By OKCoin CEO Star Xu

I am a Bitcoin guy who believes strongly in the future of Bitcoin. I started OKCoin in June 2013 after realizing I could improve the experience for those trading Bitcoin by creating a superior platform. Today, we are one of the largest professional Bitcoin companies in the world. 

After attending the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, I came to the realization that there are some misunderstandings about OKCoin and what we are doing within the industry. This is why I decided to explain who I am and take this initiative.

I’m sorry that it has taken me this long to do this - I should have done it earlier.

My Background

I graduated from Beijing University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor in Physics, and studied for a Masters in Mathematics from Renmin University of China. Because I didn’t enjoy academic life, I dropped out of the Masters program to join Alibaba to work on Natural Language Process within their Search Engine Team. Whilst at University, I, along with several classmates, had a paper published in the Journal of Applied Physics under the title: “Lattice, Elastic, Polarization, and Electrostrictive Properties of BaTiO3 from First-Principles”. 

I have a strong interest in Finance and Economics and share certain libertarian values. I agree with many of Hayek’s Economic theories. I believe Bitcoin is a completely democratic currency which will have a profound effect on humanity. 

Our Understanding of Bitcoin

We believe that Bitcoin is a global Internet credit-system based on mathematics and computing power that is cross-country and cross-company. In the 5,000 years of human records of currency, for 4,000 years, currency has been based on precious metals such as gold and silver. Throughout the peoples and the countries of the world, without the need for mutual dialogue, gold and silver was selected as the currency ofchoice. Karl Marx said, "Although gold and silver are not by naturemoney, money is by nature gold and silver.“ Precious metals are a giftfrom God, which have played an important part in history for thousands of years.

During the 17th century, due to a shortage of gold and silver facing European societies, there was severe deflation. Physicist Newton invented the first gold standard with each ounce of gold being exchangeable with the State for 3.5 Pounds Sterling. By having this simple principle of issuing currency accepted by the entire world, 300 years of rapid economic development ensued. After World War II, the Bretton Woods conference agreed on the principles of a global system of fixed exchange rates referencing the US Dollar.  It was to be backed by gold exchangeable with the US Government for 35 USD per ounce. In 1972, with the ending of the Bretton Woods system, the US Dollar withdrew its convertibility to gold and humanity entered an age of national credit as currency. This is the first time that the circulation of currency was removed from a system based on the laws of nature. Whether this was a good thing or not, only God knows. However, Bitcoin has given us another opportunity for a currency to be circulated based on the laws of nature. I believe in 5-10 years, the world could have 10s to 100s of millions of people using Bitcoin, harboring a virtual country of people without geographical boundaries. Such individuals will have a significant influence in society and will promote the better development of human technology. 

OKCoin’s Mission

Our mission is to be the company that drives the growth of Bitcoin. 

I believe Bitcoin is a Financial Social Network. It has two elements, the first is financial, the second social networking. From a financial perspective Bitcoin requires professional trading platforms, wallets, banks, merchant processors, etc. From a social network perspective, it requires many use-cases to help bitcoin go viral, to allow more and more people to truly be able to experience using Bitcoin.

OKCoin has done a lot of work on both the financial and social networking fronts. Our exchange is the world’s only to offer spot, margin, p2p lending, and futures. We have created a wallet that is simple to use as well as merchant services. We have also created an open Bitcoin platform to work with many developers to spread the use of Bitcoin.

We have 150 employees working on this goal, making us one of the largest Bitcoin companies in the world. Maybe you are curious, why would OKCoin create so many different products rather than focus on one single area? To be honest, I personally would prefer to focus on one part of the ecosystem. However, today we face the same problem that Alibaba faced in China 10 years ago. When Alibaba was starting out in E-Commerce, they discovered that the information flow between buyers and sellers was very poor, so they created Taobao. Thereafter, they found out that the Chinese payment system was very undeveloped (unlike in the US with VISA and Mastercard), and so they created Alipay. This in turn led them to discover that Chinese postal delivery systems were very backward and without any companies like UPS, so they started Cainiao Net to address the problem.

