hope that after this product comes out, all influencers can establish direct contact with their fans. Our platform only earns what the platform should earn, and we do not monopolize data; we hope to give users the best experience. We will also make a cultural wall for fans - all his collections will be displayed, he can display it across platforms, and he can also find his friends based on it. He will find that he can take all the things and collections with him and not be limited to a certain application (he can never show the things in Xiaohongshu on Douyin).

We hope to give the best experience to the most users, and at the same time let the influence of Influencer achieve better value. This is also the application that we think is most likely to explode on the NFT track. I wrote an article at the beginning of the year, and that article talked about our views on this matter. We originally wanted to find a team to incubate, but since there was no way to quickly find a suitable team, we decided to do it ourselves.

Q: Many Web3ers are interested in learning about investment strategies. From the perspective of an investor, how can one quickly determine whether a collection is worth investing in?

A: From an investor's perspective, just like when we invested in NFTGo, we first look at what problem you are trying to solve with this project, whether the problem really exists, and whether the future product demand and market really exist - at least for us You have to believe that this exists. Secondly, we need to know why it is you and not others (doing this thing), whether it can convince us.

After judging by these two things, we will screen out about 90% of the projects, and then we will chat with the team about your specific situation, and the chatting process will be very fast - because we will receive a large number of Decks, we will It takes up a lot of our energy. We are investing in the early stage, so the judgment of the remaining 10% of the projects actually mainly depends on the founder’s ideas and his future execution ability (because people are very important), as well as the communication and cooperation between the teams. This process again screens out a significant percentage of the team.

It is not our expertise to judge an NFT project itself from the perspective of NFTer. Including when we do PFP projects like MaoDao, we want to build a real product and a valuable community, and we don’t even want to see MaoDao PFP have a very high turnover rate (of course we value MaoDao’s floor price very much) , this is definitely the hardest indicator, which represents everyone’s recognition of the community). We hope that after you get the PFP, you will really become a part of the community. We hope that only about 10% of people will choose to leave every year, and another 10% of people will choose to join, instead of the current annual turnover rate of 200%, 300% or even higher. We also do not want to make money through royalties.

I think PFP, or investors in a broader NFT project, still need to spend some time looking at the team behind the project-does his vision meet your expectations? Does it have room for long-term appreciation? Holding a kind of perspective, do you want to buy a house in a first-tier city, do you want to buy a value stock? Our suggestion is not to pay too much attention to the superficial things, but to look at the inside, but this may require a certain threshold, a certain amount of self-awareness, and some time and energy to do research.

Q: NFTs are experiencing a deep bear market, and the cryptocurrency market is also sluggish. In this bear market, what advice does KK have for Web3ers? What would they recommend everyone focus on at this time?

A: I think NFT technology and its application in the real economy and in all aspects are in full swing, and its development has not been affected by the market itself at all (whether it is the encryption market or the NFT trading market itself). I suggest that in the current bear market, you should do more research, learn more, and keep enough bullets; on this basis, because there is much less noise, there are much fewer good targets to choose from, and they will be more concentrated. We feel that it is a very good time to start the MaoDao project, whether it is in terms of our investment cost or community building. I think if the NFT market is really a market you are optimistic about in the long term, you should look for teams and their projects that continue to keep building in the bear market.

We actually don’t think there are any blue-chip NFT projects now. Whether a blue-chip or not is simply a blue-chip project that has reached a floor price, it will take at least three years to prove that you are a blue-chip-whether you can stand Live through the bull and bear transitions in the market. This market and industry has only just begun! When the bull market comes, the projects that continue to do practical things in the bear market will be more explosive.

It is more likely to make money in a bear market, but it is easier to lose money when investing in a particularly hot market. So I think it is necessary to learn more, do more research, and look at the cycle a little further, at least for two or three years. I think it may be a good market entry point at this stage, but you must pay attention to your asset allocation.

Epilogue

Thank you very much for KK's response. Investors often have a broader perspective and can provide us with valuable insights. At the same time, every Web3er is eagerly awaiting the "iPhone moment" for Web3 mass adoption.

We look forward to seeing what’s next for them and how their plans unfold in the years ahead. Stay tuned for our next engaging conversation with another prominent Web3 builder.