William Tien created a unique blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem to unite the features and facilities of blockchain into one unique platform. The FinTech entrepreneur launched his ingenious ecosystem, TiENCHAT, in 2018 and users joined almost immediately to take advantage of the revolutionary tech.
TiENCHAT was built to provide everyone and anyone easy access to blockchain and cryptocurrency. As the digital currency ecosystem evolved, Tien believed it was time for more people to get involved and learn about it. TiENCHAT provides new blockchain users with the chance to get their feet wet and much more. Yet, it is also a perfect ecosystem for experienced cryptocurrency users.
In November 2019, TiENCHAT 2.0 will be rolled out by the company with a host of exciting features for users. The ecosystem’s upgrades not only make it even easier to get involved with the digital currency world, but it provides new functions to make blockchain’s use even easier.
William, you have around three decades of experience in business in the finance and technology industries. First off, what led you to create TiENCHAT?
I have been working with multiple stakeholders in the last 30 years globally and the most common issues we have come across are communication (languages), payments, information sharing and networking with new connections. In order to create and foster business partnerships or new long-term friendships, we need to understand how we can communicate and share ideas, network experiences to build a new or carry on an existing business in the new communications era that not only communicate but also form direct exchange ideas, trading or even conduct business at the lowest level of the whole e-commerce food chain. We do not just need to build a social media chat but all of the elements to communicate.
TiENCHAT is a social media platform powered by blockchain. How does TiENCHAT revolutionize social media in ways other companies like Facebook and Twitter do not?
Although TiENCHAT shares similar foundations in the instant messaging platforms like WeChat and other leading apps, we at TiENCHAT differentiate ourselves in many ways with revolutionary technologies that enable our user members to making purchases and make transactions world-wide using leading digital asset currencies, while simultaneously providing end-to-end encryption messaging to ensure security and privacy.
How can blockchain improve social media and make the user experience better?
With tremendous benefits of security through cryptography encryption and reducing counterparty risk in financial transactions, the blockchain based technology of TiENCHAT also allow users to become independent from third-party institutions charging high fees and gaining control over their assets with fast and secured financial transactions regardless of geographical locations at minimal costs.
TiENCHAT was initially launched in 2018 and in just a short time, it gained an incredibly large number of users from around the globe. The brand now has an ambitious sign-up target to push TiENCHAT to even bigger heights and grow to new levels. Despite TiENCHAT’s success, Tien stresses there were plenty of challenges and obstacles to overcome to reach this point.
William, you launched TiENCHAT in 2018. Can you explain the process of founding the company and all the work that went into it during those early years? What were some of the struggles you endured?
The first trial of TiENCHAT launched in August 2018. The beta version of TiENCHAT was released on 18 December 2018 in Hong Kong, where we acquired more than 10,000 users from 29 countries. TiENCHAT 2.0 will be ready for relaunch with improved features and faster speed by the first week of November 2019. With our new ambitious 1 million sign-ups target, we aim to have 100,000 new users sign-up within the first three months. The concept of TiENCHAT was developed by the understanding of the day to day activities from the experience of having traveled to more than 35 countries in the last 45 years.
Given the latest updates in the smartphone technology and operating systems, we first started as a Fintech company in 2015 at Cyberport in Hong Kong and built one of the first 100 crypto wallets in 2016. Our experience in building payment wallets and gateways comes from our sting at the first encoded mobile wallet on Nokia and Palm III back in 1996 where we focused on building mobile payment gateways for mobile companies. We were also the first team to build PIN features for payments for Mastercard in 2004 for a UK company.
The biggest struggle was that there was a lack of faith and resources, where multinationals were not willing to share their source codes. We had to obtain these codes from special resources in order just to find out how we can get this done, given this was the pre-internet days where everything was learnt from magazine publications and networking events held in universities or exhibitions.
TiENCHAT can trace its roots back to 1996. How did your work over 20 years ago to help with the concept and design of TiENCHAT?
As previously mentioned, TiENCHAT, as a concept was triggered when WeChat came out with the “Red Packets” back in 2012 for the Chinese New Year. Then, I envisioned a huge opportunity in securing a user base and I started to gather information while working on the WeChat ecosystem as their integration developer to develop our own TiENCHAT.
TiENCHAT was created on the idea of being a social media chat platform built on our own blockchain software. Thus, we cannot only stay ahead of the technology advancement, but we are also able to work in separate clusters of a truly global team with resource sharing capabilities to build our whole TiENCHAT ecosystem.
More companies and entrepreneurs are turning their attentions to blockchain as we move into the next decade. However. Tien was an early adopter of the technology and he believes businesses will become more successful as more companies and individuals beginning using blockchain technology.
William, what is the future of blockchain in your opinion and what can the average person achieve by using it?
Of course, I’m a firm believer in the success of mass adoption of blockchain technology as part of the infrastructure of all things connected. Similar to that of the Internet, most people do not fully understand the intricacies of how the Internet operates but people and businesses have built very successful operations on it.
With blockchain, I think the main benefit of personalized control of information and faster execution time of transactions when compared to the traditional centralized operations of today. The average individual could benefit from the convenience of direct interactions without going through intermediaries and transparency afforded by blockchain technology at much lower costs.
