Setting the Scene, what’s happening with views from Paris FinTech week to the stories in focus on Forkast.News. Angie shares some of the latest insights from experts across the globe and what the impact of technology means for compliance and risk.
Angie Lau is an award-winning journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News. Before founding Forkast in July 2018, Angie anchored Bloomberg TV’s flagship morning show “First Up with Angie Lau” broadcast globally into 350 million homes and offices. She interviews newsmakers, CEOs, and icons, including the exclusive with Li Ka-shing — his first television one-on-one in more than a decade.
Points of Interest
- 01:21 Career in Journalism
- 07:16 Rants & Revelations
- 11:32 Forkast.News – The human story of technology
- 17:33 What are Cryptocurrency and Blockchain?
- 20:03 Emerging Themes: Easing, Regulatory, Asia, Open Source
- 29:50 KYC and AML in Crypto
- 33:01 Regulators and Blockchain
- 43:03 Country Report on China is coming!
I really wish that I listened to my gut a lot earlier…Those were the moments that were the most real for me and the most powerful for me and I would tell my younger self, keep going. You’re on the right path. Don’t worry about it so much.
TRANSCRIPT
Kimberley Cole 0:01
This is Risky Women Radio show to connect, celebrate and champion women in risk, regulation and compliance, sharing insight and perspective from the most influential members of our global Risky Women network. On the latest developments, we need to think about, the challenges we should all talk more about, and innovations we are most excited about in governance, risk and compliance. Bringing together the hundreds of senior women professionals already connected with a new emerging group of leading women and men. I’m Kimberley Cole, your Chief Risky Woman.
Kimberley Cole 0:39
Welcome to Risky Women Radio. Today’s risky woman is the fabulous Angie Lau, Editor-in-chief, Founder and CEO of Forkast.News. Welcome, Angie.
Angie Lau 0:49
Thank you, Kimberley.
Kimberley Cole 0:51
So I’m so looking forward to speaking with you today. If not a little intimidated, say normally, roles would be reversed, you would be asking me some questions…
Angie Lau 1:00
I’m slightly intimidated right now, this is true!
Kimberley Cole 1:04
So anyway,
Angie Lau 1:05
We’ve neutralized eachother!
Kimberley Cole 1:06
I think we’re gonna have a great time. So let’s kick off, as we usually do, I’d like to hear more about your career journey. We’ve heard a lot of fascinating career journeys on Risky Women Radio, tell us your story.
Angie Lau 1:21
Well, it’s a long story, one I’ve shared on stage at TEDx. I made it through that speech and fled the stage and collapsed into tears. And the reason is, because for me, it was a story that I had never shared publicly that was very personal. And as a journalist, I’m used to sharing other people’s stories and I don’t talk about my own, but increasingly in this role, and increasingly as I grow older, I realized that each one of us have stories to tell and that was really the core of my my speech. I was two years old when I went with my family to Canada. And it wasn’t necessarily under the best of situations, because I was not a boy. I was the firstborn daughter of a series of firstborn sons. And I broke the immaculate record, and not in a good way. So it caused a lot of strife. But luckily for me, my parents were my greatest champions. And being raised in Canada, they taught me that really, we could write our own stars, and we could create and follow our own North Star. And as an immigrant child, I remember that we also didn’t know a lot, I couldn’t go to my parents because they didn’t know as much as I didn’t know. And sometimes I would be the reporter, right? And I think that instinct really drove me into journalism. And I’m a 20 year veteran of broadcast journalism. And now I find myself brave enough and courageous enough to step on a platform that I didn’t realize that I was building over the course of two decades, with hard work and determination and and a pedigree of work that I’m proud to stand on. And we are now building for the future. And I am committing and recommitting to journalism once again in the truest form, recognizing that media in the 21st century has been defined by legacy and traditional, and I don’t think it should any longer. I have different opinions about it. I have different visions for it. And I come from legacy, I come from tradition, I come from incredible institutions and I want to evolve it into the 21st century Forkast was really built on that DNA. And it was also built on the fact that there are not a lot of people with my experience, look like me, who share that same experience, who are in the space called cryptocurrency and blockchain. I mean when I was trying to figure out what this was the information that was out there, both on the mainstream media side, and on the crypto side, the business side was night and day and and nobody was really doing a great job of it. And in fact, I was complicit in it. I’m not an expert. So I recognize that there is space for a platform called Forkast.News that really wants to empower through knowledge, that in a powerful union of experts and journalists, that we aim to decipher and translate the story of technology for all of us.
