Interview with Han Lin, founder of Gate.io: The 12-year exploration path from a PhD in Science and Technology to crypto trading

Interview: Tong, PANews

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

In the cryptocurrency industry, founders with technical backgrounds often stand out with their deep professional background and a deep understanding of the industry. Just like OKX's founder Xu Mingxing and Binance's founder Zhao Changpeng, Gate.io's founder Han Lin is also a typical representative of this field. From academic research to crypto entrepreneurship, Han Lin not only wrote the early core code of Gate.io, but also led the exchange to grow from a niche platform to one of the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platforms. Recently, during the Hong Kong Consensus Conference, Han Lin accepted an exclusive interview with PANews, sharing his mental journey from behind the scenes to the front stage, as well as his profound insight into the future development of the industry.

Han Lin's entrepreneurial story began in 2013, when he obtained a postdoctoral business in optoelectronics in Canada and accidentally came into contact with Bitcoin, a new asset. With his technical background, he quickly understood the potential of Bitcoin. In actual purchases, he found that there was a lack of a secure and transparent trading platform in the market, so he resolutely decided to start Gate.io. From the initial code writing to today’s management and strategy development, Han Lin’s role has undergone a transformation from technology development to industry leaders. Although he admitted that he was not good at foreign exchanges, in order to promote the development of the industry, he has frequently appeared in various activities and interviews in recent years to share his insights with people inside and outside the industry.

In the interview, Han Lin reviewed the development history of Gate.io and revealed the latest progress of the platform in user growth, product innovation and global layout. He specifically mentioned that the number of users of Gate.io increased from 13 million at the beginning of last year to more than 20 million at the end of the year, with a growth rate of more than 50%. Behind this achievement is Gate.io's keen sense of new projects and continuous optimization of user experience. Whether it is the early Litecoin, Dogecoin, or the recent Memecoin and AI projects, Gate.io has always been at the forefront of industry dynamics and provides diversified assets.

Han Lin also shared his views on the future trends of the industry. He believes that the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable stage. Although it is difficult to see the extreme rise and fall of the past, the overall penetration rate of the industry continues to increase. He specifically mentioned that Bitcoin, as a deflationary asset, has its security and scarcity that makes it an ideal asset reserve tool. If more institutions and countries include Bitcoin in the reserve asset system, the growth potential of the market will be further released. In addition, Han Lin also emphasized the long-term trend of on-chain transactions and revealed that Gate.io began to deploy on-chain wallets and decentralized trading platforms (DEXs) as early as 2018 to cope with this trend.

When talking about industry competition, Han Lin said that Gate.io's core competitiveness lies in its deep understanding of user needs and continuous innovation. For example, "100% Reserve Certificate", Gate.io always puts user funds security and asset value first. In addition, Gate.io also enhances brand awareness and further expands its brand influence by sponsoring Inter Milan and F1 Red Bull teams.

The following is the content of the interview:

**From behind the scenes to front stage, from academic to

entrepreneurship**

PANews: In the past, you hardly accepted interviews, so why have you frequently appeared in various events and interviews in recent years? What is the job that spends the most energy at the moment?

Han Lin: Because I am mainly from a technical background, I am not particularly good at foreign exchanges. In the past two years, the industry has developed very rapidly, and I also hope to communicate and share my ideas with you more. So, in the past two years, I have participated in some activities more and discussed views with people inside and outside the industry.

PANews: I heard in the industry before that you don’t come forward to write code at home. Is this a rumor or a fact?

Han Lin: I wrote a lot of the codes for Gate.io in the early days, including basic development work such as websites and APIs. However, that was a long time ago. Gate.io has been in existence for 12 years. As the team continues to grow and the number of technical personnel increases, my focus has gradually shifted to the management and strategic levels. At present, I am mainly responsible for daily management, the formulation of industry development directions, and ensuring the quality of product and technology execution.

PANews: What work did you do before you founded Gate.io? Is this your first business?

Han Lin: This is my first time starting a business. Previously, I was engaged in the research of optoelectronics in the academic field. In 2007, I went to Canada to pursue my doctorate degree and started my entrepreneurial journey after graduation. Initially, I was engaged in optoelectronics software development, and later I came into contact with Bitcoin and virtual currencies and gradually entered this industry. In April 2013, Gate.io was officially launched.

PANews: How did you get involved in Bitcoin?

