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Charles Hwang (MS, Accounting, '15), adjunct professor of information systems discusses his latest crypto-assets research as well as the 2020 Bitcoin halving.

Transcript Automatically Generated by YouTube:

0:09 - hello I'm Fenwick Haas William quaker

0:12 - Dean at the Dyckman School of Business

0:13 - and it's my pleasure to welcome you

0:15 - today to the spotlight today we're

0:18 - pleased to have with us Charles Wong who

0:20 - has an MS and accountancy in 2015 from

0:23 - the sickling school and he's an also an

0:25 - adjunct professor teaching a very

0:27 - popular course in Bitcoin and

0:29 - cryptocurrency and his day job he's the

0:32 - managing member at Lightning Capital

0:33 - Management Group and he recently wrote

0:35 - an article entitled the Bitcoin squeeze

0:38 - Charles welcome thank you for having me

0:41 - Dean house it's our pleasure tell us a

0:43 - little bit about your background and how

0:44 - you got interested in Bitcoin and

0:46 - cryptocurrency ultimately one day I

0:49 - decided I wanted to learn more about

0:50 - accounting and decided to go to Baruch

0:53 - and get my accounting degree at the same

0:55 - time I got my CPA and CFA during this

0:58 - time and really what I became fascinated

1:00 - about accounting was I wanted to

1:02 - understand financial statements and I

1:04 - wanted to understand how it works and

1:06 - how to analyze it properly and also most

1:09 - importantly how to understand the

1:11 - financial footnotes so I used that

1:14 - knowledge to really delve deeper into

1:16 - understanding different companies and

1:19 - understanding which ones are undervalued

1:21 - and overvalued so I know which ones at

1:24 - least in my perspective to buy and

1:26 - invest in and I typically focus on

1:28 - technology companies as I was

1:31 - researching different technology

1:32 - companies that ultimately led me to

1:34 - Bitcoin and discovering how Bitcoin

1:36 - technology works and ultimately one of

1:39 - the things I thought was really valuable

1:41 - is how it could really disrupt a lot of

1:44 - people's lives in a very positive manner

1:46 - especially in developing nations and

1:48 - this is where I really became even more

1:51 - passionate about this technology tell us

1:54 - a little bit more about lightning

1:55 - capital how did you start in that

1:58 - organization in 2017 I noticed a shift

2:02 - in momentum of the different sort of

2:06 - interest in this area I would like to

2:08 - call it crypto asset area

2:10 - and what happened during this time was I

2:12 - noticed that the media started to talk

2:15 - about it more people are talking and

2:17 - this is an early 2017 before the bubble

2:19 - run that we've witnessed and ultimately

2:22 - I was working at Ernst & Young at the

2:24 - time and I talked to one of the partners

2:26 - there and I said hey I think this is an

2:28 - interesting space that's been changing

2:31 - you know I've been following it for

2:32 - several years now but I think it might

2:34 - hit this momentum that's greater than

2:36 - what we've seen in the past and I think

2:38 - there might be a business opportunity

2:39 - there and decided to take the leap

2:42 - ultimately launched my own fund called

2:44 - lightning capital and focused on trading

2:47 - and crypto assets terrific

2:49 - congratulations thank you also I'd like

2:51 - to ask a little bit more about the

2:53 - course that you teach tell us a little

2:55 - bit about the kinds of topics that you

2:57 - cover and in particular what's been the

2:59 - reaction of the students it's been it's

3:01 - been two years since I've been teaching

3:03 - this course we focus on I focus on the

3:06 - high level aspects of this technology so

3:09 - I'm teaching the financial the economic

3:12 - the regulatory aspects of this entire

3:15 - space this is a very multidisciplinary

3:18 - field and so you need to understand all

3:21 - the students need to understand

3:23 - different aspects of it you recently

3:26 - wrote an article the Bitcoin squeeze

3:28 - tell us what that topic is ultimately

3:31 - without going to extreme level of detail

3:33 - what's going to happen in April to May

3:36 - of 2020 is that there's a Bitcoin having

3:39 - event essentially the amount of bitcoins

3:41 - will get half from the current amount so

3:44 - it goes from 12.5 Bitcoin for every 10

3:47 - minutes to 6.25 Bitcoin and so

3:50 - ultimately what people have seen already

3:52 - in the Bitcoin having events it leads to

3:55 - a bull run and then followed by a bear

3:58 - market and what I've noticed was we

4:02 - clearly know what the supply schedule is

4:04 - on how much bitcoins will be created but

4:07 - no one has done the research on the

4:09 - demand side and that's where my analysis

4:11 - goes into depth of what the demand is

4:13 - the article goes into details on that

4:15 - demand side but what's been fascinating

4:17 - to me is that the demand side has been

4:21 - increasing over the years so be

4:23 - interesting

4:24 - see what happens in the next bitcoin

4:26 - having event in 2020 if it will lead to

4:30 - another massive bull run and a

4:32 - subsequent bear market which could

4:34 - result in another 80 down 80 to 90

4:37 - percent down move in the market anything

4:39 - else you'd like to add before we close

4:41 - one of the things I would like to add is

4:44 - that our world is changing at such a

4:47 - fast pace we're really in the

4:49 - information age and so it's so important

4:52 - to constantly learn about new

4:54 - technologies it doesn't necessarily have

4:57 - to focus on technologies but I think

4:59 - learning about blockchain AI and other

5:02 - technologies it is so important in this

5:04 - day and age I always encourage people to

5:07 - study it about it because even if you

5:09 - are in a boring industry you might get

5:12 - disrupted by technology very good advice

5:14 - Charles yeah thank you so much

5:23 - [Music]

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