Kimberley Cole 5:03
That’s great. We’re going to get into more about Forkast, obviously, I think that’s foundations of how you kind of got here. You obviously had a long and distinguished career, as you said, 20 years. If we sort of look over that career and your time with Bloomberg and others, what were some of your, you know, interviews that you would say were highlights along the way?
Angie Lau 5:26
You know, they’re all equally equally important in my mind. So obviously, the one that is top of mind and I think for a lot of people as well, just because Li Ka-shing doesn’t talk to anybody, and hadn’t for 10 years, and it was an exclusive that everybody wanted. And for me to be able to sit down with him and really share a candid conversation and really ask the kind of questions that I, and everybody else, I think really were curious about that was an extraordinary experience. But equally, the conversations that I’ve had with the every man and every woman, you know, and I, I contrast that interview with a very powerful human being to our number of families who was facing bankruptcy because the local manufacturing plant in the city had closed down back in Canada. And the disparity between those two stories is really the spectrum of where we find ourselves in our global economy. Those two interviews contrast in my mind, they’re equally important because, for me, it is an eyewitness to what’s happening globally right now. This socio-economic disparity, this wealth gap that continues to expand. And we’ve got to tell these stories. And we’ve got to understand how we got here so that contextually, we could try to figure out how to get out of it.
Kimberley Cole 7:16
Yeah, the whole, how we have more financial inclusion and how we change all of the systems, as you said, there’s disruption everywhere, whether it’s in editorial, or banking, or all of the other realms that we can talk about. So interesting from the sort of, you have the really high profile interview to all of the other things you do that actually help tell those people’s stories around the world, which I do think journalism is phenomenal for that, from that, you know, perspective. So I normally ask this at the end, but I’m going to switch it up a bit. So what would be your revelation? I guess you probably just gave us one then but you know, what’s the thing that you know, you wish you knew then that you know now?
Angie Lau 8:05
I wish I gave myself permission to trust myself. But you know, when you’re young, many of us don’t. And many of us listen to the opinions of ourselves by other people. And then our ego demands that we listen to those opinions and we seek acknowledgement or attention or permission from other people. I think that over the years, this knot in my stomach, frustration, this feeling in your gut, I just couldn’t ignore it anymore. And I really wish that I listened to my gut a lot earlier. But you know, I don’t want to give myself too hard of a time because I think instinctively, sometimes when it’s, you don’t know why, but you just follow your gut. Those were the moments that were the most real for me and the most powerful for me and I would tell my younger self, keep going. You’re on the right path. Don’t worry about it so much.
Kimberley Cole 9:13
And I think that’s good advice for so many. So thank you for that. And what’s your rant? If we had queen Angie, ruler of the world for the day? What would you change with your magic wand?
Angie Lau 9:26
Oh, I would, you know what I would change? I would unblock our ears and unclog our brains and try to remove the blinders that we ALL have. We all have it, whether we’re conscious of it or not. And I want to remove it from myself for heaven’s sake, because at that point, I think when we can truly see, feel, listen and be completely empowered, that’s where change truly comes from. I can’t be queen for a day that is true. What I try to do is at least help in the empowerment. I believe that knowledge empowers that is the DNA of Forkast, knowledge empowers us. Something that I’ve shared before that, you know, I’m the mother of the now two and a half year old little boy. And he was really the one who, who shook me out of my matrix really, and put me on this new path. Because I realized that if I were to remain relevant to him, I can’t be on the path that I was on. Technology is changing. The medium is changing. Media is changing. And I could have sunset where I could change. I didn’t know that that was the path that I was on. But the commitment to is, the future is already upon us. Now if you don’t understand the future, you will never see your place in it. And that in itself will be tragedy. And if the tiniest thing that we can do at Forkast is to help you understand the future that is about to come, so that you can see your place in it, or be inspired to see your place in it, then Grayson will grow up into a world that I’ll be really proud to have participated in.
