Personal Information
Discourse ID: @michaelsailor
Twitter: x.com
Educational Background:
Bachelor of Science, Brown University, 2010-2015.5
Masters in Public Administration, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University 2016-17
PhD in Public Policy, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2021-Present
Professional Background:
- Founder Carbonbase · Full-time Jan 2020 - Present
- Chairman ImpactNFT Alliance · Jan 2021 - Present
- Venture Partner, Pacific Century Group · Mar 2018 - Present ·
- Contributor, Crypto Impact and Sustainability Accelerator (CISA), Oct 2022 - Present
- Independent Board DirectorIndependent Board Director Ping An OneConnect Bank
(Hong Kong) Limited · Sep 2019 - Present - Co-Chair, IEEE Planet Positive 2030 Forestry Committee Apr 2022 - Present
Nomination Statement
Concise statement on why you are running for the Metaverse WG Steward
As a BAYC holder, and lover of the Yuga community, and long term participant in the
digital asset sector (BTC since 2014, ETH since 2017), I am excited to be running for
Steward for the Metaverse Working Group. Having attended three Apefests, met
numerous members of the BAYC/MAYC community, and hosted NFT HK (nfthk.events)
during the most recent APEfest in HK, I have a strong desire contribute and grow the
Apecoin DAO, and think my skillset, network, experiences make me a strong candidate
for Steward.
As Steward, I will focus on building a rich community ecosystem around Yuga’s
Metaverse projects, support content creators and builders in Otherside, adoption of
APEcoin, utilisation for DAO owned metaverse assets and develop forums, and host
numerous gatherings and summits for encourage of APEcoin metaverse development
I see my role in three fold:
- Representing Yuga’s metaverse efforts, working with SC, and other WG
members to promote, highlight, celebrate and share the Metaverse portfolio of
APEcoin DAO - Bringing more metaverse and game developers into the Yuga ecosystem through
partnerships, hackathons, talks and lectures - Creating tools, incentives and visibility for the APE coin in adoption with
ecosystem partners, to drive value to APE coin holders
I believe that Yuga Labs has created a powerful and rich ecosystem, whose value has
yet to be fully unlocked. Through my Stewardship for APEcoin DAO, I hope to be a
powerful catalyst and enabler for this, while building up team and partnership capacity
to co-develop APEcoin initiatives with other metaverse creators.
Motivation
Details on your motivation for becoming an ApeCoin DAO Metaverse WG Steward
I believe in the power of the metaverse sector to drive the multi trillion dollar use case
for web3 and ultimately deliver the vision of a better future. Yuga has managed to build
an incredible ecosystem and with the appointment of Daniel Alegre (ex Google
executive, former President and COO of Activision Blizzard) as CEO, Yuga is going to
focus heavily on Metaverse. As an angel equity investor in Yuga Labs, I believe in the
long term promise and mission for Yuga to create something similar to Oasis from
Ready Player One.
I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Alegre in HK during Apefest, and talked with him
and the team. My conversations with him convinced me that Metaverse was top of his
agenda, and where the “rubber will meet the road” for Yuga, and for APE coin. The
Metaverse Steward needs to be a high performing member of the community to support
and drive this vision. After discussing the topic with many friends, and advisors, I have
decided to officially participate as an election candidate.
I am a futurist, a former Teaching Fellow for Singularity University, a data scientist who
has worked with Fortune 10 clients, a web3 native investor for a multi billion dollar
family office, a board member of a regulated financial institution, a scholar of one of the
most prestigious academic programs in the world, and venture-backed entrepreneur of
one of the most selective startup programs in the world (YC China). I think that the
Metaverse Steward need this caliber of experience, network and capability.
Let's talk geography for a second. There is no doubt that Asia is going to be at the
forefront of gaming market adoption, application development and use case discovery.
Today, According to Statica, there are 1.8B video game players in Asia Pacific,
compared to 0.57B in the Middle East and Africa, 0.45B in EU, 0.33B in Latam and
0.24B in North America. As a fluent speaker of Mandarin and English, with extensive
connections in APAC, I believe that I can easily contribute to bridging the language
divide and onboarding APAC game development expertise hungry to participate in
metaverse use cases.
Over the last 2 years, APE coin has suffered a precipitous price decline. As the
dominant ecosystem token for the biggest metaverse project, a trailing price of 491M
USD does not and cannot reflect the true value. I see the need for stronger applications
and use cases across the web3 world for APE coin adoption and utilisation. I have a
vision for scaling the reach, scale and prominence of APE coin as a common metaverse
settlement currency. In fact, I hope to get some ex-central bankers involved in this
effort.
Rationale
Share relevant experience and skills that will bring value to the ApeCoin community
I am deeply technical, having studied computer science and mathematics at Brown
University, before practicing data science and machine learning at Ayasdi, a DARPA-
funded machine learning company founded by the chair of the Stanford math
department and backed by Vinod Khosla, Floodgate and Citi Ventures.
At the same time, I have extension professional and business experience. As a pioneer
in the Impact NFT space, I was able to convince large companies and global NGOs to
embrace and experiment with web3. We helped WWF launch the first metaverse nft
collection. We worked with Nelson Mandela’s Peace Parks for their first impactNFT use
case. We helped design dynamic NFTs for MIT Media Labs.
