Author: AB Kuai Dong, Twitter _FORAB
The content of this article does not represent the views of Wu Shuo
On July 25, the popular online writer Ling Wei officially announced on Twitter that he would leave OKX. Then, on August 15, Ling Wei announced that he had officially joined BNB CHAIN as the person in charge of ecological development.
In the past two weeks, there has been an endless stream of discussions about Lingwei in the community. Some people say that her self-proclaimed title is too long and hypocritical; others say that she is an abnormal person who always tries to package herself instead of actually doing things. There are even people in the community who imitate Lingwei and write a short essay about her resignation from BNB CHAIN in advance to tease her.
So, what is the real Lingwei like? Are the doubts and controversies in the community real? With these questions, AB Kuai Dong, a senior Crypto practitioner, had a conversation with Lingwei for more than an hour at Binance Square.
The following is the entire conversation, with some deletions and optimizations.
1. Why does the entire community describe you as "Dragon Mother"?
Lingwei: I didn’t call myself this title. When I first wrote these two short essays, I didn’t realize that they would be seen by so many people. Then I was given various titles and jokingly called the Mother of Dragons.
Actually, before coming to BNB CHAIN, I had many career experiences and stages. For example, when I was a child, I loved writing, traveling and basketball. In terms of writing, I was a member of the Chinese Writers Association and had published five books. I went to Lu Xun Academy at the age of 7 and wrote New Concept Essays in high school. As for traveling, I became a travel blogger because of social media. I was also a travel experiencer on the Forbes U30 list in 2019. I opened a blogger studio during my studies. As for basketball, I worked part-time at Tencent NBA for 6 years from 2010 to 2016 while studying.
After graduating from university, I had a double degree in accounting and psychology, and had been working full-time in traditional finance, such as auditing at PwC and Head of Marketing at an American Equity Research Asia Pacific. Then I came to the Crypto industry, first in VC, and later at OKX, working as a Partnership Lead at Web3 Wallet.
Because I haven't achieved anything important in my life so far, I can only pile up the number of titles for now. I saw that everyone said my title is too long, so I call her Dragon Mother. Dragon Mother is actually a very popular character, I like her very much, I hope I didn't offend her.
2. Why did you choose the Crypto industry? After all, you had already reached an unprecedented height in the field of writing. Your works and updates were often seen on Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and offline libraries. This also aroused my curiosity. What exactly brought you to the Crypto industry?
Lingwei: This choice is not difficult. In fact, before entering the Crypto industry, when I was still in traditional finance, I had already felt that the ceiling for writing and social media was too low, and I had half given up. Moreover, the traditional financial field is not an industry that can accommodate personal character. The industry as a whole is too mature. No matter how hard you try, you are just a screw.
But when you come into contact with Crypto and try wallet transfers and DEX, you will find that the financial efficiency is very shocking, and you will instantly feel that this is the future.
3. When I saw your official tweet announcing your joining BNB CHAIN, it was very exciting and many people in the industry were discussing it. After you officially joined the company, did your peers and former employer OKX contact you?
Lingwei: We have a very peaceful relationship, with no conflicts at all. We are all close friends, and many things have been discussed with friends at OKX before they are made public. On the contrary, after I joined BNB CHAIN, many OKX friends also established contact with BNB CHAIN to facilitate communication on docking issues. I am also in the group for the cooperation docking between BNB Chain and OKX.
The circle is very small. No matter where people move, as long as they are in the same industry, everyone is in a state of co-construction.
4. I see that you are often online during US time, including answering questions from the community on Twitter, so are you still living in that villa in Seattle?
Lingwei: First of all, it is not a villa, it is a house, and it is very ordinary. Anyone who has graduated from a university in the United States and found a job can afford it. When I was a travel blogger, I made a Vlog about a typical day working from home, and showed that house, which became a small hit. It is easy to search on the Internet.
I don't live there completely at the moment, I just bought another farm recently.
5. Many netizens are curious, Mr. Lingwei, are all your videos and text works created by yourself?
Lingwei: Yes, for a professional blogger, video editing and text creation are both barriers. After entering the Crypto industry, because the focus is not on social media, all the content I publish is done casually, not spending much time, and I do it all by myself.
But when I was a professional blogger, I had to run brand and tourism promotion jobs, and I had to produce them efficiently in a very short time. One person couldn’t do it, so I recruited people and set up a studio.
6. After joining BNB CHAIN, will you still film your daily life on BNB CHAIN like before?
Lingwei: It depends on whether everyone is interested in watching it. If the community wants to watch it, I am happy to prioritize it and shoot some. I am a person with a strong desire to record and share, mainly because I am very busy at work now, and social media and content creation have become a lower priority. But because I came to BNB Chain, my main focus is to serve the community and developers, so if everyone wants to watch it, the technology and tools are there, and I can pick it up at any time.
