Zhao Changpeng's Five Answers to Reuters: Transgressive Behaviors such as Human Flesh Family Cannot Be Tolerated
Original compilation: Frank, Foresight News
Original compilation: Frank, Foresight News
As a founder, I understand that maintaining a strong, gracious relationship with journalists is a breeze, we just strive to respond quickly and accurately to their requests, and in 99.9% of cases, this gets passed Report fairly. But in rare cases, this "trust" relationship breaks down so much that it can no longer function in a "harmonious" way.
Unfortunately, this Reuters reporter has put us in this terrible situation, who has written a series of stories about us over the past few months, all from completely anonymous sources. As a result of this breakdown in trust earlier this year, we took the unusual step of linking our relationship with the Reuters reporter toFull Email Communication TranscriptPost it.
On Monday 10th October they came back to us with a new list of questions covering a wide range of topics, mainly about1. Our commitment to compliance; 2. My personal leadership style. Those are topics I would love to discuss, but what was special about this one was that they sent a new signal and crossed the line into my zone — they expressed interest in covering my kids.
Here's why: Over the past two years, we've worked with law enforcement around the world to seize assets of criminal organizations around the world, but my children are not in the public interest and this reporter knowingly released their information, Putting them at risk is unprincipled and intolerable.
Since we could not get assurances from this Reuters reporter not to write about my family, we again took the unusual step of not replying to them directly. Instead, we'll take the story directly to the community, trying to answer some of the topics they seem to be pointing at.
Binance's Compliance Commitment
The crypto industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, and likewise regulators are developing a regulatory framework that will stand the test of time, protect consumers, and allow innovation at an incredible rate. Everything is evolving rapidly.
Few companies in history have faced such complex challenges, and there is no playbook that explains how to instantly go from a small start-up to a Fortune 100 company when your market cap grows exponentially in a short period of time. You also can't snap your fingers and instantly hire the thousands of Web3 engineers, security specialists, project managers, etc. you might need. So like many startups, Binance is not perfect, but we are learning quickly.
Since last year alone, we've hired over 4,000 new employees, many of whom work in compliance, investigations and security.Today, Binance is a very different company than when we were founded, and we have been working hand-in-hand with global regulators to restructure our organization and upgrade our systems. Our global security and compliance team has grown to over 500 employees, including professionals with backgrounds in regulators, senior investigators from prominent blockchain analysis firms, and law enforcement officers who have led some of the largest cybercrime investigations . However, this is a never-ending endeavor, so we will continue to invest in building a compliance framework that users can trust.
We are the first major exchange outside of the US to perform "KYC" on all users to ensure we adhere to international standards. "KYC" is short for collecting personal data to "know your customers" and it is a key aspect of a well-managed organisation. To strengthen the credibility of the entire crypto ecosystem, we encourage all crypto exchanges in the world to do the same.
There is an exaggerated myth about cryptocurrencies being tools for criminals. Reuters reported that Binance had been used as a conduit for at least $2.35 billion in criminal funds, butFailed to 1. provide any details on how that figure was calculated, and 2. note the fact that this figure represented less than 0.1% of the total funds flowing through Binance since 2019.
While the Reuters numbers are grossly inflated, it still shows that Binance is one of the most effective financial institutions at keeping illicit funds out and we have zero tolerance for criminal activity.
my leadership style
Reuters journalists seem to think I'm a "bossy", "secret", "micromanaging staff" leader, in fact I'm very transparent about my leadership style, every Binance employee has access to CZ's Principles (Extended reading "Changpeng Zhao: 15 Principles I Follow》), which is an article I wrote to outline my leadership style and is regularly updated as I learn new things. I know not everyone likes my approach, but it's worked for us, and I believe it's not just for startups like ours, but potentially for more established businesses, and I shared it publicly for the first time last week these thoughts.
Why don't we disclose where our offices are located?
This is actually very similar to the debate about why I don't want my family to be in the media. Over the past two years, we have worked with global law enforcement to seize the assets of countless criminal organizations around the world, which has directly led to a cleaner crypto market.
So, for security reasons, we are very careful about disclosing our office location, wearing the Binance brand, or calling ourselves a Binance employee, and I want to keep our employees safe. However in every jurisdiction in which we operate, regulators have local addresses and contact details for us, and we have announced our main offices in Paris and Dubai, and we have a dedicated law enforcement presence on the Binance website onespecial part。
"Tai Chi PPT"
It's an old story, and I think we've clarified it, but Reuters seems unwilling to accept the fact that it's the so-called "Tai Chi Powerpoint" story, which was submitted by outside consultants about how Advice for starting a business.
Allow me to make it clear again: it was never enforced. I personally rejected it, the entire PPT was only seven slides long, lacked any actionable direction, looked like a 5th grader put it together, and the proposal was rejected after the presentation and subsequent round of investigation. Ultimately Binance.US was formed on the advice of leading US law firms, and today Binance.US is licensed to operate across the US and operates independently of Binance.com.
How do we pay our employees?
epilogue
epilogue
This blog is much longer than I usually write, and if you read the principles I posted a while back, you know I'm a big fan of minimalism. In other words, there is still a lot to expand on these topics, and I believe I will continue to write in the future.
Now, I want to reiterate my desire to: A. build strong, open relationships with journalists from all outlets; and more importantly, B. keep my family safe. I cannot promise A without the guarantee of B.
Original link