As an entrepreneur building my own company Carbonbase for the last 4 years, I have
had to raise money, build teams, articulate vision, fight fires, solve complex personnel
issues, overcome adversity, and hustle hustle hustle. I believe that this strong
entrepreneurial muscle and drive will be a big asset to the Metaverse Working Group.
As founder and Chairman of ImpactNFT Alliance, we authored a paper for describing
NFTs potential for social impact, built an alliance of 100+ organisations across 20
countries, and hosted one of the first NFT exhibitions in HK:
As an early investor in Web3 for one of HK’s leading family offices, I had a chance to
make many friends across the industry, especially around APAC.
As a Schwarzman Scholar (described as the Rhodes Scholarship of Asia), with a 0.4%
selection rate, I am part of a cohort of 1000+ international alumni from 50+ countries,
many of whom are rising stars in their respective fields of politics, international relations,
finance, business, medicine and art.
As a YC-China alumni (now Miracleplus), with a 0.6% acceptance rate, I am part of a
cohort of the most talented technology entrepreneurs in China, and we are invested in
and part of legendary computer scientist Qi Lu’s network. He was the former Executive
Vice President of Microsoft and chief lead for the creation of Bing.
I have also been honored to be selected as part of the Forbes 30u30 community, the
Tatler Gen.T change makers community, the Global Shapers community, the HuRun
(Chinese Forbes) U30 community - these networks give me 5000+ incredible trusted
links to some of the most successful and influential movers and shakers in the world.
Some relevant other immediate networks of mine include: the former head of game
investments for Tencent cofounder (with board seats on 80+ game companies),
connection to biggest real estate, and commercial family offices in HK, SG, APAC,
founder of top gaming engine in the world (Crytek), family office of largest luxury
company in the world (LVMH), large global architectural companies (Arup, Aedas),
large shareholder of largest viral media content in the world (TikTok), good relationships
with Animoca and Sandbox leadership team in HK, founders of the largest Web3
communities in HK and APAC (Token2049, Taiwan Asia Blockchain Summit, Wanxiang
Blockchain Summit, Korea Blockchain Week, HK GameON Conference, Digital Art Fair)
In a node to MWG’s “Championing data ownership and identity” - I serve as a
contributor to the World Economic Forum’s Crypto Impact and Sustainability
Accelerator, specifically on the Working Group for Digital Identity - where we have
government experts on DID, and self sovereign data ownership.
In a nod to the MWG’s reference of “Laying the groundwork for an E-Sports Initiative to
explore professional metaverse gaming opportunities” - I was selected as the closing
keynote panel speaker for the Future Investment Initiative (FII), funded by the Saudi
sovereign wealth fund PIF. Through the FII, we have growing contacts in Saudi across
business, government and the private sector. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime
Minister MBS announced a yearly Esports World Cup to be held in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. The Esports World Cup will be held annually starting in the summer of 2024 and
will feature tournaments in several leading esports titles ‘across all genres’. It will
feature the largest prize pool in esports history and will be run by the Esports World Cup
Foundation, a new government-founded non-profit organisation that it claims will drive
collaboration between esports stakeholders and enhance the sector’s sustainability.
Specifications
Further describe relevant experience, including crypto and governance participation, and/or ideas for DAO improvement
Compared to many peers in web3, I have far more professional board experience for
both regulated financial companies, global standard setting bodies, and technology
companies that I think will serve me well as a Metaverse Steward.
In 2019, I was nominated as one of the youngest board member in HK banking history,
and after passing interviews with the central bank of HKMA, was appointed to on the
board of PAO Bank (Corporate Governance | PAObank). Since then, I have
served for the last 4 years as the Chairman of the Nomination and Renumeration
Committee, and sit on the Strategy, Risk, Audit committees. I have extensive work
experience dealing with complex board dynamics, company operating issues, regulatory
response and approval, and senior management transitions, for a regulated financial
entity that manages hundreds of millions of dollars under the supervision of the central
bank.
I have also been appointed on the board of an advanced manufacturing industry
company in EU, where I have worked on complex board issues, helped articulate
strategy, find and outreach to investors.
As a PhD candidate at HKUST public policy, I have worked with the Vice President of
the University in the launch of the Web3 Lab, the leading academic Web3 ecosystem
for HK. My PhD topic area is the quantitative research of on-chain DAO governance.
Although I have not participated in many AIP proposals to date, since I have decided to
participate in the Working Group elections, I have been actively engaged in the
APECoin Discord dialogue - and since my participation, the level of engagement has
increased substantially and many other forum members have expressed interest and
desire to participate in metaverse stream.
Concluding Statement
Summarize your statement as to why you are the best choice for Metaverse WG Steward
I am at my core, a team player and a consensus driver. I like to lead by bringing people
along with me, and I am a tireless and passionate advocate for web3 adoption and real
world use case creation.
I believe that we have the once in a lifetime opportunity to build a revolutionary
ecosystem around Yuga Labs and Otherside. I believe that my extensive real world
experiences can be an invaluable asset to the Apecoin DAO. I believe that I can bring
many business leaders, game studios, and government officials to the Yuga metaverse
ecosystem. The future is bright. LFG.
