Zoomex & Haas F1 on Ethereum and Stablecoins

Transcript

and my name is Raj. Please welcome on stage once again Mr. Ollie Berman and Mr. Jerry Shu. >> So guys, welcome to Token 2049. It's an incredible start to this conference and we're so so honored to have you out here. Um what we're going to discuss today is from the racetrack to blockchain, right? Where do we see those worlds colliding? where do we see those worlds meeting? And so for you, Ollie, you know, it's really a rare opportunity for us to hear insights from the fast-paced world that you operate in uh and also the fast-paced world that ZoomX is in right now, which is obviously the crypto space. So, let's dive right in.

Let's do it. So, please let's start with obviously you you've been the ambassador for Zumax for a few years now. Can you please talk to us about how that journey was? What got you into crypto? How did he convince you to really come into this crazy space? Obviously, you already have a high risk appetite being in the F1. So, please tell us more. >> Yeah, first of all, hello everyone. Thank you for for being here. Very excited to be here. First of all, in Singapore, of course, we have the race this weekend. Um, but also at this conference, it's a strange feeling to sit in front of people. Uh, it's not what I'm used to doing, but it's a it's a nice experience for sure. Um, so yeah, Zumx and I, Jerry and I have been together now. This is our third year. Um so we started out in my first year of

Formula 2. I was um and still am a young guy. I was you know aiming towards the top echelon of Formula 1. Uh now I'm here and and we've been working together for for these three years. It's great because you know especially at the beginning there's so many parallels that could be drawn between myself um and the company Zumx both uh relatively young within their spaces both aspiring towards very high things. So, it's been great. Um, without Zumx, I I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't be racing in Formula 1. So, I owe a hell of a lot to them and very thankful for the for the support.

>> That's a really strong statement, Jerry. I mean, without without you guys, he wouldn't be in the F1. I mean, how often do you hear that? So, you know, just talking about that journey, you know, in terms of your career, you've gone from strength to strength, right? And we're all in the crypto space here. We can argue that Bitcoin has gone from strength to strength despite the market volatility, despite the different uh you know market dynamics. Jerry, I'll bring it to you. Do you think that given that market uh dynamic, Bitcoin is now becoming more of a safe haven asset or are we still in that high volatility, high-risk nature environment that Bitcoin started from?

>> Sure. So from my point of view definitely nowadays Bitcoin has been uh safe he have asset. Um I would say first of all the the the nature of the bitcoin uh scarcity and the deflationary nature which gives it like uh quite like a precious matters like a gold right and uh uh secondly that if we see nowadays uh the institutions interest and adoption to bitcoin has been significantly increased for example fidelity black rogue all the names you can involved that in in the traditional financial world, they all build up the

the Bitcoin portfolio, right? And the the last but not the least, if we see the the geopolitical shocks uh around the world and the the performance behind the Bitcoin, um it give us a huge confident that it still had its functional value and political value. So if we see that uh the problem in Russia in Ukraine and now which kind of asset or which kind of uh coin or let's say currencies contribute more to the I mean to real users definitely it's crypto asset Bitcoin.

>> So you're you're saying that F1 is riskier than investing in Bitcoin. >> So I guess you know we'll we'll move from Bitcoin into the second largest token right Ethereum. We heard a lot about Ethereum today. Of course, you are very familiar. Ollie, I'm sure spending time with Jerry, you are familiar as well. There's this narrative that Ethereum is the engine, right, of the crypto ecosystem. It powers the DAPs. It powers, you know, the smart contracts. It really created that infrastructure to power what we see as crypto today, right? And bringing it back to the F1, what we've really seen is that performance is key, right? And for you performance as an individual but engine

performance is absolutely necessary to to continue your evolution right so how do you see that continuous technical evolution can you draw any parallels with that to what you're seeing having spent time with Zumx >> yeah of course I can't offer much expertise uh in the crypto world but um you know spending time with Jerry and and Zumx I've learned a lot about that space and of course I I'm quite qualified to talk about the space that I work in. Um, engines are incredibly incredibly important. Um, there are four engine manufacturers in Formula 1. All of them fighting against each other. Um, because there is an incredibly huge

