Latin American digital nomads talk about new opportunities in Web3
Source: Web3 Institute of Asia, Africa and Latin America
原文作者：Claudio
When it comes to web3, going to sea is one of the undisputed ways out.
Southeast Asia, dominated by Singapore, has become a thriving place. Digital vagrants have been shuttling to various countries in Southeast Asia, and project teams have been overwhelmed. Some entrepreneurs who are too crowded in Southeast Asia have their eyes on the African continent. cassava, a star project, has caught fire in this vibrant land of Africa. Many stories of Web3er heading to Africa are no longer novel, but the relatively primitive local environment still makes many gold digger with shovel afraid.
And the Devcon conference in Bogota a few days ago suddenly focused attention on this remote and somewhat mysterious part of Latin America,'Latin America is the perfect environment for crypto growth'"Is the consensus we've been hearing lately. By far, many people rarely involved in the field, the cognition to the region and even stay in the relatively early, but said earlier for a group of entrepreneurs in Latin America, the blue ocean market, while feeling the Latin American enthusiasm is bold and unrestrained, inclusive of free cultural atmosphere and the laid-back, young way of life, to explore the local colorful humanities and the natural environment, While working with local web3 practitioners to build and rapidly grow the crypto business.
With curiosity and anticipation, 3ww3 spoke to several entrepreneurs who have been in Latin America for a long time to find out what they see as the market and the opportunities it offers.
Hank, the Latin American market.
Overtaking at Crypto Curve with local authorities
Hank has been living in Latin America for over ten years. "In Latin America, they're betting big on crypto, they're betting big, they're betting big, they're betting big, they're betting big, they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big, and they're betting big." In Hank's opinion, many countries and regions in Latin America, no matter the government or local entrepreneurs and other practitioners, do not only support crypto, but also take a bend to overtake Europe and the United States with the determination to win.
This understanding comes from his years of crypto working experience in Latin America. Since the end of 2018, Hank has been cooperating with the government, assisting in the development of stablecoin for public customers, doing exchange Project Pet Project, and developing Hobby, an NFT trading platform, to expand its business in Latin America.
At that time, the crypto industry in Latin America was surging and ready to take off. Due to the coincidence in my original work, Hank also came into contact with the crypto business project and saw the atmosphere of the crypto market in Latin America, and began to get involved in the flood of the development of the crypto industry in Latin America. Local Latin Americans are very receptive to the Crypto industry, and their young people are very willing to accept new things. Current market also has developed to the stage of NFT, local artists groups is very large, and the entire market, including the government, the piece is very seriously, because in the field of other traditional, they know it is unable to catch up with Europe and the United States, so will encrypt the industry as a shortcut to overtake a bend, or can be the hope of hopes, there is a hazard. Compared with Europe and the United States, NFT and other Crypto fields may only be a complement to the traditional market, while in Latin America, many countries and regions even take crypto finance as the opposition of traditional finance to support and develop in parallel. For example, El Salvador, the first country to use bitcoin as legal tender, is in Latin America. In addition, the open and inclusive cultural atmosphere and relaxed and free lifestyle in Latin America make the whole nation seem very young, unlike Europe and Asia, which have a heavy cultural history. They have no worries or burdens about accepting new things, and there is a feeling of nothing to lose. For example, some local artists, There are some original sales channels for their works, but they are also very happy to let them accept the new form of NFT. On the contrary, when hank promotion program went to Spain and Germany, there was some resistance and obstruction for local artists to register metamask wallet. They are resistant to things they don't know. Felt to affect reputation or creation.
In my opinion, the acceptance and inclusion of crypto industry in Latin America due to local culture and economic stage is a great opportunity for the Latin American market, but behind this opportunity, there are also many challenges for foreign entrepreneurs. The local community is very cultural, and their acceptance of new industries is based on trust, rather than being force-fed by outsiders. "If an entrepreneur tells a local person that I have a new technology from abroad and I'm going to set it up here and take over the Latin American market, they're going to be very resistant, they're going to think it's new age colonialism packaged, and they're going to be very defensive and even think behind your back."In Latin America, you have to mix with the locals, do business with them, they will accept very quickly.
