On July27th (GMT+8), InnoKOL had a fascinating conversation with Mr. Jamil Hasan, the Managing Principal at Crypto Hipster Publications LLC, talking about his two-decade Wall Street work experience and the profound insights on the crypto revolution.
Jokia: How would you describe yourself in three words? What’s your motto?
Jamil:
Resilient, Open-minded, has to be “Super dad”
My motto, and I’m assuming career wise, is “A Voice for the Voiceless”, as a podcast host and author.
Jokia: Can you please share more about your educational and professional background? And we’d love to hear what brought you to crypto revolution.
Jamil:
I spent two decades in corporate, and I worked at AIG for 12 of those years. My focus was first on building the investments business. Then, it shifted to repaying the $180 billion bailout.
I also helped the company comply with Dodd Frank, where I saw all sorts of personal impacts all around me from this legislation. After we paid it all back, after 10 quarterly rounds of surviving layoffs I was let go in June 2017.
Then, I discovered this new database. Called Bitcoin. And I said “Hey, cool!! Database!” So, I entered. I had no idea I was walking into a generational war between millennials and boomers. Or a banking war. But I was in the middle of it. So, I decided to stay because it was more fun than a boring job. And it’s been quite the ride.
Jokia: Some of the figures in your resume are particularly prominent. You and your team built the AUM reporting data department at AIG Investments, thereby helping to grow the business 3X over three years to $300 billion during the two-decade corporate career on Wall Street. How did you make that happen?
Jamil:
Before I started at AIG, I worked at Prudential building their AUM depart for three years. I took a break and backpacked across Asia before AIG, including China. When I came back no one would hire me for months, except AIG liked my travel experience. So, I got the job building their AUM, and they liked how I did it. So, I had the rare opportunity to have different roles across Investments, life and P&C insurance. Doing operations, tech, finance and projects. Furthermore, I had Data skills coming in.
Jokia: How do you look back on 2019 financially? What would you say were the most important highlights and low points?
Jamil:
I have to speak both personally and professionally. I ended 2018, after Crypto Winter, with two heart attacks. So, I started 2019 trading crypto to recover from them, when Crypto was recovering too. Then August hit and crypto slowed. But I was better by then.
In August, countries started devaluing currencies such as Thailand, Germany, Korea, etc. So, the economies slowed. Then, in December, Covid came. It was here then because I was back in the Cath lab in January.
In March 2020 the Fed printed money and handed most of it to the c-suite. And everyone else got poorer. That was mostly due to the trade war between US and China that started in 2015, which was the start of today’s recessions. Then I recovered from my heart attacks and started my Gen X book.
Jokia: Didi’s fine would be the largest regulatory penalty imposed on a Chinese tech company since e-commerce titan Alibaba Group and delivery giant Meituan were fined $2.75 billion and $527 million respectively last year by China’s antitrust regulator. What’s your opinion towards internet service providers (ISPs) collect and share far more data about their customers than many consumers may expect?
Jamil:
I hosted a podcast with Bitcoin legend Charlie Shrem in December and we discussed Reducing the Trust Deficit. It doesn’t just apply to banks, which is actually one of the reasons I do podcasting.
The lack of trust in central authorities because they take our data for their benefit. Theoretically Web 3 solves this. I don’t use Facebook nearly as often as I did in 2007-8. For Facebook, the metaverse won’t work for them either, as their audience is mostly my generation. We don’t trust anyone, because we’ve been passed over in the corporate and government structure. We have retreated into family life, and are very skeptical as a community, and community is the new basis for everything.
Jokia: The US Speaker of the House said DeFi is reinventing global finance faster than the fed can print money. From your perspective, what’s unique and game-changing about DeFi compared to CeFi?
Jamil:
Best investors in the world right there. If my wife and I invested like the Speaker and her husband did. Anyway, If my money had been in DeFi instead, I’d have my money today. Not impacted by bankruptcy is kind of a big deal. Also, I’m working on my next book now, which is on Ukraine and how they have been building a smartphone-based economy.