Han Lin: In 2012, when I was developing optoelectronics software, I encountered the problem of tight graphics card supply. Through investigation, I found that graphics cards are widely used in Bitcoin mining. So, I started to focus on Bitcoin, delve into its white paper, and realized it was a very innovative field. Due to my technical background, I was able to quickly understand the technology and potential of Bitcoin and was very interested.

When Bitcoin first emerged, there were not many trading platforms on the market. At that time, I bought 100 bitcoins on the forum, but that person gave me 1 BTC, and the remaining 99 BTC were not given to me. This made me realize that the industry needs a safer and more transparent trading platform. So, I decided to start Gate.io to provide users with more reliable transaction services.

Innovation and Growth: Gate.io 's core competitiveness

PANews: Gate.io has always been at the forefront of the industry in launching new projects. Recently, it has quickly launched many Meme, Ai projects, etc. Can you disclose the new users and revenue?

Han Lin: Discovering high-quality projects has always been the tradition of Gate.io. Since its establishment in 2013, many currencies have been launched, such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, etc. The platform's users grew very rapidly, from 13 million users at the beginning of last year to more than 20 million at the end of the year, with a growth rate of more than 50%. The income also increased significantly.

PANews: The MEME hot has caused many transaction users to migrate to the chain. Is the on-chain a long-term trend? What technical and strategic reserves has Gate.io made?

Han Lin: On-chain trading is undoubtedly a long-term trend. Compared with centralized exchanges, the advantage of on-chain is that users can manage their own assets independently and trade faster. Especially for experienced users, there are more opportunities to make money on-chain.

In the early days, the infrastructure on the chain was poor, the GAS was high, there were few suitable wallets, and the trading platform was not very good. However, the infrastructure on the chain was built very fast in the past two years, and the user experience of DEX gradually approached CEX, attracting more users to transfer to the chain.

I have tried trading on the chain myself. Gate.io began to deploy on-chain wallets and decentralized trading platforms (DEXs) as early as 2018, and the multi-currency wallets launched support the storage and transactions of various crypto assets. By 2020, DeFi Summer also actively developed a comprehensive platform, providing a variety of services including transactions, wallets and asset management.

At first, my idea was rather centralized, thinking that transactions were the main entrance, but later I found that in Web3, wallets were the main entrance. It is used to store assets on the wallet, and on this basis, it is used to do transactions, conversions, pledges and other functions in the wallet. So later I started to change my mind to make Web3 wallets.

We have been continuously developing the Gate Chain public chain. It began to be conceived in 2018 and launched GT tokens in 2019. At that time, many projects simply clone existing projects such as Ethereum or Cosmos to release new public chains, and we wanted to create a chain focused on asset security through innovation, so we invested a lot of energy. An important innovation of Gate Chain is that when assets are stolen, users have the opportunity to retrieve lost assets. We have designed a transfer lock-in function for the public chain, during which users can apply to revolve the stolen assets.

Later, as market interest gradually shifted to EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), we upgraded Gate Chain to make it EVM compatible. Afterwards, our focus will shift to how to further improve the performance of public chains to meet larger-scale needs and support more application scenarios.

PANews: Gate.io attaches great importance to user funds security. What is the starting point for launching the proof of secure fund reserves in 2020?

Han Lin: We are one of the earliest trading platforms to launch the "100% Reserve Certificate". At that time, many users had doubts about the security of the exchange's funds and were worried that the exchange would misappropriate the user's assets. In order to dispel user doubts, we borrowed the Merkle tree algorithm in the Bitcoin blockchain and publicly proved through technical means that the user assets held by the platform are exactly matched.

Initially, this technology was not supported by zero-knowledge proof, so we invited independent audit companies in the United States to verify it. Although we call on other platforms to join the action, it was not until after the FTX incident in 2022 that more platforms began to pay attention to proof of fund reserves.

PANews: Which products on Gate.io are the most popular among users?

Han Lin: In addition to wallets, spot/contract transactions and financial management products, social functions are also part of users’ favorites, such as live broadcasts, dynamics and chat rooms, etc. Users can communicate and interact with other users on the platform. For most users, asset trading and financial products are still the most commonly used functions.

Global layout and regulatory challenges

PANews: In what regions are currently mainly distributed in Gate.io’s users?

