Bitskwela, a Filipino-led Edutech platform that strives to make Bitcoin and cryptocurrency education accessible to all Filipinos of any ethnicity, hosted an electrifying event recently at the KMC Skydeck, BGC, in Taguig City.
Dubbed “Bull or Bear: Philippine Web3 Debate,” the event saw a number of key industry leaders sharing their opinions on some of the hottest topics today about cryptocurrency use, play-to-earn games, NFTs, and the growth of a decentralized online ecosystem based on blockchain technology.
IMAGE CREDIT: www.bitskwela.com
The first to come up on stage was Internet Protocol Manila’s Lumbres who talked about the fundamentals of blockchain in Web3. He began his presentation by sharing IBM’s definition of what blockchain is — “a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network.”
Citing a recent poll conducted by Dra. Angela Yu, a coding expert and lead instructor at Udemy, Lumbres noted that “44.6% of Filipino youth have already shown interest in learning about blockchain and Web3 this year,” before adding, “and this was likely due to the industry’s mouthwatering salary offer, which could go as high as $120,000 for a junior developer.”
According to him, the Philippines saw the number of blockchain developers grow at a staggering rate of 33% and active developers in Web3 peaking at around 18,416 monthly by this year alone. “I think we’re on the bleeding edge of technology right now, and the opportunity is there for us — anywhere in the world, actually,” said Lumbres. He then asked, “Does our country think of these emerging technologies as the future, and if so, would Filipinos want to be at the forefront of the exploration and adoption race?”
From blockchain, Lumbres then jumped to discussing Web3, which global experts coined as the next iteration of the Internet, incorporating the concepts of decentralization, blockchain, and token-based economics. From this definition, he noted that Web3 is about owning a piece of the world wide web.
“The Web3 is something that we can build on right now,” he added, before piecing everything together by stating that the key fundamentals of blockchain in Web3 involve faster settlement, security, consensus, decentralization, and immutability.
Market Trading: Its Ups, Downs, and Merry-go-round
The second keynote speaker, ZFT Corporation’s George Asibal, resorted to an interactive conversation about the market cycles. He started by asking participants about play-to-earn and non-fungible token (NFT) games, and who among the crowd owns and has investments in ‘crypto.’
In his speech, Asibal stressed that the digital asset industry has become exciting as more people from different demographics get on board. He, however, pointed out that it has also become more challenging to “filter out the noise,” determining what trends you should bet your money on, which ones are real, and when you should HODL, and let go.
“The truth of the market is quite simple. The market doesn’t really care about what you think or how you feel, or what your opinions are. The market is gonna do whatever it wants to do,” he said. “Our job is to understand how the market is moving, and how the market is reacting. From there, we need to be in alignment with the markets.”
A trading consultant, Asibal said the main reason people lose money in the crypto space is because of a lack of understanding of the industry, including market trends and what type of investor they are.
To end his discussion, Asibal likened investing and trading to joining the Olympics: “If you want to make money in this industry, you have to think of it as you are in the Olympics. In the Olympics, there’s a lot of ways to make gold; you just have to find what suits you and then play to your strengths,” he said before leaving, saying, “One thing is for sure — crypto, Web3 — it’s inevitable. The future is crypto, and it’s here.”
Need to strengthen education rather than regulation cited
The last speaker, Darlene Torres, board member of Bitskwela and the Head of Developer Ecosystem and its strategic advisor, started her speech by reminiscing her childhood days in computer shops – a place where most Filipino youths nowadays spend their free time playing strategic and multiplayer games such as Counter-strike, League of Legends, and DOTA, and the place she first learned about Bitcoin.
Citing her experience, Torres noted that today’s generation relies heavily on the Internet for information, and with the rise of NFT and P2E games, more children are using them to get their education. Because of this, she said that the government should focus more on strengthening education rather than regulation.
“How can one authority regulate information that it does not understand?” Torres asked. She also urged governments “to stop looking at blockchain contributors as a threat but instead as collaborators to solve modern problems.”
Torres said she believes that the Filipino youth should be exposed to ‘crypto,’ and be educated about it, claiming that this would help spur the country’s gross domestic product while the inclusiveness provided by the blockchain industry can level the playing field for economies. “The governments of India and the United Arab Emirates, which have seen incredible growth during the pandemic after embracing tech, are models that should be emulated,” she said.
Torres ended her speech by borrowing the lines of His Excellency Gabriel Abed, Ambassador of Barbados to the United Arab Emirates, when he said, “Let us stop looking at blockchain and cryptocurrencies as just currencies but instead as an underlying of information, communication, and technology.”
The night was still young when the other debaters hopped onto the stage for the main event, with Kenji Tate, a veteran debater from the Ateneo de Manila University, serving as moderator.
The debaters were given a flippable stand bearing green and red colours. For every question asked, they will have 10 seconds to decide whether they agree (bullish) or disagree (bearish) about the statement. Each speaker was given only two minutes to explain his/her stance.
The debate ran for over an hour, focusing on Bitcoin as a legal tender and privacy within the space, and could have gone on until the wee hours of the night, but it was halted by an unexpected downpour.