Interview with He Yi: The core strategy of Binance this year is to promote compliance globally

Compilation of the original text: Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

Original title: "Yi He: Binance will take the arrows for industry compliance, security》

Compilation of the original text: Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

Where will you be setting up your headquarters for Binance? Have you been shortlisted for any positions?

For Binance, having a physical headquarters is not fundamental to keeping the company afloat. But as global compliance matures, having a headquarters can help our industry move in a defined direction. We are willing to have one or more headquarters around the world if there is one that can keep users running smoothly and help with compliance.

What is Binance's core strategy for 2022? Are you planning to focus more on compliance?

The core strategy for 2022 remains the company driving compliance globally and we are making some good progress. We are aggressively expanding our compliance team to recruit professionals and aim for 100% completion of Know Your Customer (KYC) on our platform. At the same time, we also provide blockchain development consulting services in many countries and regions to help the industry develop.

What are your plans for Forbes after making a $200 million strategic investment? Do you wish it covered more cryptocurrency and blockchain related stories?

Forbes is one of the most influential and innovative media in the world. Both Binance and Forbes are not satisfied with achievements in only one field, but are eager to achieve greater success. We also note that Forbes is much more enthusiastic about Web 3.0 than most traditional companies, and already has a separate blockchain reporting department at a very early stage. They know where the trends are going.

Can you share how big Binance is? How many employees do you have and where are they located?

At present, we have more than 3,000 employees all over the world, distributed in various countries and regions.

In the recruitment process, we mainly look at their skills, such as language ability, and whether the candidate is stronger in brand, operation or information technology. That is, we primarily look at candidates for suitability based on their abilities rather than their position. After all, we never really had a physical office.

Currently, when we apply for a license in a country, we start setting up an office there as part of that process. If we find that there are not enough people in some countries and regions, we will recruit more people in regions to serve these markets, such as Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

What measures has Binance taken in the past year in terms of compliance?

In terms of compliance, many outside voices are asking whether Binance is regulated or facing regulatory pressure, and whether Binance is very concerned. But in fact, within Binance, we believe that regulation is beneficial. You could even say it's something we've all been waiting for.

In fact, from the perspective of an industry insider, you will see that no one cares about you if the industry is small. Only when the industry grows big enough and more people are involved will regulators pay attention.

Can you elaborate on your approach to compliance?

Let me give you an example. Since the first day of Binance, we have strict internal regulations to regulate insider trading. In the beginning, we asked employees to stay at least 30 days. We have since extended that requirement to 90 days. We also have very strict firewalls for internal information management. We've also learned a lot from past hacks and have established zero trust principles [a security model that assumes nothing can be trusted unless otherwise proven].

you will find thatOur monthly costs related to anti-money laundering and KYC are actually higher than marketing costs. Small companies or early-stage startups can hardly afford such overhead. However, Binance has gone through the initial stage of development and has accumulated rich preparations for security management, anti-money laundering, and KYC.

It can be said that in this industry, there is no trading platform that does better than Binance in various aspects such as anti-money laundering, KYC, and security.

How big is your team in mainland China?

Binance did have an office in China in 2017, but the local government said they did not welcome digital currency transactions. So we moved our office out of China. At that time, some colleagues left the company under the pressure of the policy. We have a deep understanding of this, and some colleagues also moved out of China.

We have invested in some companies in China, and sometimes we are confused whether these companies are part of Binance. In fact, these companies are pure investments and we don't have any offices in China.

Where are you now?

Actually, I'm on the move. He left China in 2017 and has lived in Japan, Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. If we keep in touch, you'll find out that I'll be in a new place next month. I will be living in the Middle East and Europe for a while.

You used to be a TV travel show host. Can you tell us a little bit about your career path? When and how did you get into the crypto world?

Before entering the blockchain industry, I tried many things. Being a live stream host is not my dream job, nor is it one I want to dedicate my life to. I did it for about two years. Just eat, drink and have fun. I feel anxious because I see the influence of the TV industry being gradually eroded by the Internet. About 10 years ago, the entire traditional media industry was going downhill, while the Internet was developing at a high speed.

At the end of 2013, when the price of bitcoin rose to 8,000 yuan (US$1,300), an investor friend asked me to help with a bitcoin advertisement. I was very interested in entrepreneurship at the time, and to show my worth, I advertised for free. In the process, I learned that there was a new business model around trading platforms where you could sign up for an account and trade bitcoin.

In the spring of 2014, I joined OKCoin, a cryptocurrency trading platform. It was a rushed decision, but I think it's a great opportunity. During that time, I got to know Changpeng Zhao and invited him to join the company. In one year, the company developed rapidly, but with the development of the company, the views and values ​​of the founders and co-founders diverged. Realizing that their goals might be different, Changpeng Zhao and I left.

Then I joined a company called About Technology. It had a short video app called Xiaokaxiu, which was quite popular at the time. It's kind of like TikTok. I stayed there for less than two years before I launched One Live.

By 2017, I felt that I had reached the ceiling of marketing and branding in China. Changpeng Zhao began preparing to launch Binance. While they were drafting the white paper, he asked me if I could be an advisor.

Before Binance was officially launched, Changpeng Zhao asked me if I would consider joining. On the evening of July 13th, the day before the official launch, Changpeng Zhao said: "BNB will be launched tomorrow, and the price of BNB may increase by 10 times, and then I will quote you one tenth of the current price. You must now decide whether to join us." So that day, I agreed to join Binance.

I officially started using Binance in August, but a few weeks later, on September 4th, China banned Bitcoin trading. When I saw the news, I thought, "Well, I just have to keep trying."

We had to log out some users in China. We propose to repurchase BNB from Chinese users at a market price of around 8 yuan, rather than the issue price of 1 yuan. This is why Binance was able to make a good impact and get positive feedback at the time. Many other projects will simply return funds at the issue price, whether it goes up or down. While we might have to pay eight or nine times the issue price, we paid anyway. At that time we used up almost all of Binance’s liquidity to buy back BNB.

In hindsight, we made some tough decisions.

Ningwei Qin and Tom Zuo contributed to this report.