The most anticipated event of this Binance Blockchain Week has finally arrived. Binance founder CZ, who just finished 4 months of prison life, appeared on the main stage and talked about his prison life, Binance, educational projects, and AI. This is CZ's first appearance after being released from prison.
After a $4.3 billion fine and 4 months of imprisonment in the US, CZ, who paid a huge price for his freedom, looks rather chill, with his arm lines more pronounced than before. About a year later, we can hear CZ's voice again on the path of Bitcoin's historic high of $70,000 this year, which is also a very good last day of Uptober.
The following is the full text of the speech:
Austin: I'm Austin from Altcoin Daily, CZ, this is your first interview after being released, how was your experience in prison, it must not have been good?
CZ: It was not as interesting as now, the whole experience was very limited, freedom was deprived, and there was nothing to do, but it also gave me a lot of time to reflect. I learned some important lessons, such as, when everything is taken away, what do you miss the most? For me, what I missed the most was the connection between people. I missed my children, family, friends, colleagues, and the community. I also missed other things, but not as much as the longing for people. You will miss food, a comfortable bed, but these things didn't affect me much, this experience made me refocus on the priorities in life.
Austin: Do you think this was a fair sentence?
CZ: This is a very subjective question, and different people will have different views. There was a plea agreement, and I agreed to some of the terms of the agreement, and I'm not going to make any negative comments about it, I accept the result.
As for the sentencing, I was given four months in prison. The judge's job is very difficult, and different perspectives will have different views. Some people may think it's too light, and some may think it's too heavy. For the crime I committed - violating the Bank Secrecy Act - no one in US history has been sentenced to prison for a single violation, and I am the first.
Just a few weeks ago, a bank was fined $1.8 billion for a similar issue, but no one was prosecuted. Whether it's fair or not is no longer that important to me, the judge also said a lot of good things about me in court. Although I was sentenced, my sentence is actually very short compared to others. Most people in prison have sentences of five, ten, or even longer. So from this perspective, I'm lucky, the sentence is over, and I'm looking forward.
Austin: Did you make friends in there?
CZ: Yes, you have to make friends, or it might be very difficult to live. There were a few guards who recognized me and asked me what coins they should buy. I can only say that I had no network in there and no information about cryptocurrencies.
I made a few friends, and we still keep in touch. Honestly, there are a lot of good people in prison, many of whom have been sentenced to very long sentences for very minor things. The cellmates I met were mostly very friendly, although some guards were a bit cold, but I didn't suffer any physical harm. From this perspective, I was very lucky.
Before going to prison, a prison consultant (this is an industry) gave me a lot of advice. They warned me not to keep too much money in my account, only $50. But when I got there, I found that other people's accounts had $200, so I became the "poor man". Overall, I didn't encounter any problems, and I made some friends, and I'm now trying my best to help them get their sentences reduced through legal channels.
Additionally, I had a friend in prison named Michael, who was imprisoned for a marijuana possession case 40 years ago and had been there for 27 years, but marijuana is now legal. He even got a college degree and read six books during his time in prison. There are indeed some very talented people there, but it's difficult to achieve these things in such a harsh environment. Every time I could use the computer for 15 minutes, I would be automatically logged out after 15 minutes, and the computer couldn't be pasted, only manually entered. So in that situation, if you wanted to adjust the position of a piece of text, you could only rewrite it. And in Michael's time, they didn't even have computers. So, although the conditions were harsh, many people still made efforts to learn, read, and get degrees, there are a lot of good people there.
Relationship with Binance and Outlook on Industry Trends
Austin: What is your current relationship with Binance?
CZ: I have stepped down from the CEO position and am no longer involved in the company's daily operations. My shareholder rights have not been affected, so I am still a major shareholder of Binance. I can still request some information, but I cannot make decisions or give instructions. Overall, the relationship is still quite good, and now there is a group of other people working hard, and I have been "forcibly retired". The first month was a bit difficult, emotionally it was hard to let go, because I had invested a lot of my heart and soul into this company for seven years.
But I've always believed that a CEO's tenure should not exceed ten years, as the world is constantly changing. Now with AI, I didn't spend much time understanding it before, and I didn't have time to delve into the details of DeFi and other areas. So looking back now, being forced to step down also has many benefits. If I had resigned on my own, people might think I couldn't handle it, but now that I've been forced to, no one is complaining.
Furthermore, I now have more time, and I feel very fortunate. Although my reputation has changed somewhat, I still value the achievements I've made, which shows that there was no fraud and no user funds were lost. So in some ways, my reputation is still quite solid. Additionally, I'm not that young anymore, but not too old either, and I still have the energy to do more. To have this freedom and resources to do what I want to do is truly a blessing.
Austin: I heard you are permanently banned from managing any cryptocurrency exchanges, is this true? Will you continue to invest in crypto projects?
