Blockchain Week originated from a conference format focused on popularizing and exchanging resources in the blockchain industry initiated by the decentralized community. As a veteran player in the Asia-Pacific market, BTS Labs held the Web3 Global Tour during the Hong Kong Web3Festival in April 2023, Istanbul Blockchain Week in August, Korea Blockchain Week in September, and Singapore Token2049. This article will focus on sharing interesting ideas and viewpoints that emerged during this trip:

I. Hong Kong

• From the perspective of HK web3 support policies, the local government has conducted a lot of professional learning and industry understanding, and subsequently formulated more flexible and long-term policies compared to the inland areas. Despite being much later than Singapore, Hong Kong still has huge potential and is worth looking forward to due to its existing market share, traditional financial background, and talent backed by the inland region, as well as policy support.

• It serves as the window for China to embrace the Web3 industry, and is very friendly to the new financial technology industry including blockchain and AI. Various institutions in Hong Kong, represented by InvestHK, have personally participated and invested in it. A KOL metaphorically said, "Seeing XXX participating in four events in a day, although there was no cooperation, due to too many meetings, they had to add each other as friends in the end, which was not the original intention (the KOL said awkwardly)." This fully reflects the high attractiveness of the conference content and government orientation.

• It was the first grand event for Chinese practitioners after a special period. Due to the tightening policies, about 80% of Chinese practitioners were forced to go abroad, while a few settled overseas for a long time. In addition to major first and second-tier cities, many participants in this event came from regions such as Hubei, Shanxi, and Xinjiang. The celebration of Asian practitioners and the reunion of Chinese practitioners. Most side events were still mainly in Chinese, which can be temporarily ignored due to it being the first time, but if this continues, it may not be very friendly to non-Chinese native practitioners.

• The frequency of meetings and discussions on the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem has increased significantly, mainly focusing on improving the integration efficiency of tackling code (such as packaging services, API integration), reducing contract interaction delays, and low-code development issues. However, there are still many outdated developers researching cross-chain solutions and decentralized matching protocols.

• The BRC ecosystem and decentralized social development frameworks were highly popular during the event period, with frequent mentions of decentralized social development frameworks led by BRC20, Nostr, and Lens Protocol.

• For the first time, such a large-scale web3 industry event was held, with the majority being Asian faces, while overseas faces of some VCs, project teams, and quantitative institutions were still in the minority.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in Hong Kong: Hashkey Group, Animoca, InvestHK, Spartan Group, Cyberport Management Co. LTD, GBV Ventures, EVG, Sandbox, Kenetic Capital, Double Peak Group

II. Istanbul

• In the high-risk trading market, not only are there more female users than male users, but there is a general preference for contracts or high-leverage derivative products. Apart from the masters with many years of traditional financial trading experience, there are also many local communities that operate with contracts and copy trading as their business purposes, and the profits are quite considerable. In terms of community activity, it is similar to the Asian version of the Vietnamese market, but the general education level in Turkey is relatively high, so users tend to have a "romantic FOMO." As for whether it would be profitable to establish a derivative trading platform in Turkey, our feelings and estimates are: worth trying. The market characteristics of this region have complementary advantages for Asians, especially Chinese people.

• The largest Cash OTC Market in Eurasia. As for OTC, due to geographical location, cultural background, government policies, and other reasons, OTC is exceptionally developed in Turkey, and even formed signature sayings in the industry such as "OTC must go to Grand Bazaar Street." Recognizing dual nationality, companies or individuals can profit from the Web3 industry in Turkey through various means without additional taxes. OTC is convenient, transparent, and secure, leading to financial/Web3 giants from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, North America, and other places settling in Turkey. Even if not settling for the long term, they will definitely allocate real estate.

• "Spend today's money today, exchange dollars for lira." The Turkish lira has fallen by 30% against the US dollar from the beginning of the year to date. If you had 1 million in the bank at the beginning of the year, today you would only have 700,000, leading to some high-end restaurants in the area only accepting euros or dollars to stabilize cash flow. Many local young people prefer to be paid in dollars or euros, only exchanging a portion into Turkish lira for daily use, with the remaining portion used as funds for contracts or other speculative products. This has led to a developed exchange market locally, which also directly affects the consumption habits of young people, making a big difference from the savings consciousness of the Chinese community.