budget to make the engines as fast as possible. Um, of course, those are maybe the biggest variables that you can have between cars. Um, and and that's where those engine manufacturers spend so much time trying to get, you know, a few horsepower or a bit more mileage out of an engine because they're working at the absolute maximum that they can be. So, yeah, engine performance is incredibly critical, especially next year. We have a big change in regulations. Um, and I really expect big differences between engine performance. Uh, which means that the engineers are going to have a hard time, uh, trying to catch up to whichever engine is the fastest. It's really interesting. Um, and you know,

it's it's super important and, you know, I feel like crypto and in what I've heard, it's a similar thing. Uh, you need to be performing at your absolute best and and engines are are very important. So I guess Jerry on that point right just as they're trying to get every single horsepower more every single split second more similarly with crypto we're trying to get even one more second one more transaction that's faster right and so if you look at again the challenges of Ethereum that we've seen across the last year and also the advantages that they've had right in the recent bull run do you see that narrative of them being a core engine as

problematic as a opportunity for them to grow and does that affect the fair value of where Ethereum can be? How do we assess that? >> Sure. So after the shift of the the the Ethereum POS model and the whole efficiency of the ERUM has been significantly increased, right? And if we see uh in 2025 uh you talk about the DFS, right? uh over 100,000 applications D apps has been raised in this whole system and uh that means behind those D apps or applications uh developers users investors they all contribute to this

whole ecosystem right so if we go back to see that um is a kind of a aging right then there are so many engineers behind this whole ecosystem of this engine and contributed to it. Definitely we won't give any investment uh advice but uh the long-term value of this uh asset and of this engine definitely we see bullish on this and um if you build up the the let's say the portfolio of the asset just like I mentioned before if we see the institutional in interests on uh in this industry and on those assets

definitely most of those companies um apart from Bitcoin they build up the portfolio of the Ethereum. So of course engine and speed right absolutely necessary both in crypto and F1 right but I think what is less talked about but equally important are aspects around stability consistency discipline right um tools that we see again very deep similarities between the F1 and in the crypto space right one of the favorite F1 tools that brings order when there is chaos is the safety car right and actually makes things a lot more interesting thing as well. So Ollie, you know, how do you see its role on that track and does it teach us

anything on how we can relate that concept to crypto as well? >> Yeah, I think you know, even just the world of F1, the world of being a driver requires a lot of discipline. Uh because consistency within your performances is is probably one of the most important factors of um you know having a long career and and being successful in Formula 1. It doesn't matter if you can have only one good performance, you need to be able to um you know to repeat that weekend in and week out as well. So that's really really key. Uh it's something that I try and focus on as much as possible within my performances.

Um so yeah, discipline is is one of the words that is key in my head um to being a good Formula 1 driver. On top of that, we have the safety car. Um, which interestingly in Singapore, since the first ever race in Singapore, there's been a safety car every year except last year. Uh, so last year was the first year without a safety car in Singapore. Uh, >> are we going to keep that uh this year? >> We'll see. We'll see. It's the highest chance of having a safety car just because the race is is so difficult. Um, very physical, very hot. um you know the walls are very close so generally it's a it's a very tough track and therefore discipline is very important but the safety car within our race is is first

of all a chance to stabilize everything like you said um gives you a chance to communicate with your team you know behind the safety car it can really change the race as well you know you can stop for for a new set of tires you can really open up the strategy with a safety car try and differentiate yourself from the rest of the field uh during a safety car. So it also brings a lot of action and and um interest but also creates stability during chaotic situations. So the safety car is a moment during a high pressure race uh for everyone to take a reset to take a pause and to assess everything that's happened everything that might happen.

Um, so yeah, F1 itself is a huge high pressure situation and sometimes a safety car can be a good thing uh to bring things in order and and to get everyone back uh where they need to be. >> I mean Jerry, that's an interesting metaphor though, right? Like safety car, we clearly have seen a few of them come out in crypto. We've seen a lot of crashes too, right? across the last few years even even while you guys have been you know uh in partnership with each other. >> Yeah.

>> How do you see that playing out in in our space? >> Um well so the risk is most critical things for users for us as an exchange. So um definitely we have our own safety cars in our industry and especially in exchange operation for example the the risk control system and the um bark control system. So for us actually we cannot control the market risk but we want to control the platform risk that we can deliver to our users the best experience and the safest choice of the

exchange platform service. So um definitely we keep contribute to uh build up our own safety car inside the platform and I hope in this industry all of our contributors we can all together to contribute to build up a safety car for users. >> I mean absolutely right and just because there are guard rails and safety cars similar to the F1 doesn't mean crypto can't be as exciting as thrilling as fun as it already is. Right? And within that same point, you know, of safety and stability, we've seen a massive narrative this year of stable coins coming into the picture. The Genius Act was passed in the US. How do we see that functioning into all of this?