7. The Web3 industry, especially the community, may not be very friendly to women. Recently, there have been a lot of tweets about women, and some even made radical remarks specifically targeting specific people. Mr. Lingwei, what do you think of these online comments by women?
Another: I hope that any community, whether for men or women, can provide a more relaxed and friendly public opinion environment. However, this situation is not unique to Web3. There will be unfriendly remarks against men and women everywhere. I believe that society is gradually moving in a better direction. Now everyone can at least distinguish what is unfair and have the awareness of pursuing equality.
As for me personally, I won't spend too much time paying attention to these remarks. I think women and men each have their own advantages and pressures, and it is more meaningful to focus on the things themselves. Life is short, and I would rather spend my time on things that are more valuable to me.
8. After joining BNB CHAIN, what immediate plans do you have? Can you tell us?
Lingwei: I have many plans at the moment. First of all, I want to strengthen the connection with developers and the community and listen to everyone’s voice. I also hope to better serve developers, for example, I want to continue to build Builder DAO (BNB CHAIN’s developer organization).
Secondly, as an employee of a large company, I also have to allocate internal priorities. Especially when I first arrived, I was more concerned about things that could be implemented earlier. For example, AMA is a very typical thing. Everyone can see it every week. I want to make it a long-term channel for dialogue with project parties and the community, both in Chinese and English, and then build a real BNB circle ecosystem according to the feedback from those who receive feedback.
9. Looking back at the BNB CHAIN craze in 2021, BNB CHAIN had MVB, growth funds, incubation support, and gave birth to phenomenal applications such as Alpaca, MOBOX, PancakeSwap, and BakerySwap. But now BNB CHAIN feels much quieter. For the project owners, will the support this year be stronger?
Lingwei: BNB CHAIN has developed to the present, and the experience and system of various resource supports are definitely becoming more and more mature. From the idea of a project to fundraising, to building, to online, to later development, we have a systematic resource setting. For example, early project parties can participate in hackathons, BIA, MVB, and apply for Grants; in the building stage, we will also provide some support such as Infra and cloud services. We have a Kickstart Program to help contact partners and negotiate discounts or even free opportunities. Later TVL DAU LP support is also a long-term behavior.
A new round of MVB is about to start, and we will consider more projects this time. If you are in the fundraising stage, we will not only promote it to Labs, but also help you connect with more VCs around the world. Here, I would also like to call on VC friends to establish a connection with us and build BNB CHAIN together.
10. As the person in charge of ecological development of BNB CHAIN, do you think the public chain should develop MEME, infrastructure, or other specific tracks?
Another: A public chain is like a city. You can do anything in it without conflicts. BNB CHAIN currently provides a cheaper, faster and safer environment for everyone. But if you want MEME to do better on BNB CHAIN, the infrastructure must be developed first.
11. TON is very popular now, and there are parallel EVM and modular projects such as Monad, Reddio, and Berachain in the primary market. Recently, Justin Sun’s TRON has also made a lot of moves. BNB CHAIN is no longer as dominant as it was in 2021 in the face of so many competitors. What do you think?
Another: BNB CHAIN has gone through many stages, and many projects that have not yet issued coins have their own ways to attract the community. We are currently more focused on solving problems, such as making users feel that this is a fast and stable network when experiencing BNB CHAIN, such as providing storage infrastructure (Greenfield) for everyone. For example, why there are so many hot spots in this round, and we always can't catch up with the hot spots, what we can do, and what we can do for developers are all questions we are constantly thinking about, and we also hope to listen to more voices from developers and the community.
There are many other long-term development directions, such as payment, connecting payments in the Crypto world, or combining offline scenarios to target more non-circle user groups. Restaking, games, and BTCFi are also what we are trying to lay out.
BNB CHAIN's mission is to reach 1 billion users. We are willing to try various possibilities. Although these approaches may have limitations and may fail, we will not stop trying and hope to hear more suggestions and voices from people.
12. Now that you have been working at BNB CHAIN for a while, how do you feel? How big is the team? You mentioned before that you are recruiting talents. Can you tell us more?
Lingwei: After working at BNB CHAIN for a while, I feel the entire ecosystem's thirst for talent, and respect and amplification of individuals are rooted in the company culture. This is amazing, and many large companies can't do it.
BNB CHAIN is always in a state of "seeking talents" and welcomes talents who are passionate about the industry to join us at any time. I am also building my own team at present, and you will see the recruitment notice soon. Other departments are also recruiting. I heard from Marketing yesterday that they need Chinese PR-related talents (brand public relations, content creation). If you are interested, please contact me immediately.
We not only need full-time employees, but also welcome friends who are interested in different projects on BNB CHAIN to join and contribute to BNB CHAIN. No matter what skills or interests you have, as long as you want to participate in the construction of BNB CHAIN, we welcome you.
