Binance Wallet Space Review: Alpha is not the same as the main site

Today, the Binance Chinese community officially introduced the new features of the Binance Web3 Wallet - Binance Alpha, during a Space event.

In this event, Binance co-founder He Yi and Binance Wallet business leader Winson appeared together to answer users' questions about the new features and conduct an in-depth analysis of the latest industry dynamics. This Space event invited several Web3 Chinese media and well-known KOLs to participate in the discussion and ask He Yi and Winson questions about hot topics such as Binance's token listing policy.

In the event, He Yi shared his views on the current industry situation, responded to recent controversies around Binance's token listings, and elaborated on the future development plan of Binance Alpha.

The following is a transcript of the Space event, organized and edited by Odaily:

Q: Binance has faced many controversies in token listings over the past year. How do you view this phenomenon? What are the reasons for Binance to launch Binance Alpha? Can you describe the background and process of selecting projects, and whether it is the same as the process for futures and spot listings?

He Yi: Binance's token listings indeed have higher user expectations, as everyone hopes each listing will pump. But the reality is that the market cap surges in the short term after listing, and then falls back. This situation has led us to constantly seek optimization solutions, such as using pre-market pricing to suppress the coin price, but the effect is limited.

The industry also has some structural problems:

· Project token issuance cycles are short, lacking real users and solid business models. Much on-chain interaction data is artificially "washed", lacking value support.

· The current market hype is more about distributing "air", with projects lacking labor output and profit models to support long-term development.

· The global regulatory environment is complex, and the participation cost and risk for excellent entrepreneurs are very high, leaving the industry in an awkward period.

The purpose of launching the Binance Alpha zone is to provide users with an "observation area", listing popular but not yet mature projects, including hot meme coins, VC-backed projects, and local chain projects. Users can trade these coins through the wallet, but their inclusion in the Alpha zone does not mean they will ultimately be listed on Binance's spot or futures markets. Because most meme coins will go to zero in this wave, only a few memes will survive, which is a rather cruel reality.

The significance of the Binance Alpha zone is to provide users with a tool to screen for high-probability projects, while reminding everyone to participate in new projects rationally and do sufficient research. Ultimately, we hope to find projects that truly have social value, can generate labor output, and reward holding users. Nevertheless, whether it's the Binance Alpha zone, spot, or futures listings, it is an ongoing process of screening and elimination, and we cannot guarantee that every coin will survive in the long run or make users money.

For the market's hot meme coins, we understand their appeal and will include them in the Alpha zone, providing users with early value capture opportunities. But the ultimate healthy development of the industry still depends on whether excellent projects can truly generate social value and realize the sharing of labor output.

Q: Regarding Binance Alpha, are there specific project screening criteria? Will the projects listed in Binance Alpha potentially be listed on the Binance main board in the future? Will Binance Alpha be more inclined towards projects in the BNB ecosystem?

He Yi: The project selection for Binance Alpha is not entirely dependent on whether they will ultimately be listed on the Binance main board. The selection criteria focus on the project's heat and attention, rather than just because a project has entered Binance Alpha, it must necessarily be listed. In other words, while many projects entering Binance Alpha have relatively high exposure and potential, not all of them will ultimately be listed, as this depends on more market and internal evaluation factors.

As the BNB Chain is currently one of the industry's hotspot public chains, it is indeed a key focus for Binance's support. Due to the strong competitiveness and high attention of the BSC ecosystem in the market, its projects are more likely to be included in Binance Alpha. But this does not mean that Binance Alpha is limited to the BNB Chain ecosystem, as other excellent projects will also be considered.

Q: Industry competitors have invested a large amount of resources in wallet business (with team sizes reaching 500-1000 people). What is the current size of the Binance wallet team? Facing such strong competitive pressure, is Binance adopting a defensive or offensive strategy?

Winson: Currently, the Binance wallet team has just reached 100 people, but the team is still in the process of continuous recruitment, especially for technical positions, and welcomes excellent engineers to join.

Regarding the huge investment and achievements of competitors in the wallet field, the Binance team expresses great respect and actively studies and learns from their strengths. However, Binance will not simply copy the competitors' model, but explore a differentiated development path.

From the market demand perspective, users do not need two completely identical wallet products, so blind imitation is not feasible. Binance believes that the wallet track has enough space to accommodate different differentiated products. The team, based on years of practice, has clearly defined its own development path and is full of confidence.

Binance wallet's strategy is neither defensive nor purely offensive, but focused on exploring new paths:

· Provide simple, feature-rich, secure and reliable wallet services to meet the needs of most users' on-chain operations.

· With user experience as the core, make the user's usage process more "smooth" and provide security and data support.

We acknowledge that Binance itself started relatively late in on-chain services, and spent a lot of time in the past year recruiting excellent talents, rebuilding the wallet team, and reconstructing the system from the bottom up. Although it is still a "raw house" at the moment, the team has clearly planned for the future, aiming to gradually improve the functions on the basis of meeting user needs.

