How Community is ‘Redefining Value’ in Crypto: Yao Cheng of BitKan

There’s far more to value in the crypto investment community than just price. That has been BitKan’s philosophy for several years now, and operations director Yao Cheng reaffirmed the point in his presentation at the World Digital Mining Summit in Tbilisi today.

Displaying a picture of the famed Austrian-school economist F.A. Hayek, Cheng noted the school’s point that human behavior and psychology play as large a part in economics as data and trends. And so it does in cryptocurrency, a new asset class that continues to attract new investment capital thanks to regulation and price growth. But how do you keep traders and investors interested, even in a bear market?

BitKan’s mission with its information service and, more recently, the K Site community, is to do just that. It seeks to keep all participants engaged with information-sharing, useful communities, expert advice, and accurate news. This is what the company means by “redefining value” — it’s value from the community and the information it shares, rather than just price movements.

The following factors all play a part in traders’ decisions, Cheng said. One is “facts,” which include price, market cap, free float ratio, technical analysis and other fundamental information. The other is “opinions,” which includes the less-quantifiable news, reviews, ratings, predictions, and advice from community members.

Using a combination of all that, traders make decisions on which assets to trade, and what position to take on them. Even when trading, factors like methodology and risk control will play a significant part. Cheng described BitKan’s six-year history in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry, explaining its suite of services cover the spectrum of behaviors that determine value — in essence “redefining value.”

He drew particular attention to K Site and its native KAN token. K Site is built on principles of the community/sharing economy, a “culture of small groups,” and “expert nodes.”

Though it appears on the surface to be a social network, K Site has far deeper functionality. As well as posting news and messages, members can create groups large or small, open or exclusive, community-based or workgroup-based. They can also charge for membership of groups if the information shared there is particularly valuable.

Those who contribute content to the site or groups are also rewarded with KAN tokens, which are tradable on external markets or used for whatever purpose its holders choose. BitKan also provides a multi-asset wallet and several charts detailing price trends and mining monitors. It is also involved in news media through its partnerships with various blockchain news sites in China and internationally.

Cheng closed his talk with a quote from an anonymous investor on human psychology in markets:

The most common cause of low prices is pessimism. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It is optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.

Of course, no provider should seek to create pessimism — but BitKan realizes that any mood is a useful one, as long as the information is being shared.