11th Big Demo Day - Central Research
On March 27, the 11th Big Demo Day of the Big Venture capital Recruitment Carnival held at the Hong Kong Cyberport ended successfully. The event was organised by Central Research, co-organised by Techub News, supported by Cyberport and 852web3, and co-titled by Zeepr. The event brought together well-known enterprises and experts in Web2 and Web3 industries to witness the vigorous development of the industry.
Opening Remarks
Central Research Dylan Lee said the Big Demo Day has seen more than 250 projects roadshow, and more than 400 projects have signed up to participate, based in Hong Kong and covering the world. Over the past three years, the community has been actively investing in projects and has provided a significant amount of post-investment work for these projects.
For this year's goal, the plan is to empower more projects, including investment, docking resources, incubation and other services that projects may need. There will also be a larger Big Demo Day event held every month and everyone is welcome to attend.
Alma, founder of Techub News, gave a passionate speech. Recalling the inaugural event held at the same venue last year, she lamented the rapid development of the industry and the increasing number of quality companies choosing Hong Kong as a base for development. She shared her motivation and passion for getting into the industry and why she focused on WEB3 media. She believes that only by improving the awareness of the industry can we truly grasp the opportunity. So they created Techub News, a platform that provides in-depth WEB3 industry information. In addition, she presented the Little Red Book, published in conjunction with UWeb, which provides an in-depth study of the new trends in the WEB3 industry in 2024.
Websea Labs COO Herbert Sim delivered the keynote
Herbert Sim, COO of Websea Labs, delivered a keynote address on Websea Labs and Web3 industry trends. He first introduced his background and professional experience, and emphasized Websea's uniqueness as a hybrid cryptocurrency exchange. He then shared his experiences in the cryptocurrency space and showcased innovative projects such as the Crypto Chain University. Finally, he expressed his confidence and enthusiasm for the WebC project, and hoped that through WebC's efforts, the development of the cryptocurrency industry will be promoted.
Websea is not only a trading platform, but also an ecosystem based on the spirit of Web 3.0. Through Websea, users can conveniently complete digital asset transactions, participate in ecological construction and enjoy various services. In addition, Websea uses the comprehensive application of "one account, the whole domain ecology" to link the three core values of Websea ecology: identity, assets, and interaction, to provide users with comprehensive digital ecological services.
ERM Labs
ERM founder Wing Wu presented a unique project on how to digitize physical experiences and put them into a meta-universe. Inspired by the traditional escape room game, it is a physical experience that stimulates human intelligence.
ERM aims to use big data and artificial intelligence technologies to migrate this traditional industry to the meta-universe. To this end, working with escape Room game companies around the world, it has now become the largest IP escape Room game owner in the meta-universe, with over 650 ips.
ERM has partners all over the world, with more than 140 stores worldwide. As for the specific mode of migration, these ips are being digitized, specific ips are being built through smart contracts, and are ready to roll out.
ERM LABS is building an on-chain vault to escape the meta-universe. It will offer three key products that will move traditional escape room vendors and players into the virtual world.
DEDA
Jasper, the co-founder of Gather Esports, introduced their project DEDA (or Gather) during the talk. Jasper said the purpose of Gather is to effectively gather gamers and esports enthusiasts around the world. He pointed out that there have been many changes in the gaming industry in recent years, such as Axe Invinity causing huge changes in the Ware free-to-play industry. Although this economic model is controversial, it proves the market demand and shows that the combination of free-to-play games and esports is very promising.
Jasper further introduced his company Cyber Games Arena (CGA), which has been operating in the esports space for more than 10 years, hosting more than 700 large-scale global events and attracting more than 66 million online viewers. They work with various games such as League of Legends, FIFA, PUBG, Rainbow Six, and have partnerships with esports teams such as T1, TSM, cog, and Cloud 9.