The CEO mentioned in the summary that although Binance's start in the on-chain field was relatively late, the team's confidence and resource investment are sufficient, just as Binance made great progress in the contract business in the past, it will also achieve significant progress in the future.

Q: What is the long-term development positioning and plan for Binance's new Web3 wallet? What are the differences between it and the positioning of Trust Wallet within the Binance ecosystem?

Winson: The positioning of Binance's new Web3 wallet is "new user friendly", but it is not limited to serving new users. The team believes that if a product can be very simple for new users to use, experienced users can also easily get started, although they may be a bit unfamiliar. Therefore, the goal of the Binance wallet is to serve the industry's veteran users, while focusing on new entrants, and committed to promoting the mass adoption of Web3, especially contributing to the popularization of the mainstream user group.

The team also plans to implement specific improvement measures in stages to solve the key user experience challenges in using the wallet, ultimately eliminating all barriers and allowing users to use Web3 products seamlessly.

Differences from Trust Wallet:

· Platform integration: The Binance wallet is deeply integrated with the Binance main site, belonging to the same APP, while Trust Wallet is a relatively independent product.

· Compliance: The Binance wallet is designed based on KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements and meets compliance requirements, while Trust Wallet is a more independent product without direct deep compliance integration with the Binance main site.

· User group: The Binance wallet serves a relatively broad user group, including Binance's existing users and new Web3 users, while Trust Wallet focuses on providing an independent wallet experience for a wider decentralized user base.

Although at the current stage, there is a certain degree of competition between the Binance wallet and Trust Wallet, this is not an "either you or me" competition within Binance, but a "differentiated competition", aiming to provide differentiated services for different user groups and promote the popularization of Web3. The team stated that this competition will be conducive to the development of the entire industry, and the goal of the Binance wallet is to help more people enter the Web3 field and simplify the user experience.

Q: Are the projects in Binance's Alpha zone selected by Binance itself, or through other means such as community voting or open application? If a project successfully "graduates" and is listed on the Binance main board, what aspects will the main board review cover? How to avoid the problems of wash trading and data fabrication?

He Yi: Binance Alpha's project screening includes both active screening and external active registration or community recommendations. Binance's screening not only relies on the industry's heat, but also conducts detailed research and analysis, covering multiple fields such as public chains, infrastructure, DeFi, Non-Fungible Token (NFT), etc. These screening contents combine on-chain data tracking and daily project submission information. Therefore, projects may enter Alpha through registration and community recommendations, but whether they are ultimately selected still depends on their heat and market performance. The Alpha section is actually a relatively broad pool.

For those projects that successfully "graduate" and have the opportunity to be listed on the main board, the assessment standards will cover multiple aspects. It mainly includes the quality, compliance, and development potential of the project, to ensure that the project not only has heat, but also has the ability to develop in the long term. In order to avoid the problem of brushing volume and data fabrication, Binance will strictly review the authenticity of the project during the screening process, including the source of the data and trading behavior, to ensure that it meets the compliance requirements of the platform and maintains the fairness of the market. Binance is also exploring whether to introduce more interesting gameplay in the Alpha section, and welcomes the community to provide innovative ideas or opinions.

Brushing volume and data fabrication are difficult to completely avoid in the industry, especially for some projects that use airdrops or brushing tools to increase their heat. Binance believes that the key is to identify which data is real and which is brushed through continuous value judgment and industry experience.

Through the Alpha section as a screening mechanism, Binance allows projects to first showcase and accumulate data, observe which projects can continuously attract users and create value, and which are just brushing volume. This is the core purpose of Binance launching the Alpha section, aiming to screen out truly promising projects.

Q: How does the Binance Web3 wallet's airdrop platform screen airdrop projects? Can early participation in airdrops generate more returns?

He Yi: Airdrops are a tool provided by Binance for project parties and users, with the main purpose of attracting users for project parties and providing more opportunities for retail investors. Airdrops may be the goal for retail investors, but for project parties, it is more a means of acquiring users. Binance hopes to connect more high-quality projects and users through this platform, avoid brushing volume, and ensure that projects can interact with real users.

In addition, Binance is also thinking about how to allow users to obtain more benefits through on-chain operations, and ensure that these operations are simple and secure. In addition to airdrops, Binance also plans to work with the industry through an open platform to jointly promote the development of Web3, and create more valuable scenarios and projects.

Winson: Binance's airdrop platform is a sub-section of its open platform, aimed at connecting Binance's users with project parties. The core value of the platform lies in helping project parties promote their products to suitable users through accurate user data. Binance does not intend to over-screen projects, but rather to allow any project party to initiate airdrops in an open manner.

