From the Managing Directors’ desk:
If you’re reading this outside of Asia, and haven’t yet heard the term, the tiger economy nickname is given to several booming economies in Southeast Asia. This typically includes the Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) as tigers are important in Asian symbolism. This also inspired the Tiger Cub Economies (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines).
Why does this matter?
Well, it is what influenced our decision to setup in Singapore. We believe that people (communities), technology and nature, all need to come back into harmony. As someone who has had the privilege to travel far and wide, across diverse countries and cultures, one thing I feel strongly about is future economic power making its way back to the East. The East still has a lot of belief systems tied to nature, family, and maintenance. The West offers a lot of good lessons around individualism, innovation, and growth.
It’s not just about the money though. Despite the influence of individualistic thought from the West, the rise in popularism and depression globally has given rise to the surprising need for community. Once upon a time, this was a given. But the more we got displaced geographically, the more we felt the need to have technology keep us connected. Ironically, people have never felt more disconnected. It’s gotten to a point now that people are now buying friends for $47/hour.
But not all hope is lost.
Human beings are a creative bunch. And so every time we find ourselves in a mess we realize we’ve created, we find ways to solve it. Sarah Friar, CEO of Nextdoor, is using technology to reconnect neighborhoods with one another again. A solution to directly combat social isolation and loneliness. Faiā itself is simply a steward of the idea that we must harmonize both our need for unique expression, and connection with others, whether in business or life.
Technology should complement the human experience, not overtake it.
In Tiger economies such as Singapore, which is where we’re based, Western influence is self-evident. However, Asian values and history around family, tradition, and frugality uniquely position countries like Singapore to be able to leverage the best of both worlds. To stay competitive in the future, Asian Tigers will need to bend towards more innovation without losing their roots.
Western economies like the US have stayed economically dominant for quite some time now. But like what Bitcoin is trying to demonstrate, global power is shifting. No one economy stays in power forever. So we are banking on the fact that there are signals indicating that future wealth will slowly flow to the East. But, in the East, we foresee countries taking on the best of both worlds - as is seen in Asian Tiger countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Singapore, which is a fascinating study into how a single country can lift itself up from being a third world country to first within 50 years, punches way above its weight. It isn’t perfect, but it’s on its way to being a beacon for what future societies could look like. Although we wish all the best for Hong Kong, especially after recent violent protest issues, it is getting ready to be absorbed back into mainland China. This is spelling a lot of uncertainty for the country. It’s with this knowledge that we look forward to riding both the Asian Tiger energy, as well as the Lion City (Singapore) energy, into 2020 and beyond.
Speak soon,
George Siosi Samuels
Managing Director, Faiā
📚 What We’re Reading…
We read a lot over the past week. Here are a few articles from the tech world that struck us the most:
Create a Culture of Digital Dexterity With the ‘New Work Nucleus’
China now has more companies on Fortune Global 500 list than the US
From a people and community perspective, here are some of the latest trends we’re noticing:
Remote work is leading to a demand for internal community managers
Atlassian reviews performance reviews to mark down ‘brilliant jerks’
Toxic workplace cultures are forcing high-performing people to quit
The concept of bespreekbaarheid and why Dutch people are so direct
₿ Bitcoin Updates
NOTE: whenever we refer to Bitcoin, we’re referring to Bitcoinˢᵛ, which is a node implementation of the original Bitcoin blockchain as of version 0.1.
In a nut-shell, what we’re seeing is alt-coins hitting regulatory and technical walls we knew would come, BitcoinSV continuing its path to increase blocksize and restoring the original Bitcoin protocol, and projects being deemed to have more show than substance. We are making a huge punt here against popular opinion, but we feel it will pay off in the long run.
Below are some of the more notable articles we read over the past week:
Bitcoin Is Property, Chinese Court Rules — No Crypto Ban Contradiction
Ripple In Trouble? Even Some Of Its Biggest Supporters Are Turning Bearish
Tron Dips 22% as Justin Sun Cancels Lunch with Warren Buffett
Have further questions about Bitcoin? Feel free to chat with us on Twitter or reply to this email.
🎙 Featured Event
This Friday, we’ll be co-hosting a BitcoinSV meetup in Singapore with one of our clients, Tribe Theory. Our special guest will be Dr. Craig S. Wright, the highly debated creator of Bitcoin, who will livestream in for an exclusive AMA session.
Quote of the Week
“A slow movement of a tiger is not a mistake, but a well-calculated move.” — African proverb
Faiā helps innovative businesses build communities, improve productivity, and integrate emerging technologies such as Bitcoin. We are the first company in Asia Pacific to offer Bitcoin (BSV) exclusive integration services, and are evangelists of Community-Centred Design. Our mission is to bridge gaps between people and technology, one community at a time. Visit our website to learn more.