Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says Palau is a good “prototyping ground” for technology innovation in the blockchain industry during his visit to Palau last week.
Zhao, also known as “CZ”, founder of the world’s largest currency exchange was in Palau for the launch of NFT IDs of the Palau Digital Residency Program.
When asked why he chose Palau, Mr. Zhao said that with the internet today, “industry location and size and fiscal boundaries don’t exist anymore” and that for a small nation with a fairly developed economy that “mimics the industrial developed world to a large extent ..is very good prototyping ground”.
The small size of the country, the quick turnaround, and “progressiveness” provides the opportunity to apply innovative technologies such as blockchain technologies, to test what works before applying to larger geographies Binance CEO said of Palau’s advantages.
Responding to a question raised by an Island Times reporter on the possibility of the system being used to launder dirty money or conduct illegal financial activities, Binance’s CEO emphatically responded that blockchain technology is the most secure system out there.
Responding to allegations made in a Reuters article that Binance served as a conduit for laundering about 2.3 billion in illicit funds from hackers and drug dealers, Binance’s CEO said that “in the blockchain world, transparency is very high. The blockchain contains a copy of every record and everyone can have a copy of it.”
“We find that bad actors don’t live on the blockchain, they don’t use the blockchain technologies,” Binance CEO Zhao explained. Traditional financial systems are used more for illicit financial activities, 5% of traditional money transactions around the world involve illicit money activities whereas crypto transactions account for “only 0.15%, Zhao added.
Zhao assures that the Reuters article has been debunked and that Reuters has not provided evidence to back up its claim of 2.3 billion illicit transactions on the Binance crypto exchange.
Meanwhile, in New York, a US investor sued Binance and its CEO alleging that the cryptocurrency exchange falsely marketed that the Terra US stablecoin was safe, backed by a 1:1 dollar peg but its value dropped last month causing a downward tumble of other cryptocurrencies.
Pushing for opportunities and new technologies, Palau President Whipps welcomed Mr. Zhao with open arms. “Having you here, CZ and Binance open that door of opportunity to develop new industries, new businesses here that hopefully can bring our young people back to Palau and be part of the new technology and innovation that’s out there,” said Whipps.
President Whipps is in Hawaii this week with Minister of Finance Kaleb Udui Jr. to meet Bank of Hawaii’s managers to discuss stablecoin and to get their feedback. Whipps said that he wants to work with all the partners. (By: L.N. Reklai)
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