In the future, Binance's open platform will be further expanded, allowing more project parties to promote on the platform, without limiting the choice of projects. In this way, Binance's goal is to create a diversified platform that provides more opportunities for project parties and users.

Q: Regarding the future of the wallet, will it shift towards chain abstraction or intent wallets? If so, will it adopt its own technology or other project's technology?

Winson: Binance wallet will indeed adopt chain abstraction and intent wallet related technologies, but will not completely shift towards these two methods. The goal is to lower the user's usage threshold and achieve a more convenient user experience through these technologies. In the choice of technology, Binance wallet will not simply copy the existing solutions in the market, but will conduct in-depth technical research, combined with its own user needs, to design a suitable solution. Although technology is to serve the product, Binance emphasizes that technology should be combined with user scenarios, ultimately bringing higher value to users, rather than simply following technological trends.

Q: Will Binance adjust the screening criteria or display list based on user feedback on the displayed tokens? If the displayed tokens encounter widespread negative feedback, how will Binance respond?

He Yi: In the arrangement of token display, Binance will follow its own arrangement logic, such as considering factors like token price fluctuations and listing time. Users can sort according to their own needs, and Binance's focus is to maintain the transparency and flexibility of the platform, allowing users to sort by themselves.

For negative feedback on on-chain operations, Binance will remind users through notifications, especially when high-risk projects occur. Since Binance is a pure on-chain operation, it cannot close functions like deposit or withdrawal like a CEX platform, so it mainly relies on the early warning mechanism to remind users. As for the feedback channel, Binance is considering establishing a Telegram group to facilitate user feedback and ensure timely response to project risks.

Q: Binance wallet is positioned as the largest airdrop platform. What is its core idea? How can Binance wallet help newcomers reduce the threshold of on-chain interaction, or what are the advantages and considerations of it as an airdrop distribution platform?

Winson: Binance wallet's strategy is not solely focused on becoming the largest airdrop platform. Although the airdrop platform is an important means for Binance wallet, it is not the only core strategy. The platform's goal is to build a bridge between users and project parties, capturing user value through the airdrop platform, while helping to achieve a win-win situation for both sides. The positioning of the airdrop platform is to provide users with a convenient airdrop participation experience, rather than just being a distribution platform.

In guiding new users to reduce the threshold of on-chain interaction, Binance wallet has made a lot of optimizations. The key points are reflected in the following aspects:

· Guidance experience: Provide user-friendly tutorials to guide them through each step.

· Airdrop management: Help users manage airdrop earnings through the Reward Center function, avoiding manual management and improving user experience.

· User lifecycle management: From project release to airdrop claiming, and then to earnings management, provide a one-stop solution, allowing users to operate as little as possible, and leaving the rest to the platform.

Through these optimizations, Binance wallet strives to simplify the user's participation process and enhance the user experience.

From the perspective of project parties, Binance wallet is not only an airdrop platform, but also a precise marketing platform. Project parties can ensure that airdrop tokens are distributed to the target user group through Binance wallet, which is also the direction of Binance wallet's future product iteration.

Q: How does Binance wallet define its own growth? What experiences and lessons has Binance wallet learned in its past development process?

He Yi: Binance wallet's growth definition is not only an extension of the wallet platform, but also an important entry point for the entire Web3 ecosystem. Binance wallet's goal is to become a convenient channel for users from fiat currency deposit, registration, KYC completion to on-chain operations. Its core idea is to simplify the operation process and provide a smooth cross-platform experience, so that users can smoothly complete on-chain operations or use the centralized exchange (CEX) for financial management.

Binance wallet positions itself as the entry point of Web3, helping users understand the hot topics in the crypto world and eliminating the boundaries between blockchain and traditional finance. Whether users choose to interact on-chain or invest on CEX, Binance wallet hopes to provide the most convenient solution to improve the user experience.

In the growth process of Binance wallet, the biggest experience and lessons are mainly concentrated in the following aspects:

· Insufficient professional talent reserve: In the past, Binance wallet's reserve in Web3 technology was not enough, mainly leaning towards the Web2 operating model. Although it could operate efficiently, there were still shortcomings in deeply understanding and applying Web3 technology. This is an important reflection point, and Binance hopes to attract more professional talents to drive the further development of the platform.

· Detours taken: Binance has faced challenges in both compliance and technology. For example, it has experienced difficulties and setbacks in the use of Compass, the compliance and license application process, especially in the solution of Web3 technology, there have been some mistakes. Through these experiences, Binance pays more attention to compliance and has made large-scale investments and adjustments.

· The process of transforming to Web3: Binance has gradually transitioned from a traditional Web2 platform to Web3, which is not an easy process. Although the company's operating model was very successful in the Web2 environment, the thinking and technology requirements of Web3 are different, and Binance has certain technical shortcomings in this regard. These detours have helped the team understand that to truly become an industry leader, it must break through in Web3 technology and thinking.

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