• In terms of market potential, there are many places in Turkey worth researching and exploring for Chinese people. Firstly, due to the high level of industry popularity, the public's industry education threshold is relatively low, so there is no need to spend a lot of time and effort to popularize it. Therefore, the usage threshold for mainstream products in the Turkish market is not high. Whether it's local talent, policies, market trends, or data, interested friends can discuss together. On the other hand, there are fewer local projects and VCs, and the industry developers are relatively lacking, with the ecosystem mainly focused on exchanges, KOLs, and communities.

PS: 10 institutions/KOL worth visiting in Turkey: 0xWilds, Bitci, AltcoinTürk, Coin Mühendisi, Muhabbit, Crypto House, Mete baskaya, ErkanG, BTCTurk, Paribu

III. Seoul

• GameFi is still one of the most discussed topics. More than 70% of the local friends I met offline in Korea are Game industry practitioners or have experience in the entertainment industry. The characteristic of the GameFi track in Korea is the strong IP, and the game design is compatible with the usage habits of both web2 and web3 users, making it more user-friendly and financially attractive. The development and aesthetic capabilities are online, providing a fertile ground for the development of phenomenal games, and there is a large number of entertainment industry talents.

• The Korean authorities continue to introduce new regulations for the crypto industry, which has had a significant impact on exchanges, project teams, and VCs. The impact of the Luna incident on Korea is greater than we anticipated, and the subsequent collapse of FTX has deepened the concerns of the Korean government and the public about DeFi. The regulation of exchanges, especially from the top local exchanges Bithumb and Upbit, has led to the forced delisting of many projects that manipulate the secondary market or have unclear funding sources.

• The entire NFT community in Korea is discussing the new NFT protocol 6551. Cross-industry collaborations between NFT and traditional industries are accelerating, and there is a lot of discussion about the true value, application scenarios, and sustainability of NFT. Korean NFT users are very loyal, and the users themselves are also seasoned art enthusiasts.

• Content creation is very important in Korea, whether in the traditional or web3 industry. When we communicated with Hashed, we learned that the K-pop girl group TripleS they are currently incubating is an important part of content making.

• Reputation and brand: Due to the small circle (with a small population concentrated in Seoul) and regulatory reasons, local Korean teams are very concerned about their reputation and brand. Other teams with radical and adventurous ideas are planning to leave Korea and develop in Southeast Asia.

• Creativity and lag: Among the Korean projects we have discussed, we have found that many projects are in the same track and gameplay as the industry 2-3 years ago. Tokenomics is still based on traditional industry design patterns, and there are some shortcomings in operational strategies and globalization. However, in terms of marketing, the creativity of the brand is still commendable.

• Korean users are still the backbone of digital cryptocurrency. The trading volume on the day of the launch of popular projects such as Aptos, Sui, Sei, and Cyberconnect on mainstream Korean exchanges is several times that of other exchanges (including Binance), almost single-handedly taking on the world.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in Korea: Hashed (UNOPND), Xangle, Klaytn, WEMIX, PlayDapp, DeSpread, ALTAVA, FactBlock, Onbuff, KIMPGA

IV. Singapore

• Still the Web3 hub of Asia, with the most sound and mature policies and regulations.

• Participants and speakers are the most evenly distributed and international, at token 2049 you can meet practitioners or enthusiasts from around the world.

• The exhibiting institutions, including exchanges, payment companies, code audit agencies, and quantitative institutions, account for a high proportion, and most of the exhibiting project teams are well-known and mature projects.

• Early-stage project teams were looking for investors throughout the entire token 2049 conference, and at some side events, you might even encounter project teams pitching to investment institutions even in the restroom.

• The main purpose of mature or well-known new projects at token 2049 is to announce to the world: we are still iterating.

• There is a benign competition between new and old L1 and L2 projects, with a peaceful atmosphere of discussion and mutual assistance. Apart from BNB Chain, which started cooperation in the early stages, Ton is the public chain project we encountered the most during the event week. As a roundtable guest at our Assembly, we look forward to the market performance of Taiko, Shardeum, and Layer N in the future.

• Investment institutions are forming alliances or LPs.

• It is somewhat regrettable that there is a lack of new narratives, and discussions are still focused on topics such as ERC4337, ERC6551, RWA, L1, and Compliance.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in Singapore: Amber Group, Matrix, Bybit, Nansen, Avalanche, Mask Network, DeFiance Capital, Saison Capital, Dorahacks, Matrixport

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