Zeeprlabs
The Zeeprlabs project representative first introduced their project named "Zeeprr", which is a transaction layer of a full-chain transaction ecosystem, aiming to provide a complete transaction ecosystem for the supply chain and project parties. This trading layer is a plug-and-play trading infrastructure with built-in prognosticators, cross-chain Bridges, and trading communities. Through this well-developed infrastructure, they offer a full range of trading services to B-side clients, including liquidity injection into liquidity pools and access to spot, derivatives and Launchpad trading services.
Next, the project representative mentioned the market opportunity, showed a chart of perpetual contract trading, and pointed out that the space for on-chain trading is even larger than that. They highlighted the market importance of products such as spot trading, contract trading and Launchpad, and pointed out the lack of a complete on-chain trading ecosystem to provide plug and play trading ecosystem services for both B-end users and C-end users. This is a market opportunity that can be captured, and it is still in the early stages, so the imagination is very large.
To address this issue, project representatives presented their solutions and positioning features. They position themselves as a service as a trading layer, offering a trading layer to B-end supply chain clients and covering products such as derivatives, spot and Launchpad. They can work with B-end supply chains of different chains to form an on-chain transaction portrait of multi-chain users. Through deep cooperation, they can allow users on different chains to participate in their product transactions, and accumulate users' transaction behaviors and records to form transaction portraits. This helps them better analyze user behavior and collaborate with subsequent partners.
aZen
The aZen project representative first introduced himself from a traditional industry and explained the importance of the connection and integration between Web2 and Web3. He mentioned that traditional industries need to access Web3, so that traditional devices and services are connected to Web3. And the team's background in distributed computing. By simplifying complex problems and leveraging NFT and smart contract technology, they make it easy for developers to deploy work across a variety of computing architectures and scenarios. In addition, they demonstrated the separation of the computing layer and the verification layer, and specifically mentioned innovative applications that utilize the idle resources of smartphones for AI reasoning and training. Finally, they emphasized that while AI is hot, making money isn't necessarily immediate, and they're working on another product and continuing to push the project forward.
Ins.Dragon
The Ins.Dragon representative first introduced the Inscriptions project that the team was working on and asked the audience how much they knew about Inscriptions. He mentioned that the inscription can be understood as a new technology that opens up the possibilities of bitcoin, similar to the expansion of the blockchain by NFT and smart contracts.
He stressed that the market for inscriptions is still in its infancy, but there is already a clear growth trend. From the relevant data, the number of inscription wallets is increasing, and the community activities related to inscription have also received widespread attention and participation. At the same time, the world's top cryptocurrency exchanges and research institutions, such as OKX and Binance, are watching the development of the inscription.
Next, the project representative presented the goals and strategies of the Ins.Dragon team. They developed a bot based on the Telegram platform designed to give new users easy access to the inscriptions. He explained that Telegram was chosen because it has a large number of users overseas, similar to the popularity of wechat in China. This strategy avoids asking users to change their usage habits and instead incorporates new content into their existing usage behaviors.
Ins.Dragon project representatives believe that inscriptions are a new opportunity in the cryptocurrency space, and through the innovative approach of Telegram bots, they hope to make inscriptions accessible and understood by more users, thereby driving their development in the market.
Space Nation
In his speech, the guest introduced his background and experience in the field of crypto games, emphasizing his love for games and his views on the future of online free-to-play games. He mentioned that his team is about 50 percent done with the game, and unlike past game development cycles, they didn't raise money to make the MVP, they just made the MVP and could finish the game. Their goal is to create an online free-to-play plus massively multiplayer online role-playing game, a virtual economy in which players can earn money, converting it back into real currency by trading, selling NFT, etc. The final goal of the panelists was to bridge the gap between Web2 and online free-to-play games, bringing Web2 gamers seamlessly into online free-to-play games.
Space Nation is a Web3 space opera MMORPG. Users will embark on space voyages, interacting with powerful pirates, clan factions, and various mysterious alien species.
ArtsArena
The project representative spoke about his Web3 project, Arts Arena, a competitive platform focused on improving NFT mobility. He first thanked Central Research for accepting their application and giving them the opportunity to conduct this roadshow. He mentioned that this is the second Web3 project he has worked on, and last year they also did a roadshow here, showing a physical necklace project, similar to the concept of the meta-universe.