So here's hank's biggest tip for any web3 entrepreneur who wants to grow in Latin America,Doing a good job of localization and maintaining local connections is the first hurdle that every Latin American entrepreneur must step on. In the early stage of entrepreneurship, the team should do a good job in local operation, recruit more local people, find local experienced people to guide you, follow their rules and paths, find a correct entry point to make a good initial product, and have local people speak up for you, the pace of development will gradually speed up. Another suggestion is to slow down the pace of work, in order to keep pace with the way Latin Americans live and work. Hank said, "I've tried to speed them up with incentives and things like that, but it doesn't work at all. A lot of the locals just want to leave when they get stressed. They like money, but they like peace of mind." Therefore, at this point, foreign entrepreneurs can only adapt to the local pace of life and work, fast is slow, step by step steady, slowly will open the market.
From Hank's experience, Chinese entrepreneurs have obvious advantages and disadvantages when starting a business in Latin America. "Chinese business goal is very clear, the product to which features, what occupy niche, how many city for preemption, can think clearly, should fight no battle unprepared, and Latin American locals relax nature, makes them easy to forget the original intention, in the process of doing product gradually lost, so the people will be very competitive in the Latin American market. But also have obvious disadvantages, like before when it comes to localization, if lack of local network resources, it will be a big disadvantage. The other is the language problem, most areas of Latin America speak Spanish, the cultural differences caused by language and thinking differences inconvenient, this is unlikely to Spanish each Latin American entrepreneurs have to take into account the reality of the problem ".
Hank's life is now inseparable from Latin America. He lives in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, and travels between Latin America and China. The market and natural environment of Latin America, full of opportunities and adventures, are a perfect fit for Hank's personality. The picture above shows Hank at trekking, on the border of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. Surrounded by cabbage prices and border advantages, there are a lot of mines, several mountainous areas owned by a local friend of the same trade, whose family has dominated the country's livestock and shipping industries from the earliest colonist to the great development era. Family sleeps have set up a new crypto industry, monopolised mining in three countries, set up well before ETH Merge was even rumored, set up an exchange and an NFT market place, and set up a new set of assets, a new example of Old money never sleeps. In addition to all the danger and excitement of natural exploration, the journey lies in the sincere revolutionary friendship gained by the fellow travelers after the journey.
Finally, Hank shared a story about a Latin American military parade he was invited to attend two years ago by a friend who was a local journalist. On the way, the governor told Hank about his legendary experience. He came from the army with courage, and made his fortune by gambling. Makes Hank sigh that heroes never ask where they come from. Among the Latin American crypto startup partners he met, he found that successful ones had a number of things in common: Young in mind and bold in thinking and doing, he has similar characteristics with this person. Perhaps it is because the crypto industry in Latin America is also in a state from primitive germination to savage growth just like the local cultural and economic environment. The adventurer paradise full of opportunities and challenges is the most accurate summary of this land.
Si Si, an Amazon rainforest adventurer
To build Bridges between Latin America and the country through policy consulting
Si began to like Latin America when he read Marquez in high school. She went to the Amazon rainforest to do field research during her undergraduate study, and then did research related to crypto regulatory policies in Rio, Brazil during her summer vacation when she studied public policy at Oxford University. As a young slasher, she founded ChinAmigo Development Consulting, which advises technology companies in China and Latin America on policy. Si Si believes there is considerable room for growth in the Latin American web3 market, catalyzed by currency inflation, policy support, and a culture of enthusiasm.
Si found that traditional banks in Brazil only serve the upper middle class, do not open accounts for ordinary people, or offer lending rates as high as 300%. The high threshold of the financial industry, together with the support of the Brazilian government and the central bank, provides important conditions for the development of the crypto market. Hashdex, a Brazilian crypto asset manager, has made it to the top of the global market by selecting potential tokens and building its own index fund, which is listed on major exchanges around the world. Second, traditional VCS do not invest in Latin American projects due to policy restrictions and economic concerns, but web3 Capital has no country restrictions. Then there is economic instability in much of Latin America, currency inflation and devaluation - the Venezuelan currency lost a million times its value in 2021. So relatively speaking, young people in Latin America are more willing to accept the depreciation of crypto. Finally, on the geopolitical dimension, Brazil's growth is constrained by the United States and it has a need for currencies other than the dollar. Take Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, for example. Latin America's pleasant weather and abundant natural resources have attracted many digital nomads from North America. As for the segmented track, Latin America focuses on the development of Internet and finance in recent years, which is suitable for DeFi projects. Local arts and passionate culture are suitable for developing NFTS and mobile terminal GameFi, which is popular with young people.