Han Lin: Gate.io is a global platform that has been serving global users since its establishment in 2013. In the early days, because I was mainly overseas, a large number of users were also overseas users. Later, the number of users in the Chinese-speaking area gradually increased. In the past two years, we began to comprehensively promote globalization and provide multilingual services. In addition, related companies under our group have applied for licenses and made compliance layouts in many countries and regions around the world, including Asia, America, Europe, the Middle East and other regions. At the end of last year, our group acquired a Japanese licensed company (Coin Master Co., Ltd.) and plans to launch a local compliant trading platform this year in accordance with local regulatory requirements.

PANews: What do you think of Hong Kong’s policies?

Han Lin: Hong Kong is very supportive of Web3 as a whole. The Hong Kong government is very active in policy, and the communication with Hong Kong lawmakers also shows that they hope that more Web3 companies will settle in Hong Kong. However, from the perspective of asset trading, Hong Kong's policies are relatively conservative, and the trading categories of existing licensed exchanges are limited, which may make some users feel that there are not enough choices. Our group applied for a custodial license (TCSP) two or three years ago, and we will be very interested in Hong Kong's OTC license in the future.

PANews: Looking back on the development history of Gate.io, what are the unforgettable moments?

Han Lin: Gate.io has experienced many challenges in its development history in the past 12 years, and has also witnessed the rapid growth of the industry.

• Early infrastructure was seriously insufficient , such as commercial-grade wallet systems not yet popularized, and exchanges had to develop related technologies on their own. At this stage, security incidents occur frequently, hacker attacks and asset loss occur frequently.
• On the other hand, there are changes in regulation . In the early days, regulators were waiting or not paying attention to the industry. Later, with the development of the industry, supervision began to become stricter, and some countries and regions adopted a blockade of virtual currencies. In recent years, more and more countries have begun to require licenses or related registrations to promote the standardized development of the industry. These changes have given us hope for the industry to develop in a healthy direction.

PANews: What is your killer weapon in the face of increasingly fierce competition on exchanges?

Han Lin: Gate.io previously focused on infrastructure and products, focusing on user needs, and providing the functions and assets that users need. However, as market competition intensifies, insufficient brand awareness has become one of the factors that restrict new users' growth. To this end, Gate.io has begun to increase its brand promotion since last year because although Gate.io implemented the "100% Reserve Certificate" as early as 2020, many people have not yet realized its importance. In order to enhance brand influence, Gate.io further expanded its brand awareness by sponsoring Inter Milan, F1 Red Bull Team, etc.

In addition, Gate.io has also carried out large-scale optimizations in terms of product experience . In the early stages, the focus of the platform was on the improvement of functions and assets. Now, with the gradual completion of functions, users are more concerned about whether the user experience is smooth. Based on this, the platform has invested a lot of resources to optimize the user experience and strived to create a smooth and efficient trading environment.

PANews: Regarding mergers and acquisitions and shareholder introductions, does Gate.io have any relevant plans?

Han Lin: The main purpose of mergers and acquisitions is for strategic considerations, such as obtaining licenses. Although Gate Group started early in license layout, due to the long license application cycle (usually 1 to 4 years), it is also a good choice for licensed entities through mergers and acquisitions or investments.

As for the introduction of strategic shareholders, although this is an important means for many companies in the early stages of development, Gate.io does not have this requirement at the current stage, and the current equity structure remains independent.

Industry cycle and future trends

PANews: The industry has had a "four-year cycle" rule in the past, but this round seems to be different. Has the four-year cycle theory failed?

Han Lin: I don’t think there is a so-called fixed cycle . There was indeed a four-year cycle in the early days, but that was mainly because virtual currencies, especially Bitcoin, were still a very niche asset class at that time. At that time, market volatility was mainly affected by internal events, such as Bitcoin halving. Half was a major event in the industry at that time, which attracted a lot of attention and caused market fluctuations, so people felt that there was a fixed cycle pattern.

But now the situation is completely different. Bitcoin’s market value is now close to US$2 trillion, and the total market value of the entire crypto market is also close to US$4 trillion. It is already a very large asset class, even exceeding the market value of most leading listed companies. Bitcoin's market value is already higher than silver, but smaller than gold. This size closely connects the crypto market with global economic activities. For example, the rise and fall seen every day are highly correlated with the trend of US stocks, which has a great impact on the crypto market. Therefore, it is difficult to measure market volatility with a fixed four-year cycle now.