CZ: Of course, first of all, according to my understanding, the words "lifetime" and "ban" did not appear in the agreement between me and the government. The agreement is that I step down as CEO, without any time limit. However, the agreement can be updated, and the government can also change. But I have no plans to return as CEO, I think the team is doing a great job and doesn't need me to go back, even if I had the chance, I wouldn't want to go back. I think the "lifetime ban" statement is just media exaggeration, the actual agreement is public.
As for the second question, of course I will continue to invest in crypto projects. Now I'm mainly doing two things: one is Giggle Academy, and the other is investing. Investments are mainly focused on the three areas of Block, AI, and biotech. I no longer want to personally lead projects, but rather help other entrepreneurs develop their companies by providing funding, advice, resources, and support. I have some very important mentors, and I also hope to become a mentor to others.
Austin: Regarding the prospects of cryptocurrencies in 2025, are you still optimistic about the next year?
CZ: I will try not to give any financial advice, but history does not represent the future, I cannot predict the future, but I can analyze history. From a historical perspective, Bitcoin has had very clear four-year cycles. 2013 was a bull market, 2017 was a bull market, and 2012 was actually a recovery year, which many people didn't trace back that far. 2016 was a recovery year, and 2017 saw a surge. 2020 was a recovery year, and 2021 was a bull market. This year has returned to the vicinity of the previous highs.
So based on the current analysis, 2024 will be a recovery year, and as for what will happen next year, I'm not sure, but in the long run, I'm still very optimistic about the entire industry. I think there is still a lot to be built, and as more people use cryptocurrencies, their utility value will also increase. In the long run, I remain very optimistic.
Austin: What aspects of cryptocurrencies are you most optimistic about? DeFi or meme coins?
CZ: I don't intend to be specific to any particular field, because it is very difficult to predict which one will become the next hotspot. For example, at the beginning of 2017, I might not have been able to predict that ICO would become a hot topic, but by June the trend was very clear, so it depends on which projects explode in certain niche areas. This morning I met with some entrepreneurs who are combining AI and blockchain, and they have come up with some very interesting ideas. If one of these projects explodes, then that field will grow. It's hard to predict, but I will continue to support other builders in the industry and see what happens.
Views on Regulation
Austin: Regarding legislation, how do you see the future regulatory direction of cryptocurrencies?
CZ: The current legislation is gradually improving, and in some countries, such as here, the progress is very fast. In some major countries, due to the large number of departments and personnel, the progress will be slower. But overall, the trend is positive. I'll give you an example, in mid-April this year, Elizabeth Warren announced that she would crack down on cryptocurrencies, just a week before my sentencing. But by June, Trump publicly supported cryptocurrencies, and by the end of June both parties supported cryptocurrencies, while I was still in prison. So this also shows that when people need cryptocurrencies, the government will also respond. Therefore, I think the overall direction is positive.
Austin: I live in the US, and from my perspective, cryptocurrencies have already become an important election issue. Do you think Harris or Trump is more friendly to cryptocurrencies?
CZ: Oh, I have no opinion at all. I won't comment on any election issues, because I've had enough dealings with US law. I know the US has election interference laws, and anything I say in public could be taken out of context, so I don't intend to touch this topic, I even want to stay away from this "line", I just want to keep my distance. I think it's good that both parties support cryptocurrencies.
Austin: Okay, still from the US perspective, which policy or legislation do you think is most important?
CZ: I think the most fundamental point is the classification of cryptocurrencies. There is a lot of controversy now, for example in most other countries, they see cryptocurrencies as currency, Japan has already recognized Bitcoin as a currency, and many other countries also see Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. Of course, there are different types of cryptocurrencies, it depends on the specific coin. But in the US, this is indeed a big point of contention, and I don't want to comment too much.
About Giggle Academy
Austin: Assuming a year from today, we meet on the Binance Blockchain Week stage in 2025, not necessarily about the price, but where do you think Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies will be?
CZ: Predicting events a year from now is indeed very difficult, but I think history may repeat itself, and our future will be in a relatively good position.
Austin: I really like this prediction, CZ, what are your plans next?
CZ: I now devote at least half of my time to the Giggle Academy project, I think this project is very interesting and very impactful, although it will not be a highly profitable project.
Austin: Can you explain to someone unfamiliar what Giggle Academy is?
CZ: It is a digital education platform specifically designed to serve those who lack educational opportunities. Currently, there are about 700 million to 800 million illiterate adults globally, of which two-thirds are women. Additionally, according to various reports, there are about 300 to 500 million children who do not have the opportunity to go to school. In other words, there are about 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion people globally who lack educational opportunities, mainly concentrated in extremely poor regions.