The Chinese Bitcoin industry is similar to the E-Commerce industry at the time of Alibaba. There are not a lot of startups covering all the components of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Therefore, it is OKCoin’s intent and responsibility to build the entire ecosystem. We believe that as more and more startups enter the Chinese market, we will be able to grow Bitcoin together.

Today, we are focused on two areas. First, it is to be the largest exchange in the world by creating more trading products and services for everyone. Second aim is to encourage more people to truly experience using Bitcoin, which we are beginning through the introduction of OKLink – our wallet, payment, and developer platform. We have a beautiful Bitcoin dream, and will give our all to make this dream come true.

Why does Bitcoin Have Value?

People buy stocks because they believe in a company’s earning potential. But why do people want to buy Bitcoin? What is the fundamental value of Bitcoin? I believe the reason is people believe Bitcoin will become a widely circulated currency. The fundamental value is real growing usage of Bitcoin. If Bitcoin forever stalls at a theoretical stage, the value can only become ever lower - all the way to 0. The development of real use cases for Bitcoin is fundamental. There is no point in dreaming of Wall Street becoming the next buyer or regulatory authorities helping to legitimize Bitcoin. The only way to create value is to increase the real usage base.

China is the world’s most populous country, and features the largest consumer market with many excellent use-cases for Bitcoin. For example, using Bitcoin to purchase overseas goods (Haitao), for overseas students, for tourists, etc. I believe that China will continue to be one of the key forces driving the growth of Bitcoin. OKCoin will be an active participant in all of this.

OKCoin’s Identity within the Industry

The exchange platform is OKCoin’s first business. At present we have the BTC/CNY exchange (www.okcoin.cn) and the BTC/USD exchange (www.okcoin.com). These are operated by separate companies, with separate order books and account structures. This is also as a result of Chinese law.

We are constantly innovating in technology and soon, we will be launching our latest iteration of the matching engine with the ability to process 20,000 orders per second. We launched Bitcoin margin, allowing those who don’t want to trade the opportunity to lend to those who do, and earn interest. We have developed Algo orders, such as Trigger and Iceberg orders. A number of OTC traders find they are able to purchase 10,000 BTC within 5 hours on our listed exchange using Algos without affecting the price. We have also launched BTC Virtual Futures and plan to release BTC Virtual Options in the near future. Moreover, we have an Android and iOS app for mobile trading. There is no Bitcoin exchange anywhere in the world that offers such a wide range of trading tools. We are the only one.

Regarding Our Future Plans…

To begin, we want to improve the transparency of our exchange. We would also like to start using 3rd party escrow services to make all details extremely clear. We are currently in discussions with multiple companies on how to start the process and will become more and more transparent.

If Bitcoin remains only on exchanges, then the likelihood of Bitcoin failing is fairly high. We want to help more people use Bitcoin. Only in this way can the value of Bitcoin achieve stability. OKCoin has invested a lot of our resources to create OKLink, which will make using Bitcoin even easier, with many applications for specific use-cases. We want Bitcoin to solve real-life problems – perhaps by reducing financial costs, or simply by making life easier. 

I hope this initiative can help you better understand OKCoin. We are more hardworking, more diligent, with a stronger emphasis on customer service in comparison to many of our competitors. We are guided with a long-term vision of the Bitcoin market and we want to do much more. I hope you will not perceive China with an untrustworthy connotation - I know that OKCoin still has areas to improve, but I promise we will continue to do so. 

In the past, I have not spent any time on Reddit or Twitter. My communication with the international community has been limited, and I would like to change that.

I look forward to using Reddit for the first time and will host a Reddit AMA. I  welcome anyone using or interested in OKCoin to join me next Thursday, February 5^th at 11:30am EST.