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Chapter 250 Fighting between gods
Hot knowledge: Unlike traditional financial exchanges, all cryptocurrency exchanges around the world operate 24 hours a day to ensure that all customers around the world can trade at any time.

Of course, 24-hour trading on the exchange does not mean that people will work 24 hours a day, especially in today's world where cloud servers are popular.

In a sense, cryptocurrency exchanges are truly a profitable business.

As long as the server is built and secure, the next thing to do is to collect commissions from massive transactions 24 hours a day.

If you still think that charging commissions is too slow to make money, there are faster ways. You can hype the currency yourself, or even issue a new cryptocurrency based on the blockchain.

There is no doubt that for the financial market, Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology are definitely one of the greatest inventions in the world.

Especially the slogan of decentralized trading provides it with a very fertile soil for survival.

After the technology update, the cost for cryptocurrency issuers can be said to be negligible.

Especially for those who have a certain influence, issuing a cryptocurrency is definitely one of the fastest ways to make money in the world.

Of course, precisely because it is so easy to make money, any cryptocurrency exchange of a certain size is watched by countless people.

It's a big cake, and no one will refuse it as long as they are qualified to participate.

So if you look closely at the equity behind these crypto exchanges, you’ll find it’s very complicated.

This complex and extremely secretive equity background is based on a highly speculative basis.

Therefore, almost all cryptocurrencies have experienced dramatic fluctuations far exceeding those of ordinary financial markets.

Even the futures market, which is the most dangerous for ordinary investors, is child's play in the cryptocurrency world.

Getting rich overnight is not a myth here, but it is also common for wealth to disappear overnight.

Of course, these are not a problem for Jesse Powell. After all, for the banker, it is always a sure win.

And unlike other platforms, Kraken, founded by Jesse Powell, did not issue tokens to raise money like other platforms, but was committed to legal and compliant transactions.

All we can say is that he wants to run this business for the long term. So compared to other platforms, Jesse Powell places more emphasis on compliance and even pays more attention to user safety than other platforms.

So for this CEO, this period is actually not easy.

To be honest, he was not very impressed by the quantum chip that Microsoft hastily released.

He has worked in multiple technology companies and startups, and has also participated in entrepreneurship, and the company he founded was eventually acquired.

During that time, he had dealt with many senior executives of technology companies, and was very familiar with the routines of those technology companies, and was even more aware of the necessity of storytelling for technology companies.

From quantum supremacy to the metaverse…

American technology companies have boasted about too many concepts, but these concepts are more like castles in the air.

After all, technology companies cannot lose their imagination. Otherwise, investors will doubt the future prospects of these technology companies.

If storytelling can make people optimistic about the future, path dependence will naturally arise.

By now, the metaverse has long been a mess, and no one mentions it anymore. As for the so-called quantum supremacy, it actually has no impact on them.

Jesse Powell doesn’t deny that technology will inevitably change the future. He’s just immune to those stories.

But he's still very worried lately.

The reason is that Qiao Yu recently announced two new Mersenne prime numbers.

To be honest, as a successful person, Jesse Powell is also very concerned about the developments of Huaxia, even though Huaxia has always refused to recognize the legal status of cryptocurrency.

From his perspective, Chinese technology companies are more pragmatic. They rarely brag about their achievements, but when they release products, they often surprise their peers.

For example, three years ago, when talking about the field of robotics, people seemed to only know Boston Dynamics.

But two years ago, a Chinese robot company called Yulin suddenly emerged. The robot products it released directly overturned people's imagination of robots.

There are many similar fields, such as AI.

There are even some Chinese technology companies that have forced US officials to take direct action to target them.

With so many such incidents, Jesse Powell naturally came to a conclusion: Chinese people seem to be very bad at propaganda, and even less fond of telling stories.

Everyone is working hard to make what people imagine become reality.

These innovations did not involve his field before. In addition, China banned cryptocurrency trading, so he just sighed.

But this time, Qiao Yu suddenly used a garbage computer room to perform quantum simulation calculations, and actually calculated two new Mersenne primes, which made him alert.

Although he didn't know Qiao Yu, based on his stereotype of the Chinese, when the Chinese could use electronic computers to simulate quantum computing and quickly find new Mersenne primes, God knows to what extent they have already taken quantum simulation computing.

It can be said that Jesse Powell was one of the first financial industry managers to become extremely wary of the computing speed of Hua Xia quantum simulation.

For this reason, he called the company's chief security officer Nick Perko the next day to consult about the possible impact of quantum simulation computing on the security of exchange transactions.

But as expected, he could only ask.

Although Kraken has been investing in research on quantum-resistant algorithms, this takes time.

Not to mention that attacks through quantum simulation computing are still an emerging field, let alone defense.

Jesse Powell majored in philosophy at the University of Los Angeles. He naturally understood that it was indeed difficult to make an extremely solid shield before the spear officially appeared on the historical stage.

To put it bluntly, even if there are certain results, the maturity of the technology can only be imagined before large-scale testing is carried out.

Especially in the field of quantum computing, there is no unified standard and specification in the world, so his chief security officer's advice is to remain cautiously optimistic.

That is, the quantum simulation computing launched by the Chinese should not threaten the security of cryptocurrency in the short term. But in the long run, investment in quantum countermeasure algorithms should indeed be increased.

It would be best to promote cross-border cooperation and unite more exchanges, financial institutions and related technology companies as soon as possible to jointly develop encryption algorithms that can resist quantum brute force cracking.

Jesse Powell is also considering it.

After all, a sense of security, especially the sense of security perceived by users, is the lifeline of cryptocurrency transactions.

The demand is even stronger than that in the financial market. After all, cryptocurrency transactions are completely anonymous.