Kimberley Cole 11:32
So that is absolutely brilliant. Love to dig a bit deeper into Forkast.News and actually get some of the themes that you’re talking about. But that really sets the scene well. You know, what you say on the site is that it’s to help global audiences connected at a deeper level with the stories and the companies that are reshaping the future, in a language we we can all understand and I think that’s absolutely key with a lot of these technology themes because as you say, I think there’s been a lot of confusion and a lot of the areas are kind of tangled together from blockchain to crypto to Bitcoin and what those things mean. So, tell us how is Forkast been going? What are you up to in terms of you know how many interviews you’ve done, because it looks like you’ve got multiple sections on there from understanding blockchain technology. You’ve got industry perspective, markets perspectives, economy and regulation. So a lot of things that we can, we can dig into now.
Angie Lau 12:33
We built this for you guys. We really did. We tell the human story of technology, let the technologists and the engineers and the developers and the coders and the enthusiasts talk about technology for technology’s sake, and that story is being covered very specifically, but to grasp understanding of how technology can really impact us, societally, politically, professionally, it’s to understand the human impact and the human story. Look, it’s very clear to us that, you know, we serve our audience, there’s one thing that is very clear to us, we are an advocate for our audience, right? So the conversations that we have come from a place of context. So, increasingly, I am knowing more and more about the industry. But I confess I’m still not an expert. Luckily, for me, and luckily for us at Forkast for our audience, is that we are surrounded by experts. They know their stuff, what they sometimes lack is the ability to translate and communicate. That’s where journalists come in. I do two things really well, Kimberley, I explain complex things simply, and I can make boring things seem kind of interesting. And that is essentially what you find it Forkast which is it feels like might it might be intimidating, but the moment you engage it is absolutely not. Because it comes from a frame in which you’re already participating as a professional as an individual as a mother, a father, as an executive, as a junior looking up at the C suite, all of these things,. I’ll tell you what, one really wonderful outreach to us at Forkast was a mid, middle manager who reached out, big fortune 100 firm and said that her firm was doing reverse mentoring, and she was mentoring her CEO and she was tasked with helping him understand technology, the impact of blockchain and she found us, she loved our stuff. And suddenly, she is in a power position to be able to explain the promise of this technology. This is exactly the place that we want everyone who engages us, because at the end of the day, whether you’re a junior, or you’re the most senior, as a CEO, everyone is in the same spot. What is it? How is it disrupting my business? How is it transforming my business? How can it change my business logic? There’s an intimidation factor that exists right? So you come on our site and just through, just want you to hang out with us, because that wall of fear, I hope, erodes as you spend more time. And our numbers are demographics already show this I mean, where most crypto specific, crypto enthusiast sites, crypto media sites 98% male engagement, you know, under the age of 19. We’ve got 29.5% women who engage with us, that’s already very different. 67% come from 22 to 45. And even a higher percentage over the age of 45. They’re coming from C suites. They’re coming from executive ranks. They’re coming from higher incomes. Already, we are engaging with a different audience. And it is underscoring our value to the market. It’s exactly what we hope to be. So we talk about everything that helps you understand your business, more creatively, innovatively, thinking about technology.
Kimberley Cole 16:50
I think it’s going to be it’s certainly a great tool for our Risky Women and our men we have listening as well. You know, FinTech and RegTech are key themes that you hear everywhere. There’s a lot of disruption everywhere. As we’ve mentioned, we’re going to have a series of women on talking about a lot of RegTech themes. But can we start with one of the key things that you have covered on Forkast.News is what is blockchain? And I guess, covering the distinction between blockchain, crypto and Bitcoin, as I said, which often get all sort of tangled together, but give us a bit of clarity around that. And I know everyone can go on and watch the great videos as well so, you know, a brief summary.
Angie Lau 17:33
Sure. Cryptocurrency and blockchain go hand in hand, but that feeling in your gut when you hear cryptocurrency is exactly why Forkast is in this space, because it’s that credibility that skepticism, that scam factor that has encircled cryptocurrency is a speculative asset and all of the things that the bad acting, that we’ve heard over the years. This is a very nascent startup industry. It’s 10 years old, however blockchain the technology that, obviously, is the backbone that allows what cryptocurrency, if you think about Bitcoin as it idealistically aims to be, which is peer-to-peer transactions. No ands ifs or buts about it. It is peer-to-peer. Blockchain allows for that trust to exist. So, you know, I’ll let everybody else who, you know the engineers a lot smarter than me talk about the nodes and the ledgers and the blockchains, and things like that. I want to explain blockchain, define it simply as this, which is, for the first time it has the potential to return the power of the economy back to the individual, because it allows me to transact with you Kimberley. Whether you’re a friend or a stranger around the world, I know you, I don’t know you, you could be faceless. But there this blockchain transaction is trusted. It is a trustless system because trust is baked into the algorithm. And that is the power of blockchain, which also reveals the threat of blockchain because all of a sudden the third party providers of trust – banks, even media, everything in between. Suddenly those industries have the potential to be disrupted. That’s what we’re talking about here.
