It’s the goal of every cryptocurrency project to have a thriving community of developers, investors, and enthusiasts. However, finding those who can engage with the platform and help spread knowledge is easier said than done. In China, regulations have made this task even more difficult – especially as VeChain’s long-term ambitions require the support of local regulators. In order to be compliant, VeChain has recently begun taking creative steps to cultivate a new crop of investors and channel partners here in the world’s most populous country.

Like the west, many investors are only focused on short-term market performance, and aren’t concerned with mainstream adoption. The industry is saturated with scams and multi-level marketing schemes backed by blockchain buzzwords, and information is limited by national internet restrictions and language barriers. For projects attempting to use blockchain to generate real-life value, this can be a real issue. Here’s a quick look at how VeChain is taking steps to develop a stronger community both here in China and abroad.

ToolChain and BaaS

VeChain’s latest product, ToolChain, can be used by the community to onboard SME’s and locally crafted products. However, this requires business owners or community members to have an understanding of the value blockchain can bring – a point often lost on those individuals focusing on market performance. ToolChain was created as a way to bring value to channel partners, in a manner that incentivizes a segment of the community to learn more about blockchain and supply chain integration. Already, global demand has been high, with over 250 applications. As the Chinese community is introduced to this white-label product, more and more people are being exposed to VeChain and blockchain in general.

Blockchain-as-a-Service has become an incredibly important area of focus for Chinese tech companies. With over 197 blockchain companies (including VeChain) legalized under the country’s new blockchain framework, BaaS-related projects will find it easier to navigate local regulations. ToolChain and ToolChain channel partners should find China to be very BaaS-friendly over the upcoming months, helping to spread adoption.

Educational Services

VeChain recognizes the importance of cultivating a mature and knowledgeable community. On May 28th, Dr. Ren Zhijie gave a free class on blockchain consensus methods to the community. Dr. Ren is a senior researcher at VeChain, who is also published in the fields of blockchain consensus algorithms, scalability, and applications.

VeChain conducts a free class on blockchain consensus methods from their Shanghai office

Education has always been a field that VeChain has led in, headlined by their global VeResearch program. In the past, they’ve worked with top western universities such as Oxford University, Michigan State University, MIT Media Labs, Dartmouth University, and Stanford University. VeChain is also focusing on institutions closer to their Shanghai office, including South China Normal University, City University of Hong Kong, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Top national schools including Qinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University (Renji Hospital) have also been involved with the Digital Low Carbon Ecosystem. While working with these elite institutions, VeChain is exposing an entire generation of top talents to blockchain’s enterprise use cases, as they take part in research that leads back to creating more innovative VeChain projects.

Recently, VeChain has taken a more assertive role in community management. They have suggested more educational opportunities will become available, as they try to grow a stronger community of technically-capable participants. Vechainworld.io has been created as an educational resource and a networking platform for contacting both the team and other members of the community. As the summer months approach, it will be interesting to see how China’s massive population responds to a heavy national pressure to develop emerging technologies. With an unrivaled list of enterprise and institutional partners, and an untapped market of highly-nationalistic Chinese citizens, VeChain could quickly become a household name within the tech industry.

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The Guiyang Big Data Industry Expo is one of the biggest technology events of the year in China, and the 2019 edition started with a congratulatory letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping. He declared that China attaches great importance to the development of Big Data, and is willing to share the opportunities of economic development with other countries. Furthermore, by exploring new technologies, formats, and models, they can jointly discover new growth drivers and development plans.

The significance of having President Xi’s blessing should not be missed by global technology experts. With 5G, AI, robotics, Big Data, and blockchain being key themes of the industry expo, it further highlights the commitment China’s central government has towards innovation in emerging technologies. By taking a lead role, the central government can ensure that China remains at the forefront of these industries, putting intense pressure on the rest of the world to keep up or risk being left behind.

Not surprisingly, DNV GL was a central figure at the expo. Business Assurance CEO Luca Crisciotti and Business Assurance Greater China CEO George Kang were both in attendance, with the former speaking in a panel alongside VeChain CSO Mike Zhuang. Their panel, entitled “What is the role of Blockchain on Green Finance” spoke about the pivotal role that blockchain will play in many new economic models, with VeChain and DNV GL’s Digital Low Carbon ecosystem being a great example. “Green Finance” is an area where VeChain (and blockchain in general) is proving its value to regulators by directly contributing to the improvement of society.

