Interview with Leo Weese, Co-founder of the HK Bitcoin Association
- Hi Leo, thanks for taking the time, tell us a bit more about your relationship with Hong Kong and Bitcoin Meetup. What’s the origin story of the Hong Kong Bitcoin Meetup?
The meetup was founded in July 2012 by Kristin Low. At the time I was a student in Hong Kong, curious about Bitcoin. I mentioned it to pretty much anybody in the hopes of finding somebody who knew something about it, but the thought of starting a meetup group never occurred to me.
To my disappointment I was not in town for the first meetup, so I messaged Kristin about the next one. He encouraged me to simply organize my own events through the group, which I did. In 2013 anybody could be an organizer and post their event to the group. A few did, but from 2014 it was only me. I also organized meetups in Hong Kong until 2019. 
- What are the main drivers of bitcoin adoption in the region?
At first people were most curious about mining, trading and the China arbitrage opportunities. Later it was also gambling and cross-border finance. A lot of that has moved to stablecoins now, while the role of bitcoin has been reduced to “digital gold.”
- What kind of people showed up in the early days—was it anarchists, finance bros, cypherpunks, curious expats, or all of the above?
The meetup was always skewed towards people who were born or lived abroad. Cantonese-speaking meetups never took off. The political mix of attendees isn’t very different from that of other meetups around the globe, mostly men in their 30s and 40s who are thinking about money, politics and investment.
- What role did the Hong Kong Bitcoin Meetup play in fostering early Bitcoin adoption in Asia?
Hong Kong was and is Asia’s most important financial center. It makes sense that Bitcoin developed here first, driven by exchanges, brokers, traders, legal experts and journalists. Hong Kong also used to have a very favorable regulatory regime towards bitcoin.
- What’s a curiosity that you remember?
Quite a few now famous names have come through our meetups, and as a rule of thumb, if in 2013 you paid your tab with bitcoin, you made it big in bitcoin, if you paid with credit card, you made it big in Ethereum. A non-significant number of regulars have been arrested in various countries over the years, some deserved, most not.
Probably my favorite memory is from 2020 when we covered three of the iconic double-decker trams in bitcoin livery, using the slogan “Be Your Own Bank.” We even had billboards outside the HSBC headquarters.
- How did things change over the years?
There was a time when the bitcoin meetup dominated the Hong Kong tech and finance scene. You’d have 200 people at the bitcoin meetup, and 8 showing up to a Fintech gathering.
Today bitcoin is something that you’d be careful to associate with publicly. The hip word of the day is virtual assets, which is pretty much everything except for bitcoin. Events are bigger now than they used to be, but they almost exclusively cater to businesses from Mainland China.
- Was there ever a defining moment or schism, like the block size debate, that changed the atmosphere or attendance of the meetup?
We never had a public split like others did. There was a time when discussions could get heated, but in 2019 it would be normal for the bar where we held our meetups to accept both Lightning and Bitcoin Cash payments. Hong Kong felt like neutral ground, wrenched between the outspoken miners from China and the developers from Europe and North America.
- In retrospect, what were the missed opportunities—or moments where the Hong Kong scene could’ve taken a different path?
There were serious offers in 2016 to turn the Bitcoin Association into a Blockchain Association, with bank accounts, salaries and expense budgets for the then-directors. It would have meant at least two years in relative luxury, traveling around the world selling the idea of permissioned distributed databases.
Spirit crushing and I’m glad we said no. Later we wanted to become an industry association for bitcoin businesses, but they all left shortly after. Today Hong Kong is no longer relevant in the global bitcoin economy.
- Has the tension around political expression and changing tech regulation affected the meetup?
Hong Kong’s political system changed quite radically in 2020, and coincidentally, so did the regulatory environment for bitcoin. Today, nobody wants to engage in political discourse anymore, because it’s not safe.
That leaves no room for any political advocacy. At the same time, bitcoin businesses have left due to stringent regulation. There’s nobody left you could speak out for. As a result, the community is converging towards a social and networking group.
- Looking forward, how do you imagine the movement will evolve in the years ahead?
There will always be interest in bitcoin, and financially our members are doing very well. The community will probably become more private, but not less lively.
- What are you most excited about in the Bitcoin and Lightning space, technology, culture and beyond?
In the past few years we have seen Lightning take a real hold on some economies, both virtual and physical. We now have a pretty good idea what the ideal environment for these technologies look like, and from here it’s just about network effects.
We don’t know exactly what real mass adoption looks like yet, but as of now you can live quite comfortably on bitcoin in many places around the world. The chasm has been crossed already.
- Thanks for your time, it was wonderful to learn about the history of the HongKong meetup and thanks for sharing so many interesting insights.
It was a pleasure, I’m glad you asked.