Um for me that stable coins is kind of a bridge and this bridge that we find it for so many years in inside this industry and this bridge can help to connect the traditional financial world and the new crypto financial world and definitely in future if you ask me that how it will change the whole payment system in the world I would like to say that um no offense but 80%age of a payment company Now I mean traditional finance payment company will disappear and another batch of the new crypto payment company will grow up very quickly. It's kind of like that if you don't embrace this trend of stable coins

and the the new era the whole era will abandon you without see any goodbye to you. So for me I would say that stable coin this kind of bridge will be very critical things in our world and connect to the traditional financial world. >> So so we you know we spoke about everything from Bitcoin to ETH to stables to you know the guardrails that we put in crypto. So what I'll do is I I'll ask you both in terms of the companies you represent right where whether it's HS whether it's ZoomX how do you feel on your side?

Do your companies mix performance with innovation alongside safety and actually find this balance between those three for you guys actually to progress forward? >> Yeah, I mean speaking from from my side of things, um I don't think you can hear me very well. That's better. Oh, now you can hear me too well. Um speaking from my side of things, you know, those three factors are incredibly important in Formula 1. Safety is paramount. It's number one. uh first of all in the way that the circuits are designed uh by the FIA safety is the number one goal and the rest is almost irrelevant compared to safety. Uh that's the number one priority. Then you know when the cars

are designed safety is step one you know performance and everything else comes after that. So, the car has to go through crash testing and and a lot of tests to make sure it's safe to race on the track before they can even think about trying to make it as fast as possible. But by the same token, safety comes with weight in Formula 1. So, it's about finding that trade-off of making the car as light as possible, but also as safe as possible. Um, so lots of innovation is necessary there to yeah make a light safe car. And then innovation is kind of step two underneath um safety. Innovation is what brings you to the top and to the front

and and puts you ahead of your competition. Um and that means you can never look back. You always need to strive for more um in the world of Formula 1 because everyone else is. Uh so if the second you rest on your laurels or you don't uh continue to to strive for better, others will overtake you. Um, so every time we we do a good performance, we're still looking at what we could have done better. As a team, operationally, myself as a driver, there's always things that I can improve on, but also, you know, the people back in the UK, in Italy, who design and and put the car in the wind tunnel. They're always comparing our car to other people's um, and seeing where we could have improved. And it's just a

relentless um, you know, continuation of of striving for excellence. To give you an example, this is the fourth year that we're in this cycle of regulations. So, four years that the regulations haven't changed, but the improvement of lap time of the cars has been the same every single year. So, you know, as the cars get closer to the ceiling of what is possible because of one stage with one set of regulations, the cars will not get faster anymore. They're still increasing that. And every year, you get to the end of the year and and you think, okay, well, our car is very fast.

Uh so hopefully next year we're going to be in a good place. Then you get to next year and if you haven't improved by four or five tents then you're last. Uh so that is really what F1 is all about. Um all of those three factors safety innovation so so important and uh it's really interesting. That's why I think people get hooked on this sport you know working as an engineer as a driver. Yeah, >> the innovation is incredible to see and I think if that mindset is applied to other industries, you can be successful anywhere you you work or with anything you do.

>> Cool. So for our side as a platform, right? Definitely the the innovation must uh based on the stability for our users experience. So any kind of innovation no matter from product side, system, technology side or operational side all of this. So we call innovation. um the the final purpose is going to um provide more uh better and uh um better experience for our users, right? So just like Ollie mentioned that all of the innovations tech technology speed things performance things all of that is behind all of that is based on the driver's

safety. So for users experience is kind of like our driver's safety. So no matter what can be um implemented um we definitely put the user experience at the first place. >> I mean it's it's incredible to really realize the amount of synergies and metaphors there are right between F1 and crypto. I think it's probably also the reason crypto loves the F1 and the F1 does it does love it back whether it's user safety, speed, performance, stability, right? But I think hearing what you both just said, the one large takeaway is no matter if you're in crypto or in the F1, you got to wake up in the morning and be ready to drive.

Right. So at that we'll leave it there. Thank you guys so much. Everyone, Mr. Ollie Berman of the F1 at HAS and Jerry Shu of Zumx. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thanks so much.