After all, decentralization is one of the most important features of cryptocurrency. If the money in a highly private wallet is really gone, there is no one to complain to.

But he didn't have time to act on it.

Cross-border cooperation is never an easy thing.

To use a less vivid metaphor, the capitalists here are like sharks. When they smell blood, the first thing they think about is not the danger, but how to eat the meat in front of them. So if he is too eager, he will inevitably be waiting for all kinds of lions to open their mouths, so he wants to wait for a more suitable opportunity.

To Jesse Powell, that opportunity was about to come.

Obviously these companies are directly threatened by Qiao Yu's new technology.

Putting aside the significance of quantum computing to the development of science and technology, the most important thing is that quantum supremacy is a story that Silicon Valley has been telling for many years.

Now that the time has come to pick the peaches, the Chinese have gotten there first, which must be a huge blow to investors' confidence.

This is the best opportunity. Someone's needs are more urgent than his. So the next thing he needs to consider is the negotiation strategy.

Get the best results at the lowest cost.

Yes, to be a successful person in this land, win-win situation has never existed.

Either you scheme against others, or you will be schemed against.

Just then, his secretary suddenly rushed into the office.

"Mr. Powell, there was a call from Huaxia just now."

"A call from Hua Xia?"

Jesse Powell, who was deep in thought, hadn't reacted yet. He repeated it once before realizing what had happened. He said in a deep voice, "Why not transfer it in?"

"I was going to transfer the call, but the other party said that it was not necessary and just asked me to let you know."

After hearing these words and looking at the secretary's strange expression, Jesse Powell had a hunch that this was definitely not a good thing.

"Oh? What did he say?"

"He told me to tell you that Dr. Qiao Yu's research team will help our platform conduct transaction security testing in the era of quantum simulation computing at 10 p.m. Eastern Time tonight."

"Ten o'clock tonight? Transaction security test?" Jesse Powell was stunned and asked, "You told him we don't need it?"

"I told him, but he said it was decided. And he said it was just a notification, not a request for our opinion."

"Is it decided like this?" Jesse Powell asked in disbelief, and then quickly realized that this timing was very interesting.

At 10 o'clock this morning, Microsoft announced its latest quantum hardware technology. At 10 o'clock tonight, we will help them conduct security testing of quantum simulation computing?
This is too obviously targeted.

But why did you choose Kraken? There are so many cryptocurrency trading platforms around the world, why should you help them?
"What else did he say?" Jesse Powell asked in a deep voice.

“He also said that Dr. Qiao Yu’s security team will conduct global simultaneous public testing on our Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance.US platforms, so that we can be prepared.

By the way, they will announce this test action on their official website in about two hours, that is, at 5 pm Eastern Time. And the public statement will include that they have informed us in advance. "

It was obvious that the other party had no intention of making sense.

"How did you determine the other person's identity?" Jesse Powell asked.

"Mr. Callander called first to introduce it."

"Ronnie Callander?"

Jesse Powell suddenly wanted to curse. With such a heavyweight introducer, this matter must be true.

This is equivalent to announcing it at 5 a.m. China time and officially starting the live broadcast test at 10 a.m. It was all based on the time arranged by Microsoft.

In other words, this is a blatant response to Microsoft’s announcement of a new quantum chip. Not to mention that the three platforms selected are all cryptocurrency trading platforms headquartered in the United States.

But when the two sides were fighting, who did their cryptocurrency exchange offend? He was still thinking of sitting on the mountain and watching the fight, but the other side took out their anger on them?

He knew without a second thought that the other party must have found a loophole in the trading platform, or the new technology did pose a threat to the current trading security, otherwise it would be impossible to formulate such a targeted plan.

The most terrifying thing is that it will be broadcast live around the world.

Jesse Powell's mind was a little confused for a moment, but after calming down, he waved his hand to signal his secretary to go out quickly.

It wasn't that he wanted to be quiet for a while, but if the other party was not targeting his family, but three families, he believed that there would be a call soon.

Well, even if the other two companies don’t call him, he will take the initiative to call them.

But after calming down, he suddenly felt that being the chosen platform might not be the worst thing.

After all, these three platforms are already the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, with world-class security and tradable products.

If even they cannot pass this so-called "security test", it is naturally impossible to guarantee the security of other cryptocurrency platforms that have not been selected.

In other words, this security test has involved the global cryptocurrency trading market.

Even if they are not selected, if the results are not satisfactory, the blow to investor confidence will be devastating.

At least those who were selected were notified in advance and could prepare for what might happen next.

With this thought in mind, Jesse Powell pressed the secretary's call button before making the call.

"Notify all company executives to immediately go to the conference room on the 6th floor. An emergency meeting will be held in ten minutes. Company executives who are unable to attend the meeting will participate via video. Absence is not allowed."

As soon as he gave the order, Jesse Powell's personal cell phone rang.

I picked up the phone and took a look, and it was indeed a call from a colleague.

Brian Armstrong, one of the founders of Coinbase and current CEO.

Unlike him, Brian has a serious technical background. He studied computer science in college and worked as a software engineer at Airbnb and Goldman Sachs after graduation. These two work experiences gave him both financial and technical backgrounds.

After adjusting his mood, Jesse Powell answered Brian's call.

As soon as the call was connected, the person on the other end asked straight to the point: "Jesse, did you also receive a call from the Chinese?"

"No, I didn't, but my secretary received a call from China. The Chinese didn't even give me a chance to speak." Jesse Powell complained.

"Huh...so what do you think?"

The other party ignored Jesse Powell's complaints and asked directly.

"What can I expect? There are less than seven hours left until 10 p.m.! That's not even enough time to hold a shareholders' meeting!"

(End of this chapter)