I left the project side and went to the exchange.

In the first article of "Industry Reflection", we briefly reviewed the secondary market conditions of the former star blockchain project, which partly reflected the difficult situation of the current blockchain project. At the same time, I noticed a phenomenon: the project side personnel began to flow into the exchange.

So, there is this article today.

The trend of project party personnel flowing to the exchange is obvious

Due to media work, 5,000 WeChat friends have already filled up, and more than half of them are blockchain practitioners. Most of them are all in the blockchain in the previous two years. I recently noticed that the work of many friends has changed: from the most valuable public chain team to the profitable exchange.

Such as:

• Babbitt Column | Blockchain Project Governance, Rules and Influence
• "The Eye of the Government" Chainalysis: Most Bitcoin mixed currency transactions are legal transactions
• The so-called "Defi", how much do you go to the center?

Just after the end of this year, Li He, who originally worked in a public chain, went to OKEX for business. At the end of April this year, Liu Wei left the company from a blockchain company and went to a second-tier exchange to serve as the CTO. In June of this year, Wang Fang, who was responsible for the operation of a well-known public chain team, finally decided to leave the team that had been in the business for more than a year and entered the company. In early August of this year, another Zhao Ming, who was the chief operating officer of a public chain, went to an emerging exchange as a CMO.

So, last week, I launched a small survey in the circle of friends: Many employees of the project have jumped to the exchange, is it a case or a common phenomenon?

The answers I get are mostly positive, namely: it is a universal phenomenon.

As for the reasons, some people say that "the exchange is the top of the food chain", others say that "the bear market is poor," and others say that "the public chain does not make money, and only the exchanges are made to make money."

Is this really the case? We did a round of in-depth communication with the friends who switched to the exchange and the person in charge of the exchange.

Difficulties in the public chain: lack of sustained hematopoietic capacity

Wang Fang stepped into the block train's first stop and went to a well-known public chain team in China, during which he paid a lot of effort.

Asked about the reasons for leaving, Wang Fang concluded: It is too simple to think about all the problems and constraints.

"A lot of public chain projects, it is difficult to change some of the obstacles that the industry itself has objectively. Second, my personal position at the time is also difficult to change some of the obstacles that the team may have."

The so-called industry barriers, Wang Fang pointed out that one is technically difficult and the other is policy constraints . In a bad language, "The technical foundation of the entire blockchain can't support ultra-large-scale commercial applications. How can these projects continue to work hard? Or investors support, but this cannot last forever." So the reality is that the project will let investors (amaranths) invest their dreams in the secondary market and pay for their project dreams."

Therefore, there will be some abnormal phenomena in the market : in addition to individual projects because the early investment institutions are not bad, many projects have to cut funds to the secondary market to maintain operations.

What Wang Fang said is not unreasonable. Ding Yang, co-founder of Wande.com and BitMart Exchange, said that “ the technical breakthrough and consensus of the public chain are all required to be accumulated for a long time, and the public chain project itself is a need. It consumes a lot of capital resources, but it is hard to see the model of hematopoiesis . Before the big market opportunity, the early public chain can get the market dividend, but in recent years, the market is sluggish, and more and more public chain projects, natural survival It’s difficult.”

Based on the above factors, Wang Fang decided to leave the project side. The reason why the exchange is chosen, in Wang Fang's view, there are two reasons: First, from the perspective of market operations, the exchange can learn more, especially the head exchange. Second, from the perspective of career planning, the exchange is also a way to improve the curriculum history of the blockchain.

However, Wang Fang is still optimistic about the public chain project. "The industry has to go through this stage in the early days , but not everyone has the ability to bear this heart, so I really feel that I have the courage to do the project, it is really amazing."

Exchange Black Hole: A powerful ability to absorb gold

Ding Yang entered the currency circle in 2013. In November 2017, when Ding Yang and several partners started their business, there were many choices: exchange, public chain, mining, and investment. But the team believes that in the entire ecosystem, the exchange is the core track, the profit model is clear, and the imagination of the future is also the largest. So I finally decided to focus on the exchange first.

The exchange also does show a strong ability to absorb gold.

According to The Block, the net profit of the company in 2018 was about 446 million US dollars. In Q19, 201, the currency was approximately $78 million.

According to estimates by Science and Technology Finance, the revenue of Firecoin in 2018 is about 450 million US dollars.

According to the official data released on the first anniversary of the OKEX event, OKEX has a total dividend of 212 million USDT a year, corresponding to a total annual fee income of about 424 million US dollars.

According to Reuters estimates, Coinbase, the largest trading platform in the United States, generated revenue of approximately $520 million in 2018.

A strong ability to absorb gold naturally attracts the influx of talent.

In fact, it doesn't stop there.

In addition to the above factors, the simplification of the exchange threshold and the diversified layout of the exchange business are also key factors in attracting talents.

The threshold for opening an exchange is greatly simplified. Only a good domain name, suitable operations and a clear direction are required to open a dedicated exchange, which also leads to an increase in the exchange's demand for operations and business. Similar to the Internet entrepreneurial boom of the year.

On the other hand, the exchange is also expanding a variety of business models, many exchanges have also set up their own investment department, strategic investment or directly hatch the public chain project to complete the ecological layout of the exchange.

How low is the exchange threshold? Yan Dong told me that the initial construction + basic services are generally between 100,000 and 700,000 yuan . Each service provider has a different service package. The next team mainly needs manpower to promote in UI, operation and business.

Specific to the salary level of the exchange staff, Qi Dong said that the product PM is generally between 15K~30K, the domestic market is generally 15K~20K, and the overseas business position may be higher 20~30K. More depends on incentives, such as platform coin incentives, project-side incentives, and end-of-year benefits.

Li He has been in OKEX for nearly half a year. He is responsible for the cooperation between OKEX overseas quantitative user docking and B-end institutions. He described to me that the current work is: wide vision, more earned, more talents and more life.

"Everything is very formal, five insurance and one gold, normal tax. I have been in the semi-annual period and have not worked overtime."

However, the standard of employment on the head exchange is also very strict. "There was an Oxford master's degree last week, because the experience was not enough to be brushed down."

Broken public chain: how to survive

The bear market is still going on. The biggest volume in the market is still the exchange, and some new projects may appear. After the lively publicity, it often falls silent. The old projects that were issued earlier have become weaker.

In this regard , Yan Dong pointed out that on the one hand , it is a financial problem . Many old projects, such as public chain or DAPP applications, will have a lot of capital consumption if they are really put into operation, and these projects are also overvalued. At the time of Token, there are a large number of participants still holding, and it is not suitable for transformation to do the mode to speak.

On the other hand, new forces have emerged . The exchange supports incubating as a public chain. Traditional institutions directly come in to do pure chain solutions. At this time, only old projects in the field of cryptocurrency will be challenged because it is difficult to cross-domain. Go for extensions.

"In fact, talent is a side, reflecting the flow of funds. Many public chains have no money to burn, but the second level is not good, can only go mode, CX went." A public chain marketing director said.

It can be seen that the lack of sustained hematopoietic capacity and the reduction of peacekeeping from the exchange are obstacles to the further development of the current public chain team. So, how do public chain projects seek profitable scenarios and get rid of short-term hype? Decompose next time.

Note: The above part is a pseudonym

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