Kimberley Cole 19:39
Yeah, majorly disruptive. And obviously, blockchain has so many applications with the distributed ledger principle that you that you talk about. You’ve already spoken to a lot of different people in the industry. So if you’re going to pull out sort of some of the key themes that you’re seeing, what are those things? That, you know, people talking to you about.
Angie Lau 20:03
I see three things emerging. And the first one that we’re all participating in is this increasing tension in the global economy, between nations trade wars, monetary policy. And, you know, we are sitting in a time where the system itself is really in question with unprecedented monetary easing, continued easing since 2008 global financial crisis. I mean, it’s it’s not an accident that Bitcoin arose from the ashes of 2008. I think right now, there is a point where increasingly institutional investors, sophisticated investors are seeing Bitcoin as an alternative asset, as a digital gold because of the power of what it is. No central bank can control it. There’s no monetary policy that’s tied to it. And the value is determined by the market. Truly. That’s number one. I think that theme’s certainly is increasing and you’re seeing it right now. The second one is of a regulatory nature. So earlier this year, we had Japan really engage and try to engage with local leaders at G20 in Osaka, about cryptocurrency and try to help shape the conversations there. I mean you still have have world leaders who really don’t validate it, don’t believe in it, you know, dismiss it. Very famously, Jamie Dimon said that he would fire any employee who stupid enough to invest In cryptocurrency and then of course, we saw the about face there. And what that all suggests is that the regulators are sitting up, they’re paying attention in a different way. And there’s two divergent themes. In the West, we’ve got Europe and the US, obviously, with the systems in place as the power brokers of global economy, right, very, very specific, the almost prohibitive in that kind of regulatory language, very prescriptive as well. And then you have what’s happening in some parts of Asia, certainly don’t want to say all of it, but certainly Japan is an example of that. Taiwan is also an example, Singapore, some other countries are starting to realize that we could be more outcome focused when it comes to regulations, and potentially invite and open the doors for innovation, launching projects and talent to set up shop in those countries, because there’s also a recognition, I think more so in Asia than a mature and developed nations in Europe and North America, that there’s a potential to leapfrog with technology and participate in a global economy. Almost immediately. You’re seeing that in Myanmar, for a nation that was a hermit nation until the sanctions came down. And all of a sudden, people who have spent thousands of dollars, US dollars, for one SIM card, suddenly so many SIM cards in Myanmar, it’s the most technology engaged. Every single person seems to have a SIM card in Myanmar because it’s a dollar, right? So it’s that kind of engagement with technology that people are experiencing in developed, in frontier, in emerging markets and Asia and they see the potential in blockchain. And the third, increasingly, I don’t think we’re talking about it this year, but we will be talking about this next year – that blockchain and the true ideal is of decentralization, is that this technology is open source. The internet is powerful because a decision was made very early on in the inception and the implementation of the internet was that it was going to be open source. The power of the people is what drove commerce, and transactions, and everything else we’re seeing today, FinTech, RegTech. All of that is a direct correlation to a decision that was made early on to make the internet open source. Bloackchain is, at its true nature, open source but increasingly, you’re seeing corporate and certainly nations starting to co-opt the technology but keep it behind private or closed walls. And I think that there’s going to come a time where the market will speak and by the market, I mean the average person because the power of the average person is right there in front of us. We have purchasing power. We can vote with our feet. Even if we can’t vote, we can vote with our purchasing power and that is extraordinarily powerful. And let’s see where it goes.
Kimberley Cole 25:46
Yeah. And you look you you you mentioned several of the sort of regulatory things you’re seeing and the difference across the globe between Europe and America and Asia. You recently interviewed Stefan Rust from, who’s the CEO of Bitcoin.com, and you were talking about government versus tech and the potential threat of regulation. What risks was Stefan talking to you about in terms of crypto and more broadly, you know, what things was he kind of concerned about in that space?
