Lin Zheming of Mempool talks China, Bitcoin SV at CoinGeek Toronto 2019

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Lin Zheming understands all too well the old adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” He is the co-founder and CEO of the China-based Mempool cryptocurrency mining pool and the lack of access to the global crypto space, because of the country’s strict policies, makes it difficult for the company to advance. Difficult, but not impossible. Zheming took the stage during the CoinGeek Toronto 2019 conference, explaining what’s going on in China with crypto and where Mempool is headed.

Zheming started his presentation by laying the foundation for what’s at stake. Across China, there are 1.16 billion 4G subscribers. The average monthly cost of service is around $12.90 for unlimited data; $18.70 for a family of five. This provides a substantial base of possible crypto adopters in a targeted and dedicated environment.

The number one messaging app in the country, WeChat, now has 1.11 billion subscribers—more than the combined populations of the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Despite the restrictive nature of the government, the community has figured out ways to keep in touch with what’s going on with Bitcoin SV (BSV) and has several groups, including bitsv.club, hiblockchain.io, 1bsv.cn and more.

By staying abreast with what has transpired in the Bitcoin space elsewhere, Chinese nationals have wanted to have access to applications such as crypto wallets, trading, etc., as well. However, the country doesn’t allow access to Google and other platforms, meaning it’s virtually impossible to maintain any of these services. This is where invention plays a role.

WeChat users are able to interact with crypto without needing wallets. They can send digital currency without having a crypto address through the use of special addresses in WeChat that use vouchers to allow users to send and receive coins. (10:05)

Mempool, which mined the first crypto block to surpass the 100MB threshold when it mined a BSV block this past January, is also developing the Bitcoin Red Packet for crypto fans in China. It allows users to send small amounts of digital currency as a gift, and users can also receive random deposits based on their “karma,” their status on the platform. It now has 10,000 users and has processed over 48,000 transactions. Through this system, Mempool is helping to further onboarding efforts for BSV throughout the country.

The voucher system is not just for peer-to-peer transactions; it has other uses, as well. They can be used by merchants as a form of payment for small transactions through crypto without the need of a wallet. The program is still being developed, with more features to be released in the near future.

Going forward, Mempool is working on other products that can be infused into the BSV ecosystem. Merchant services for BSV will be possible on-chain, it is incorporating the Tokenized project and expects its service to eventually be compatible with other platforms, such as WhatsApp, Line, Telegram and more. (19:01)