He emphasized that Arts Arena is making art in the Web3 world, and the art here refers to NFT. Their platform is designed to improve the liquidity of the NFT, allowing the NFT to trade at faster and more reasonable prices.
It also mentioned the rapid demise of the domestic digital product trend, because it can not be transferred, only to do distribution. To solve this problem, he believes, it is necessary to increase the liquidity of NFT. Their project will start from overseas markets to solve the problem of fast closing and reasonable pricing of NFT.
By comparing OpenSea and LooksRare NFT marketplaces, he points out their respective characteristics and shortcomings. He believes that in order to solve the liquidity problem of NFT, two conditions need to be met at the same time, fast transaction and reasonable pricing. Finally, he mentioned that their users can only sell for the floor price on these platforms, and can not get higher pricing, which is also one of the problems they need to solve.
Depin Dao
The Depin Dao project representatives spoke about their organization, Depin Dao, and the concept of decentralized infrastructure. Depin Dao is a mine-based coalition organization that aims to advance Depin. DePIN is a decentralized infrastructure, including decentralized storage and computing. The guests introduced the development and importance of Depin through their own experience, starting from the mining mechanism of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The participant mentioned that DePIN Track covers many projects, including physical resource network, digital resource network and DePIN module. They organized several projects on the DePIN track and shared their views on the decentralized storage and computing space. He believes that the field of decentralized storage and computing is an important part of the Depin track, and the BRC20 ecosystem will be a very important area in this wave, which is expected to lead the climax of the entire bull market.
In addition, the participants also mentioned some specific projects and technologies, such as the Merlin agreement. He believes that the success of these projects is not only due to the participation of Chinese, but because they really solve the problems on the Depin track and are recognized and supported by more people.
Overall, the speakers highlighted Depin's importance and potential for future growth, and shared their own experiences and opinions on the Depin track. He believes that the Depin field will usher in more opportunities and challenges, and more people need to participate in and promote its development.
Roundtable: Unveiling the Truth Behind Memecoin Craze
In this keynote address on "Uncovering the Truth behind the Memecoin craze," three panelists discussed the value and importance of Memecoin from different perspectives.
First, MetaEra founder Vito emphasized that the value of Memecoin is primarily derived from market consensus and expectations. He pointed out that the value of Memecoin is not derived through traditional valuation methods, but under the stimulus of market sentiment, a large number of people are gathered to form a network effect, thereby creating a consensus and bringing value. This value is highly contingent and stems from the consistent expectations and consensus of the market.
Second, Zoey Ichiki, investment manager at Capital, agrees, further noting that Memecoin is a bottom-up movement. He believes that although bitcoin is not the optimal choice from the perspective of blockchain performance, because Bitcoin is the first currency to apply and play blockchain technology, it is regarded as the originator in the cryptocurrency circle. This status is based on the accumulation of human consensus over thousands of years.
Finally, Ken from Dai Tang capital also shared his thoughts on Memecoin. He believes that the value of Memecoin lies not only in its technical performance, but also in its role as a symbol of culture and community. Each Memecoin's mode of communication, be it text, slogan or image, represents its unique culture and community spirit. This culture and community spirit is an important part of Memecoin's values.
All three panelists agreed that the value of Memecoin stems from a variety of factors, including market consensus, expectations, culture and community spirit. While the value of Memecoin is highly contingent, it also brings wealth effects and opportunities for investment speculation. Therefore, for investors, understanding the value and importance of Memecoin is an important prerequisite for participating in the cryptocurrency market.
Summary and Prospect
The successful holding of this Big Demo Day not only injected new vitality into the Web3 ecology and venture capital recruitment field, but also provided valuable industry exchange opportunities for participants. Looking ahead, with the continued development and popularity of Web3 technology, it is reasonable to believe that Hong Kong will continue to be an important force in the global capital of virtual assets. At the same time, we also look forward to more excellent enterprises and projects to join the Web3 ecosystem, and jointly promote the prosperity of the industry.