I think market fluctuations depend more on two factors:

The first is the environment outside the circle , that is, the global macroeconomic situation. For example, the performance of US stocks and the fluctuations of the global economy will have a direct impact on the crypto market.

The second is innovation within the circle , that is, whether new concepts or technologies emerge within the industry. In the past, we have seen that the rise of Ethereum in 2017 brought about an ICO boom, attracting a large number of new projects and funds to enter the market;

• The explosion of DeFi in 2020 has set off another wave;
• Later, new concepts such as NFT and GameFi also promoted market growth;
• In recent years, new concepts such as Meme Coin and BRC-20 have also sparked heated discussions and participation in the market.

PANews: There seems to be no particularly new concepts emerging in the past two years. People may be more optimistic about AI next. What do you think?

Han Lin: Although there has not seen significant innovation breakthroughs in the blockchain industry in the past two years, the development of the industry has not stagnated.

• Infrastructure maturity: In the early stages, infrastructure such as wallets and trading platforms are not yet perfect, for example, users need to download an official wallet to operate. Now, multi-currency wallets are very mature, greatly improving the user experience.
• The evolution of the DeFi platform: The DeFi platform has evolved from the initial single function (such as Swap transactions) to a comprehensive platform with rich features. For example, the launch of Ethereum L2 network not only reduces transaction costs, but also improves network performance and alleviates network congestion problems. Emerging public chains like Solana drive further optimization of infrastructure with higher performance and lower costs.
• Cryptocurrencies have enhanced their ability to "extravagize the circle": Today, Bitcoin has become an important asset class, and its global penetration rate has continued to increase. For example, in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and other regions, the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies has exceeded 20%, and the global average penetration rate has also reached 10%.
• The driving role of Meme coins : The emergence of Meme coins has lowered the entry threshold for the industry and attracted a large number of outsiders. Compared with the early stages where a large amount of user education was required, the threshold for public understanding of cryptocurrencies has been significantly lowered, which has also promoted the further popularization and development of the industry.
• Future optimization direction: In response to high-frequency trading needs, Gas fees are still a key area that requires continuous optimization, and the industry still has great potential in reducing costs and improving efficiency.

PANews: How do you view the next market trend? Is the bull market still there?

Han Lin: From the current perspective, the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable stage. Although it is difficult to see the extreme rise and fall of the past, the overall penetration rate of the industry continues to increase. For example, some U.S. states have begun legislation to use Bitcoin as an asset reserve, a move that may trigger imitation from other countries and regions.

As a deflationary asset, Bitcoin’s security and scarcity make it an ideal asset reserve tool. If more institutions and countries include Bitcoin in the reserve asset system, the growth potential of the market will be further released.

The innovation capabilities and capital flow efficiency of the blockchain industry have always been at a high level, which has led to the emergence of new projects and tracks. In addition to Meme currency, many emerging tracks and concepts are also developing rapidly. Gate Ventures continues to focus on these changes and actively explores projects with potential.

PANews: With the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, will the expected effect be affected by the inability to directly enter the crypto market?

Han Lin: Although there is a certain isolation between traditional assets and virtual assets, the liquidation mechanism between the two has been greatly simplified. For example, through ETFs, traditional financial users can indirectly invest in virtual assets, and the asset allocation behind the ETFs still needs to flow to Bitcoin or other crypto assets. In the long run, these funds will eventually be transmitted to the crypto market.

In addition, there are more and more channels for ordinary users to enter the crypto market, such as credit card purchases, bank transfers, etc. These convenient measures have lowered the threshold for traditional financial users to enter the crypto market and brought more funding possibilities to the industry. The launch of ETFs undoubtedly has positive significance for the development of the industry.

PANews: What suggestions do you have for users in the encryption field?

Han Lin:

• For users outside the circle, it is recommended that you understand the blockchain industry first. Even if you do not directly invest in crypto assets, you can deepen your understanding of the industry by participating in blockchain-related work or projects. Blockchain is a field full of opportunities, and the sooner it participates, the better it has.
• For users in the circle, especially those of Gate.io, it is recommended to maintain rational investment and pay attention to risk control. We will launch some new assets soon, which may be a good choice for senior users. However, novices should adopt more conservative strategies to avoid blindly following the trend.