Monday May 27th, VeChain CSO Mike Zhuang takes the stage alongside DNV GL’s Business Assurance CEO Luca Crisciotti.

This year’s event also received a letter from the Secretary General of the United Nations, who noted that Big Data has “great potential to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.” The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have recently been the focus of VeChain, who are using blockchain to encourage the reduction of Carbon emissions.

Guizhou Province has been very effective at blending traditional culture with rapid innovation. The home of famed rice-wine producer Moutai, Guiyang is also the home of numerous new technology centers, including the GuiAn New District, a smart city that is exploring blockchain implementation with VeChain. The GuiAn New district was a co-organizer of this year’s event. The event takes place from May 25th – 29th.

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On Wednesday afternoon, VeChain’s CEO dropped into the official VeChain Telegram to answer a few questions. Here’s a quick transcript for those that missed it, or don’t use Telegram.

1. Will there be videos, tutorials, guides and an overall showcasing of ToolChain in use by a small company to see how easy it is to implement and use? So, basically a journey for other SME entrepeneurs to observe so they can decide if it’s something for them?

Yes. The team has been working on that part. The main target is to enable SMEs to onboard business to VeChainthor in a easy and cost-effective way. As a matter of fact, we did make good use of experiences with big enterprises in the past 3 years and conduct those into VeChainToolchain which could be beneficial to SMEs. Furthermore, we would like to repeat this process from successful cases to be a summarized tool for more builders including SMEs. 

2. Will there be a publicly available cost list of everything associated with ToolChain?

Yes. Right now, the team is collecting the feedback from trials to see if we need to make adjustment according to different regions. 

3. Will there be special ToolChain options for tech or business universities to play around with, perhaps to introduce IoT, blockchain and logistics to their programs?

That’s a good idea indeed. We didn’t consider that before but we should now. 

4. Any plans to introduce certifications for IT-business (implementation) consultants so they can help companies out with ToolChain? Similar to companies like Microsoft, IBM, etc.?

Yes. We have been discussing with DNVGL for a long time. However, creating a certification program is really not easy and we respect the professionalism, expertise and high requirements from DNVGL. For sure, the trial feedback and experiences will definitely help to speed up that. 

5. Any plans to add additional consultancy layers under people like Jerome, Sarah and J-Rock to have an easier access to ask ToolChain related questions?

Yes. We are planning for multiple different levels setup including big consultant enterprises (like PwC, Deloitte, DNV GL and others), IT solution providers,  individual consultants from the community, etc. The challenge will be preparation of training and onboarding materials according to different players. 

6. What exactly is the proposed 500 million $ USD fund meant for?

The VeChain Foundation is leading and working with reputable institutional investors to setup this VeChainThorPower to provide financial and investment support to the VeChain Ecosystem. We would like to use this fund along with several reputable incubators (like BoostVC, LongHash, Tribe Venture and etc.), Venture Capitals (like Fenbushi, Draper, FutureCap and etc.), Government backed Funds and even individual angel investors with expertise and resources in their territory to invest in startups who are devoted to building up business applications on VeChainThor and contribute to VeChain Ecosystem. We will have more official communication release about that once the progress is ready. 

7. When can we expect more western-focused (crypto) marketing to happen?

Honestly, VeChain has been focused on global marketing all along including western for sure. I don’t understand this question.

8. Are there any plans to create or support a dev-hub somewhere in the West, say San Francisco?

Right now, we have offices and teams in Paris, Milan, Luxemberg, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Palo Alto, Shanghai and Beijing who are responsible for providing business engagement and first tier technical support. 

9. Are there any plans to add additional utility to the VET token, other than voting mechanisms laid out in the whitepaper?

Yes. Along as with more financial use cases and applications, VET utility will be revealed one by one. Like I have emphasized more and more, we need business applications to transform business activities to VeChainThor, and then the demands to financial applications will be more and more natural. 

10. Will there be a Reddit AMA in the near future to ask more indepth questions?

Yes. Stay tuned.

These questions demonstrate the value of having an active community, both by suggesting new ways of innovation as well as utilizing ToolChain to onboard products and clients. The number of VC firms and project incubators surrounding the ecosystem is a good sign that more and more third-party and community driven projects will be landing on the VeChain platform. Investors can also take solace in the prospect of new token utility, providing a deeper connection between token holders and the numerous enterprise use-cases already springing into action.

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