Many educational apps and projects are carried out in areas with abundant educational resources, and are more of a supplement to the existing education system. But I believe that now we have sufficient technological capabilities, combined with game developers, graphic designers, teachers and AI, to create apps or tools to serve those in need of education, without relying on teachers.
In those areas, the cost of teachers is high, and there is a shortage of teachers. If we want to send teachers there, it will take a long time. But now we can provide education in a digital and highly interactive way through an app, mainly on the Android platform, because Android devices are cheaper in these regions.
If we can help 100 million people get an education, I think that would be very meaningful to me, and I don't care if there is no economic return, and I don't think it requires too much funding.
Today, out of the global population of 8 billion, about 1 billion are studying in schools every day, with an average class size of 30 or 50 students, and a total of about 20 million teachers globally. But think about it, how many different ways are there to teach first-grade English? We repeat similar teaching processes millions of times a day, if we can turn these contents into apps, and add AI support to allow interactive Q&A, although the initial investment may be high, maybe several million dollars, but once the AI engine is completed, the cost of each course may be around 1 million dollars. 12 grades, 12 courses, 30 subjects, a total of about 300 million dollars. Even with a large buffer, it would be about 1 billion dollars. I think we can create content to meet all of today's educational needs, covering 500 languages.
The US government spends 100 billion dollars a year on education, and we only need less than 2% of that funding to provide education for those children who lack educational opportunities, and we can even do better than traditional face-to-face teaching. In a 30-person classroom, the teaching pace is limited by the slowest student; but through a platform, we can dynamically adjust the course content to allow students to progress quickly in their strengths. After accumulating a large amount of data, we can also help students find jobs quickly. For example, an 8-year-old child can do labeling work, which is also a good source of income.
My nephew has been managing a flight simulation community with 14,000 players since he was 12 years old, 16-year-olds can do customer support work, such as answering common questions, and 15-16-year-olds can be game testers or coders. So I want to get children into the workplace earlier, not just getting a college or high school diploma.
We can help employers find the right talent. For example, this child is in the top 10% in math and has completed many projects; other children have high emotional intelligence and have volunteered to tutor younger children through the platform, etc. This way we can help children find jobs early, and in turn help their families, siblings, and other family members get more educational opportunities.
Of course, digital online education lacks interpersonal interaction, but it also has its advantages. My idea is to have older children tutor and interact with younger children to make up for the lack of interpersonal interaction. For example, in physical education, online teaching is difficult to achieve, but the platform can organize 15-year-olds to lead 7-year-olds in activities, and the 15-year-olds can earn points or credits for this. When employers come to recruit, these children will naturally be prioritized.
We can design many different interactive ways on the platform, but what we currently need to solve most is to enable AI to stably generate consistent video content. This task seems simple, but it is a difficult problem for AI. Currently, teachers can quickly create content, such as PPT, but this content is usually designed for the teachers' own teaching.
However, in an environment without teachers, we need the platform or app to deliver this content on its own. In this case, to attract the attention of children, we need very interactive videos, animations and cute elements, which teachers usually cannot provide, and this is where AI can play a role. Now, no AI model can generate the ideal content. I have discussed with many top AI experts, and we are working hard to solve this problem. But this problem should be solved within the next few months to a few years. Once we break through this difficulty, we can deliver content in a digital way, hoping to benefit hundreds of millions or even billions of children and people around the world, and provide them with free education.
Austin: In the future, will some parts of Giggle Academy be integrated into Web3 or blockchain? I'm sure everyone here wants to know if there will be any airdrop activities to participate in.
CZ: Not in the short term, I don't want to get involved in issuing new tokens again. So we may support existing tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, etc.
We will build a reward mechanism to keep the system running well, but we may not need to issue our own tokens. For example, if I want to hire customer support or community forum moderators, I can sponsor some BNB to pay the kids, and so on.
Additionally, I discovered another interesting thing today, which is that AI companies are actually paying a lot of money to acquire data generated by people on the platform. If we get the kids and parents to agree to provide their data to AI companies for training, the data generated by the kids in the process of learning pronunciation, learning math, etc. can be used to train AI, and the parents may receive a reward of $10 to $100. For our target users, this is a considerable amount. This way we can realize a direct payment model of "learning is earning" without the need for tokens. AI companies will become sponsors of the platform, so we don't necessarily need to issue tokens to realize this model.
Of course, in the long run, I hope to gradually integrate the Web3 economic model into the platform. This is a platform that accompanies children from learning to speak to employment. Even when they are 70 or 80 years old, they can continue to learn. By then, when they find a job, we can propose (not force) that they consider donating a certain percentage of their income to the platform in the next one to three years. Even if only a small portion of people are willing to do so, I think we can build a sustainable platform in the long run. But this is a very long-term plan, which may take about ten years. But that's fine, I have plenty of time.
