Recent news of Queen’s honours list and knighthood, made us research on the whole idea and topic of being knighted. Lo and behold, we chanced upon Modern Day Knighthood “Order of Arts and Technologies” by Crypto Chain University (CCU), the world’s first repository for blockchain and crypto research papers. It is such a brilliant idea, we just had to reach out to the brains behind it all, Herbert Sim.
Thank you for agreeing to this interview. For the benefit of our readers, please introduce yourself.
I’m Herbert Sim, I founded Crypto Chain University last year along with a modern day knighthood order “Ordre des Arts et des Technologies”; when translated from French to English, means “Order of Arts and Technologies.” Its purpose is the recognition of significant contributions to the technological arts, or the propagation of these fields.
And earlier this year in February, I also founded Asia’s high fashion and luxury online magazine, WardrobeTrendsFashion.
I understand that there is a collaboration between Crypto Chain University and online gambling news media FortuneZ. Please tell us more about that.
It is certainly a big win for CCU to have the support of the almost a decade old (since year 2000) iGaming news media publication FortuneZ backing the research institute.
At this very point of time, the concept and idea of a digital currency Bitcoin and blockchain technology is completely new to many. And with a prestigious publication from a more general and different industry get the masses exposed to understanding the subject of cryptocurrency and blockchain better.
Tell us more about how you entered the industry of blockchain and Bitcoin.
To start off, it would be better to explain Bitcoin first. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency (digital currency) created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. The research – whitepaper was published in 2008. Bitcoin underlying technology is called blockchain, which is about decentralization.
It was during sometime in 2009, during my bachelor degree studies at Oklahoma City University, USA, that I first came across ‘The Cypherpunk Manifesto’ written by Eric Hughes in 1993, and ‘The Cyphernomicon’ written by Timothy C. May in 1994. I was sold by the Cypherpunk vision of championing privacy, to push the technological development of encryption and cryptography.
It was only in 2010 that because of the fascination of this activism that I researched further and chanced on Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper, and realized that the technology is real, and the magnitude of the use cases behind blockchain.
I was still an undergraduate then, and founded CCU to compile research papers in blockchain and cryptocurrency, privacy and cryptography, and more… I made it available, free-resource for all, simply to propagate and make this knowledge free-for-all who is keen to find out more about this industry.
What are your plans for Crypto Chain University in the next 5-years?
At this point, CCU is a non-profit research-only institute. However, I envision it to eventually transform into an educational hub in future, with curriculum, courses, and certification.
That said, it would take time for this industry to mature and grow, for more people to enter this industry. And for this to happen, a lot of financial liquidity needs to pour into this industry and invest into education, marketing and publicity first.
Meanwhile, for CCU we strive to bring value add in terms of compiling all the research papers put together by industry experts, academic gurus and professors, all in one freely accessible platform.
I believe it is a matter of time before Bitcoin be known and be used across the world for every single transaction, just like how credit card was introduced to somewhat replace fiat money dollars.