Angie Lau 26:23
It’s a concern that that a lot of companies and blockchain projects and certainly the originals really understand about the space which is there’s a free market nature to cryptocurrency blockchain. So the regulators who come in and say cryptocurrency cannot be used as a tradable asset, you can’t use it to buy your coffee, you can’t use it to, versus the merchants and the people, and the business owners who I want to simply engage with people who want to be able to spend it. So, you know, for for Stefan, I think what’s incredible is that there is an ecosystem that is increasingly growing, which, you know, vendors and the average mom and pop shop, say, yeah, this is a method of payment. This is easy. Let’s do it. It’s okay. I accept American Express. I accept Visa, MasterCard, cash. And this too, cryptocurrency as well. I mean, that’s the space where we’re getting to. And the risk, I think, is that, you know, we have a prescriptive environment in which that can’t happen or it’s legal. However, having said that, you know, I think this technology is like water, it will find a way, it will find a way. So that, it’s a cat and mouse game, I think. And I think the smart regulators, the ones who are engaging, we’re heading to Paris actually for OECD Bloackchain Summit, we’ve been asked to be a media partner. We’re so excited. I’m going to be, I’m going to be moderating some panels, including with Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy in France, and really asking these direct questions because at the end of the day, there is a thought that Okay, do we stand in front of the tide? Or do we try to empower or feel empowered by it, be smart about it, engage with the technology and our people and create an environment in which both can reside. I think increasingly we see as well the projects that are in the blockchain businesses that are cognizant of this so that they are seeking out and participating and cooperating with the regulators because it’s not, I don’t think it’s adversarial. It’s not an adversarial, you versus me, right.
Kimberley Cole 29:15
It’s more of a learning and everyone’s gotta bring something to the table.
Angie Lau 29:19
Exactly. Because that’s how new this industry is. It’s not even a teenager yet.
Kimberley Cole 29:27
I think, I mean, one of the, one of the things that’s I guess raised is the threats sort of money laundering and financial crime that’s brought up that people worry about using crypto, what have been some of the approaches that have been discussed by you know, in your interviews and any particular ones that we should listen to, to sort of really address or try to tackle that challenge?
Angie Lau 29:50
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think you, I think you guys would really learn from a different perspective, about KYC and AML from the interviews that I did with the CEO of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, and CZ, another crypto exchange, CEO of Finance, two really prolific thought leaders in this space, blockchain leaders. And they really, they really set the tone of a lot of conversations. The KYC and AML are very, very specific to their businesses as well. And more and more they have to, they have to play ball, you know, in this field of regulations, but at the same time, what I thought was very interesting, and it really came from CZ, that his thought was that as regulators intensify and tighten, the counter will happen, which is more and more will seek other paths and seek decentralized ecosystems that are not in the control of one business, not into the control of one conglomerate or group. It just is going to be a spring well that rises naturally because that truly is the decentralized nature and the philosophy of this technology. It allows really average people to participate in, in it through a place of trust. So when you have decentralized exchanges, or decentralized functionalities, nobody is control. It’s like, then you’re up against a system and then all of a sudden, it’s not the central player or the central company that you have to go after. You’re going after every person who is engaging on this ecosystem. So you can imagine how incredibly unenforceable that might eventually be. But I think it is the smart thing to do I think is to engage with the industry and to keep these conversations really smart and free flowing and transparent. KYC and AML are important issues. But also, there is a thought that don’t use it specifically as an issue to scaremonger. You know, be smart about this conversation. And I think and I think both sides are.
Kimberley Cole 32:27
Yeah. You attended Paris for the blockchain week earlier in the year correct? And you moderated a panel there with several of the financial regulators, and that was on shining a light on the universal struggle to regulate cryptocurrency I think was the topic. And on that panel, you had, you know, a mix of regulators from IOSCO, the FTC, OECD, etc. What were the most enlightening points that you got from that discussion? Because I thought that was that very interesting one.
