Narratives drive crypto. It’s a common occurrence to see specific sectors appreciate in cycles. For instance, the summer of 2020 was the year of Decentralized Finance. In 2021 NFTs came to the forefront with hopes of Metaverse and Virtual Reality projects becoming mainstream. Artificial Intelligence projects became hot after the inception of the popular bot, ChatGPT came to light. 

Recently another narrative has popped up in the scene, and that’s the reinvigoration of crypto in Hong Kong, China. For many years crypto has been outlawed in the country, and citizens have had to trade elsewhere. Recently there’s been reports of regulation of trading high market cap cryptos in the region of Hong Kong.

As written by Cointelegraph as early as January of this year, Hong Kong plans to be a central crypto hub. The China territory passed legislation to set up a “licensing system for virtual asset systems” in December of 2022. Hong Kong is slowly but surely becoming a significant player in crypto.

During the market boom between 2020 and 2022, many Chinese crypto investors were net sellers due to unfavorable stances and bans from China. Now that crypto is becoming accepted in Hong Kong, there is a belief among the crypto market that Hong Kong’s involvement will greatly boost the market overall.

Crypto enthusiasts on Twitter, in other social media circles, and investment firms are taking the news from Hong Kong very seriously. Many projects based in China have appreciated greatly as a result of these developments. As a result, there is anticipation that a significant amount of liquidity and larger investments will move into the cryptocurrency space due to Hong Kong’s crypto-friendly stance.

How is Elastos positioned to benefit from this news and the crypto movement in Hong Kong? The project has deep roots in China as well as the Hong Kong region. As Hong Kong operates in a free market and establishes its own rules and regulations, the Elastos project has the proprietary infrastructure to position Hong Kong as a leading hub for crypto and Web3 in the years ahead.

Giving the country access to true end-to-end encrypted communication via Carrier beats the archaic way of going through HTTP. Having control of your own identity and logging in and surfing the internet via a DID is essential for a true Web3 experience. Controlling your own data and storage via the Elastos Hive truly empowers the individual to the max. Utilizing all these tools while protected by the most powerful network via Bitcoin merge mining is undoubtedly in Hong Kong’s best interest.

Rong Chen was born in China and was born to build the Smart Web. His miraculous story and upbringing in the Far East is one for the ages. Elastos recently celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year via an engaging competition. The Core team for the project is based out of China and is responsible for developing all the critical technology that is baked into the Elastos technology stack. 

It’s imperative to understand that while Elastos has deep roots in China and connections within the Hong Kong region, it’s a genuinely borderless project. Contributors, community members, and Elastos enthusiasts are positioned worldwide. The technology and platform is meant for all people across the globe to use to achieve their digital destiny. The main goal and mission of owning your own data, storage, and identity is shared amongst all people involved in Elastos. 

Rong Chen’s Roots

Rong Chen was born into a family of scientists in China. He was part of the class of 77′, a generation of citizens allowed to take the college entrance exam after a decade-long gap due to the Cultural Revolution. Only 4.7% of people who took the test were admitted to universities, and Rong was one of them. He became one of the first people in the history of China to become a software development graduate at Tsinghua University for 4 ½ years. 

Rong went on to take his skills and knowledge to the States, studying at the University of Illinois. He became one of the first employees at the prestigious technology company Microsoft. Through these experiences of his upbringing, education, and professional work, he devised the concept of Elastos. 

Elastos Celebrating the Chinese New Year

Many traditions are involved in the Chinese Lunar New Year. Many families get together, lots of dragon and lion dances, and a famous Lantern Festival to finish the 15-day event. Another tradition involved in the New Year is giving away Red Packets. These are red envelopes filled with money. Red Packets represent a symbol of good luck and prosperity. Elastos held a competition commemorating the Chinese Lunar New Year. 1,000 ELA in lucky red packets were awarded to selected community members. 

Elastos community members were tasked to create an AI image using Elacity’s Flint District that includes a symbol of the Chinese New Year and a Rabbit to celebrate the year of the rabbit. This event aimed to encourage people to take control of their digital destiny.

Elastos Has World Roots 

While Elastos has lots of history and ties in the China region, it’s overall a global project. Team Elavation has several members based in Europe and the United States. The group leader, Fakhul Miah, recently traveled to Singapore to present at the Alibaba Cloud Singapore Summit 2023. 

Fakhul will also attend another conference on March 6th, following up his successful trip in Singapore for the Alibaba Cloud Day Dubai Summit 2023. 

The Cyber Republic Council has diverse members spanning the globe. Representatives in North America, Europe, and Asia are all working together to achieve the goal of building a vibrant and functional ecosystem for Elastos. 

CreDA, the decentralized credit dApp based on Elastos, is based in the United Kingdom. The platform’s premier NFT marketplace, Elacity, is also in the United Kingdom. The world-class market-making firm Kairon Labs, who’s worked with Elastos in building liquidity and listing ELA on more prominent exchanges, is based in the Netherlands. Elastos’ answer to Twitter is called Feeds. This social media messaging dApp is based out of Japan. 

Elabox, the project that built hardware to browse the Smart Web, now turned into a software-based product, is housed in the Philippines. Glide Finance, the leading DEX for the Elastos ecosystem, has its operation in the United States. Developers and builders worldwide are creating a vibrant ecosystem on the Elastos platform. 

Elastos Hive provides solutions for users’ data and storage. The Elastos Carrier is a peer-to-peer network that directs end-to-end traffic. Elastos DID allows users to sign in to websites without providing their data and information. The Main Chain and Side Chain are part of the Elastos consensus mechanism, smart contracts, and security. The Gelaxy Team and Trinity Team mainly focuses on building these infrastructure technologies. The fruits of both teams’ labor are shown on Elastos.info via the Biweekly Updates posts every other week. 

Elastos is for all people

The Elastos platform is for any person, color, or creed on Earth. The mission is to control one’s digital destiny and empower individuals to own, monetize and privatize their own content and data. 

It’s no wonder why people from all across the globe are contributing to Elastos to achieve an authentic Web3 experience. While people from different cultures have different needs based on their circumstances, there are overarching goals that all involved want to achieve for Elastos. The project’s diversity and the common goal of achieving true freedom on the internet keep contributors and community members going.

It’s exciting that Hong Kong is pushing the needle forward in the right direction with its crypto regulations. Elastos will continue to make connections and strengthen ties within the Hong Kong and China region. The project will also broaden its horizons throughout all Continents to spread the word about bringing the Smart Web to everyone.