Jokia: What are the challenges for the mass adoption of NFTs?
Jamil:
1. Overcoming medias narratives against it
2. People should buy NFTs without knowing they are buying NFTs. Should be seamless
3. NFTs are digital receipts that prove ownership of something. Not just JPEGs. Need more education.
Jokia: You have written five books, including three books focused on Blockchain Ethics, and one manifesto for your generational cohort entitled ‘Re-Generation X’. Could you share 2-3 typical cases mentioned in your books?
Jamil:
My 2017 book is from my knowledge the only book that captures the 2017 ICO craze. Gen X is how we can use blockchain to overcome the financial ills caused by Dodd Frank. Arise from the Ashes tells stories of early NFT pioneers. And Fighting Honorable Battles disputes the medias disinformation about Bitcoin. They’re all great reads if you are interested in navigating the medias narratives against crypto. Analyzing FUD and defeating it should be everyone’s top priority when it comes to crypto investing.
Jokia: We already know that blockchain has the capability to offer a decentralized ledger system and many are already adopting the tech. On the other hand, AI and IoT also started to streamlining processes for our benefit. Do you think blockchain based AI and IoT will be the next technological milestone?
Jamil:
So, in my Re-Gen X book, I took the entirety of the India smart city project and analyzed it within the framework of the United Nations’ sustainability goals. And looked at where blockchain could be beneficial. In the area of industrial manufacturing and smart city transportation. Everything could be made more efficient, not just payments, but utility tokens through a lot. So, we are super early,
Jokia: It seems that tech giants are pragmatic, while SMEs are still theoretical during the metaverse revolution. What are the opportunities and challenges facing the metaverse development from your point of view?
Jamil:
Well, the actual challenges are with security, identity, community building and hardware innovations. Now, regarding pragmatism and theory, most metaverse influencers have never built tech. They’re influencers and they see metaverse as a buzz word. But the actual build is a long-tailed build, like space tech or deep tech. You need project management experience and building experience.
Regarding the opportunities, I think corporates are waiting. The cost of R&D is high, and They can’t afford mistakes. But they can buy companies that built a working product, so from an investment perspective it’s better to wait right now. Capital budgeting is still important, I think.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Mr. Jamil Hasan is the Managing Principal at Crypto Hipster Publications LLC.
Before U.S. Boomers walked through the doors of Corporate America in the middle of the 2010 decade falsely claiming that “Data is New!” and simply being handed C-suite level jobs, Jamil Hasan was a database pioneer on Wall Street at Fortune leading companies such as Ingersoll Rand, Prudential Financial, and American International Group, Inc. (AIG) for nearly two decades.
Since discovering the digital asset economy, Jamil has been an ICO Advisor, a Founder, an entrepreneur, and an author. He has written five books, including three books focused on Blockchain Ethics (a phrase he coined), and one manifesto for his generational cohort entitled ‘Re-Generation X’.
From March 2021 through June 2022, Jamil embarked on a professional journey of discovery, becoming an elite crypto podcaster with 182 episodes, interviewing guests from 50 countries and building an audience in over 160 countries. His topics included crypto regulations and security, Bitcoin, NFTs, metaverse, Web 3.0, DeFi, and the future of digital assets under management.
ABOUT THE HOST:
Ms. Jokia Yin is the Founder of Innoverview and InnoKOL, the Vice Chairman of HK International Blockchain Finance Association as well as the Head of Media at United States of America-China Chamber of Commerce. Jokia has over 10 years of marketing and management experience, much of which has been in the Asia Pacific Region within events and PR industry. She has held key leadership roles executing market research and entry, developing sales channels and revenue generation, building marketing, finance and Operations related infrastructure for a more than 20 events related to retail, tourism, energy storage, blockchain, cosmetics domains.
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