Angie Lau 33:01
Yeah, no, I loved that one because it was very candid. And I think that one of the biggest takeaways was that there needs to be a cohesiveness. Right? Otherwise, you get what we’re seeing is jurisdiction shopping. But at the same time, there’s a recognition that these agencies are also slightly fragmented. I mean that Michael Gill over at the FTC said, very candidly, is it a commodity? Is it a security? Well, you asked my cohorts over at SEC, and it’s a security and if you ask us it’s a commodity. And so there really isn’t this very specific focus as to what it is. And so how do you play in this sandbox, if you call it if you don’t know what the rules are, and the even when the rule makers don’t know what the rules are, so that’s really, really hard. And I think there’s a recognition that everyone’s got to come together and start speaking the same language and get on the same page, whatever that page may be, and and to be there can’t happen in the vacuum or with each other, we’ve got to have that diversity of opinions and value those diverse opinions as well. Like I said, there’s a danger of this being very adversarial, right? Politically adversarial language gets you voted into office, right? But it’s also really prohibitive and restrictive. And that’s what we’re seeing with a lot of the language that’s happening out of the US and what a lot of people are recognizing is that while the money in the financing, and the liquidity is obviously in the wealthiest nations in the world, the West, the talent is actually coming here. The projects are coming here, businesses are expanding here. And this is where Asia is really poised to capture a win and or at least participate in a way they’ve never been able to participate before.
Kimberley Cole 35:03
I think the other thing that came out, as you mentioned is not that adversarial approach but collaboration and how do we drive collaborations not just from a language, but how do you actually come to regulatory collaboration, which I think one of the comments that was made was, it’s very difficult to achieve because the cooperation is not being led by the regulators, but by the higher level initiatives. So it’s quite interesting to see this is obviously, as you said, an emerging space. There’s a lot that needs to be done. And so I think that makes it very interesting. So let’s zoom out a bit now and change gears. Because innovation continues to be a focus. It’s a it’s a buzzword for all firms, certainly for financial markets, who are, you know, not only seeing innovation, but I guess because it’s all being disrupted in so many different areas. You’ve also looked at blockchain in telecommunications. What are you hearing on innovation and the view of the future? You know, where’s Forkast.News going with a deep dive on blockchain and technology?
Angie Lau 36:14
So for us, I think technology is going to be very much a part of how we interact with our audience and part of our future. We’re thinking on how we are building the vision at Forkast with technology as the engine. At some point we will be using blockchain technology with our audience and for our audience, there is a very specific value proposition when it comes to authentication. As a veteran in legacy in traditional media, as a journalist, as a longtime journalist, I know as a professional, how we go to original source how we do our due diligence how we fact check all those things. But I think that’s completely scalable. That’s completely scalable. That’s number one. I would say that even expanding beyond forecasting, expanding beyond media, we’re already seeing technology, changing the business logic for industries. We were just in Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, 70,000 attendees, amongst them, the largest telcos in the world, obviously. They’re thinking about technology like kids in a candy shop, let me tell you, because not only are we talking about 5G, we’re talking about all of these emerging technologies and at Forkast we begin with blockchain but we’re not going to end there. Right now. That’s our niche. Because what we’re seeing is that emerging technologies are morphing, combining with each other. Blockchain plus AI plus 5G plus cloud plus, plus plus quantum technology, machine learning and you name it. And it’s changing the business logic for industries like telcos who see it as a way to reengage. Because they were supplanted by ecommerce. Now they’re re engaging with potential to re engage. And they’re thinking about how technology helps them do that. All the way to insurance companies all the way to food companies who want to validate their supply chains, because consumers are demanding it all the way to the fashion industry. Yeah. It’s exciting times, I get to see these projects and these ideas form in the petri dish. I don’t end and this is where you’re going to find at Forkast. Because I don’t think a lot of people are in interested in it outside of it. And if they are, it’s very fragmented. But you you’ll find that kind of reporting on us.
Kimberley Cole 39:07
So there’s so many great interviews already on Forkast.News and I recommend all of our Risky Women go and take a look. But if you were going to help us navigate which, which ones should we kick off with?