You are also a founder of TiENPAY and it works with cryptocurrency. For those that have not discovered it yet, what are the biggest differences with your two brands?
A condensed description of TiENPAY is a company providing a safe and convenient cryptocurrency payment system for business. We created TiENCHAT to expand on the crypto payment model to include encrypted instant messaging and built-in multi digital token wallet for personal and everyday use. An integrated ecosystem of personal and business for cryptocurrency network operations.
TiENCHAT launched its own cryptocurrency coin in July 2019. The T8TCoin connects all parts of the TiEN network and users of the network will be connected to all of the ecosystem’s great offerings through the coin.
In July, TiENCHAT launched the T8TCoin. Can you tell us about the launch of the initial coin and how investors can benefit from purchasing T8T Coins?
This is a great question because T8T coins serves as the main connector linking all aspects of the TiEN network. From ecosystem onboard, market place, dAPPs creation and APIs, and various charity, education, sports and lottery campaigns users will be connected.
After gaining traction from our main private contributors, we were able to build an infrastructure and created multiple strategic partnerships for our ecosystem including our own proprietary blockchain, version 1.0 TiENCHAT platform, Cryptocurrency Teller Machines (CTMs), and biometric cards system.
To keep the momentum going, we have expanded the private contribution model to allow wider participation opportunity. Potential investors can now participate in our growing company through the purchase of T8TCoin. The T8TCoin initiative was launched to allow participants to contribute by way of a T8T token purchase from our https://presales.t8tcoin.com/login site.
Amongst the many benefits mentioned above, contributors will be able to gain early entry benefits from our current discount entry price and additional T8TCoins bonuses will be given as a token of our appreciation as early contributors to our ever growing project.
The company has also launched a licensed digital currency exchange. Users will be able to exchange Bitcoin/US dollars, Bitcoin/Australian dollars, Bitcoin/CNY, and Bitcoin/Hong Kong dollars. How important is it for blockchain users to have such a platform to exchange multiple currencies both fiat and digital?
This exchange platform is vital in the sense of direct access to liquidity. Since we are a blockchain based instant communication platform with a built in digital asset wallet, we wanted to create an all inclusive ecosystem for our users to be able to benefit from currency pair value fluctuations and take advantage of the rise and fall in the prices of various currency pairs.
In terms of digital currencies, it seems like there was a lot of news about Bitcoin and other digital currencies in 2017 and 2018. Yet, it feels like a lot of the buzz has died down this year. What do you believe is the reason for this?
There are many influencing factors involved when considering digital currencies including factors such as the quality of currency projects to regulations from different countries of jurisdiction. It’s quite difficult to pinpoint for certain, but in my experience with developing TiENCHAT, we try to solve real world problems affecting digital currency which is segregation of access and convenience of use.
TiENCHAT users are automatically integrated with an in-app multiple digital asset wallet which eliminates the need for additional wallet set up on a separate application. Users also have access to multiple tools for cryptocurrency transactions including fiat or cash access of their choosing through our biometric card system and CTMs.
In November 2019, TiENCHAT 2.0 will launch with major updates for users. The company took many of the ideas and suggestions presented by users and worked diligently to integrate them into the ecosystem. What resulted is a smooth running program that provides users with everything they loved about the original TiENCHAT and much more. Anticipation is growing for the updated version and Tien is excited to share it with the world
William, TiENCHAT 2.0 launches in November 2019. What can users experience from the update?
To stay ahead of the industry, we have many newly added features based on latest industry technology advancements and our first version user requests. Notably, TiENCHAT 2.0 will include:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration for token price analysis, stock price analytics and virtual assistance.
- 3rd party merchant integration APIs.
- Visual Interaction features like TiEN TV and TiEN Academy for education & news.
- Expanded end-to-end data encryption for security enhancement.
What is next for TiENCHAT? How will the company continue to evolve with the growing FinTech community and blockchain?
As the blockchain and FinTech community evolves, TiENCHAT will provide the “Last Mile” solutions for the blockchain sector. A variety of solutions for the delivery of digital goods and services to end users or the“Last Mile” could be achieved through our IoT tools and technologies integrated within our newly released 2.0 version of TiENCHAT. An example from our targeted humanitarian and aid initiative programs, recipients could receive and gain access to donated assistance based on the TiENCHAT platform even if they do not own a mobile phone.
Tien has been working towards his current project for nearly three decades. All those years ago, he never dreamed he would be working on a network involving blockchain and digital currencies. However, all of his previous work placed him on a path to his current place in the world of blockchain. In another 10 years, the networks and infrastructures he creates could be lightyears away from what he — and others — developed in the 1990s.
TiENCHAT aims to make blockchain and cryptocurrency safe and simple for everyone to use. Through the brand’s unique platform in which multiple elements have been culled together to build a robust ecosystem, TiENCHAT empowers its users when using both blockchain and cryptocurrency.
With a new version available to users and an ambitious sign-up target, TiENCHAT has big plans for the future.
For more information on William Tien and TiENCHAT, please visit www.tienchat.com
Journalist and author. Contributor