In Si Si's view, Latin America is a new field for Chinese people, cryptocurrency issuance and web3 project encountered many challenges. First, although many governments have supported crypto projects, elections in recent years have shifted the overall political environment to the left, with low support for business. And there is not enough talent intensity: only minor-language graduates can break through the language barrier, and few are engaged in cross-border transactions between China and Latin America. There is also a high time cost: there is a long gap in marketing education up front, and a lot of time spent talking to Chinese practitioners and the outside world about the potential of the market.
As a Latin American entrepreneur, Sisi suggests that the first step to taking a project abroad is to assemble a local founding team. "For example, Chinese people are good at technology and innovative business models, so you can recruit team members in this area, but you need to know the local conditions and culture very well, and you need to find people with local resources who can build connection. If you really want to expand the Latin American market, the first thing is to attract local talents first. The Chinese pay higher wages than local people, the early emigration of Chinese people and the export of small goods to Latin American countries make the Latin Americans trust the Chinese people and are willing to do business with us."
In most countries in Latin America, fiat currency is heavily inflated and governments restrict foreign currency exchange, but crypto is rarely regulated, becoming an alternative to saving and spending. In Argentina, for example, the peso continued to depreciate and the government restricted the exchange of dollars into pesos, so many digital nomads directly used crypto to make more fixed payments. In terms of geopolitics, the development of Latin America is restricted by the United States, and they are willing to accept investment from China, as well as crypto investment worldwide.
Si was impressed by Latin Americans' optimism, enthusiasm and embrace of life. She found young people there who earned modest salaries but enjoyed life outside of work and were curious about new things. "We call it the little Paris of South America," she says of a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. "The architecture is very European. The peso inflation. She plans to go back to Mexico, Colombia and Argentina after a break, and continue to be a digital nomad in Latin America.
Listening to several practitioners, we can clearly feel some common voices, Latin America is a very vast space, economic development stage, local cultural atmosphere, life and work style to Web3 practitioners bring many opportunities and challenges:
1. The demographic dividend in Latin America and the early development stage of the crypto industry make startup competition less stressful and the cost of trial and error low;
2. The deviation of information resources brought by geopolitical factors brings space and opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect Latin America with Europe, America and Asia;
3. Chinese thinking is more advantageous in Latin America, and the team can move forward quickly even in the relaxed local environment with clear goals;
4. The local circle culture in Latin America makes Crypto project highly accepted, but also brings localization challenges to foreign entrepreneurs;
5. Local operation and Spanish learning are compulsory courses for every Latin American digital nomad, and only by making friends with local people can the market be opened.
Now, the entire local crypto industry ecological layout in Latin America has begun to take shape, and high-quality projects have emerged in multiple sectors and are thriving. According to MasterCard and mastercard, 51% of consumers in Latin America have made at least one crypto transaction, and according to Chainanalysis's 2022 Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador are among the top 20 countries for cryptocurrency adoption. Crypto exchanges bear the brunt of the rapid advance, Mercado Bitcoin has been the local largest exchange in Brazil; The imperfection of the financial payment system in many Latin American places has spawned a number of high-quality crypto Fintech projects, such as DolarAPP, to solve the problem of local deposit. Local companies in Latin America are investing in NFT use cases to support local artists and experimenting with applications such as allowing customers to resell airline tickets or donate to nonprofits. GameFi projects such as BAYZ and Falco have gained a large number of loyal users in Latin America.
Or perhaps because of vision, or coincidence, or maybe it is just the union of soul and spirit, 3 ww3 interview founders saw the Latin American market to the unique opportunities and participation into the encrypted local industry rising tide, has close relationship with the land, and entrepreneurial adventures of life also in Latin America have different wonderful. Aside from Sisi's entrepreneurial experience, we are impressed by her trips to the rainforest, cradling sloths from trees and roasting piranhas caught in the Amazon, relaxed, colorful, energetic and appealing. Hank's was a different kind of life, crypto mines, dangerous hikes, political battles, and the mysteries of Latin America.
Opportunities and risks always exist side by side, Web3, Explorer and Latin America seem to be a few words of natural origin. Maybe not everyone is suitable to set feet on Latin America, but its warm, vast and savage environment is always waiting for entrepreneurs who fit it. Just as Hank said, "The adventurer paradise full of opportunities and challenges is the most accurate summary of this land. For the crypto industry, the Latin American market is still a relatively fair blue ocean market, as long as you are prepared, there is a lot of space for you to play!"
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