Angie Lau 39:21
Okay. Go to our blockchain basics. What is blockchain? Then go to a couple of interviews just start hanging out with us and listening to the ideas as they’re expressed, and they’re really more societal. They’re much more macro in perspective. I really loved the one with Charles Hoskinson. He’s a co-founder of Ethereum and Cardano and I also love the comments because there was one that was shared on our channel of “Wow, who’s this lady? She really should teach journalism.” I thought, you know what, I loved that that person said that, because they saw the value of that conversation. And they also in expressing it reflected a frustration that exists right now when it comes to these stories, which is where’s the quality and the credibility? So, so for me and encapsulated all of that and that conversation specifically, is very interesting because it’s high level. It’s talking about the philosophy of blockchain, the philosophy of platforms, you know, as it pertains to businesses as it pertains to societies and industries. That was really cool. And the one I did with CZ, he was very candid. I loved it in that he, you know, he’s he spent a lot of years with an incredible team building a company that is now one of the largest exchanges in the world. But there’s a lot of challenges, regulatory and otherwise, as you’ll hear, what I really loved most about that was his recognition that he’s going to step aside. And so he was almost talking from a professor emeritus point of view. And in that became very candid about where the technology is going, the threat of quantum technology as it as it pertains to cyber security. So I thought that that was very interesting. And then just visit some of our expert contributors and the opinion pieces. We have William Pesek, longtime friend and colleague, who was a columnist at Bloomberg, right, and Barons. He did a number of pieces for us based out of Japan, on Osaka G20, and crypto in Japan coming to its defense. And those are the conversations that I think will help start shape for our audience and you up there, women and men that you can become the expert. We’re simply the tool of information, you become the expert, and then you become a master of your future. That’s our goal.
Kimberley Cole 42:34
Excellent. So we’ve got blockchain basics, but generally hang out great interview with Charles Hoskins. Hoskinson, sorry, and then CZ, and then take a look at William Pesek’s articles as well. So a lot there. And maybe can you give us a little sneak peek what’s what should we be looking out for what’s coming next?
Angie Lau 42:58
Super excited about this. So this is a breaking news, can I share it with your audience?
Kimberley Cole 43:03
Oh yeah!
Angie Lau 43:03
Because we’re we just confirmed that we will be doing our first country report. And it’s going to be on China. And we are going to be all eyes ears on understanding, blockchain technology, mapping the landscape, mapping the ecosystem, mapping the regulatory, also the potential of the first centrally central bank backed crypto asset and the CBOC and exploring what that means. And over the next couple of weeks and months, we’re going to be doing some pretty deep analysis and forming shaping what will be our first country report.
Angie Lau 43:06
That sounds fantastic. Excellent. I look forward to that on, really interesting. Alright, so wrap up, and I think we’ve got lots of advice there on how to learn more about blockchain and crypto, but we love giving our Risky Women and men some advice too. Given what you’re hearing and learning, what you’re seeing develop, for our women in governance risk and compliance, and ethics we often get into as well. What else should they be educating themselves on? What’s your advice?
Angie Lau 44:20
I think understand and to put away whatever perspective that may have been shaped or formed to-date on blockchain or cryptocurrency and just put it aside for a moment and re-engage with this technology from as objective as you can be point of view. Explore who the credible people are, the projects, the promise, and then as it relates to your area of expertise. So if you were to engage from an unbiased objective point of view, if let’s say you do the mental exercise that this intellectually inspires you, and you’re really excited about it creatively in your area of expertise, how would you engage with this technology? I think it’s just a fun exercise. Because I think that right now, you know, if we were to allow the media that has been forming and shaping our opinions for probably way too long, I can probably tell you what your opinion about blockchain and cryptocurrency is without asking you. But I think the fun and intellectually honest exercise to do is to re-engage and say okay, if this then what and how me? In so doing, I think you probably will advance the conversation, potentially even advanced yourself a few steps ahead than people who don’t. The same way that that young middle manager reached out because she’s reverse mentoring her CEO, in that way, we are all participating in the future and it’s just seeing a place in it.
Kimberley Cole 46:16
Thank you very much. It’s been fabulous being here in the Forkast.News studio, loving bringing together and expanding the Risky Women ecosystem. We will be watching this space and learning and listening to Forkast.News as well. So, Angie Lau, thank you for joining Risky Women Radio.
Angie Lau 46:34
You’re incredible. Thank you for sharing your platform with us.
Kimberley Cole 46:37
Speak to you soon.
Kimberley Cole 46:40
This episode is brought to you by our founding sponsor Refinitiv. Refinitiv serves more than 40,000 institutions in over 190 countries. Refinitiv provides information, insights and technology that drive innovation and performance in global financial markets. Refinitiv enables the financial community to trade smarter and faster, overcome regulatory challenges and scale intelligently.
Kimberley Cole 47:05
Thank you for listening to this exciting episode of Risky Women Radio to connect, champion and celebrate women in risk, regulation and compliance. I’m Kimberley Cole, based in Hong Kong. For more information on the Risky Women global network, head to our website in the episode notes and please be part of the ongoing conversation by subscribing to this podcast, connecting with us @RiskyWomen on Twitter or even reaching out to me directly by email.