The metaverse is booming. New trends in blockchain technology are emerging every day and the metaverse is one of them. With more and more users interested in creating content and seeking to connect in the virtual world with people similar to their tastes, Torum SocialFi Metaverse plans to fill this space through its disruptive proposal. I had the opportunity to talk with Yi Feng Go, the CEO and one of the brilliant minds behind Torum SocialFi Metaverse about his proposal, his thoughts, and projections about the new economy around this growing sector. 1. Tell us a little about the history of Yi Feng Go and his foray into the blockchain industry I joined the space back in early 2017 by investing in Ethereum under the introduction of a friend. As crypto was getting more popular, Malaysians were trying to find their way to buy crypto, but their lack of understanding made them fearful of joining the market. When I noticed this problem, I saw it as an opportunity to open up an education channel to lead more Malaysians to the crypto market. So, in late 2017, I created Ah Go Wu, a YouTube channel that educates and spreads the right blockchain knowledge to Chinese Malaysians. As a micro KOL, I began to see the damage that scammers were doing to the industry. I get lots of DMs on people getting scammed for various reasons, and it got me thinking how this phenomenon can be stopped. The thought eventually led me to found Torum, a SocialFi ecosystem that is specially designed to connect cryptocurrency users. 2. How did you come up with the idea of creating Torum? It was in late 2018 when scams were prevalent and news about people getting scammed in crypto was all over the place. The team believes that only by connecting crypto communities and projects in an ecosystem, the scam can be potentially brought to an end. The ecosystem also acts as a marketing funnel (akin to Twitter) for projects to build their communities and social outreach. And what’s better at connecting people than a social network? Hence, we decided to found Torum, the world’s first social media platform specially designed to connect cryptocurrency users, which is born from the combination of “Tokenized” and “Forum”. 3.- What relevant aspects does Torum propose to the industry? Torum offers a crypto-oriented and interconnected SocialFi experience, which consists of Social, DeFi, NFT and Metaverse. On the Social side, everyone can now connect with over 200,000 cryptocurrency users at ease. It effectively removes the hassle of finding crypto communities and enables anyone to start the conversation right away. The DeFi section of Torum empowers you to take part in liquidity farming with gamification. DeFi investors can connect their Torum accounts and multiply their liquidity farming stake using their social activeness. An NFT marketplace is designed and integrated to Torum, which enables crypto artists to mint, list and market their NFT collections straight to an active community of over 200,000 users. A metaverse will also be created where everyone can build and customize their virtual identity through Torum Avatar NFT. Two series have been launched so far, where the 2nd series - Squid Game was sold out in less than 24 hours upon launch. 4. Torum talks about a SocialFi Metaverse. What meaning does this concept have for the common user? I think we should start with defining what SocialFi is. SocialFi is the combination of Social and DeFi, where users are empowered with the ability to earn from their interactions and influence as content creators. A SocialFi Metaverse is essentially emerging the concept of SocialFi into the Metaverse. Instead of connecting with others on platforms like Facebook, you can interact and earn in an open and immersive world offered by the metaverse technology. SocialFi Metaverse is one of the grand visions that Torum is building for cryptocurrency users. And it’s going to be fully open, which empowers anyone, including projects, influencers, and the private sector to join the Metaverse together. 5.What milestones has Torum achieved in recent months? In terms of financing, Torum has secured a strategic investment from Huobi Ventures and KuCoin Labs respectively in September and November 2021. From Nov to Dec 2021, the project has also embarked on a total of 5 exchanges, including KuCoin, Huobi, MDEX, BKEX, and MEXC Global. The exchange listing strategy has enabled our token, XTM to achieve a 24-hour trading volume of over $88M USD. By the end of Dec 2021, the number of users on Torum has reached over 200,000, which is a perfect milestone for us to wrap up 2021. 6. Facebook announced a name change to venture into metaverses. What is your opinion about the entry of large technology companies into the virtual world? Bullish and welcoming. Their involvement in the metaverse has prompted the world to shift into virtual space, which fosters both metaverse and blockchain adoption across the world. Big tech companies are generally protective about their own safe zones and network. So, when they are venturing into the metaverse, then it is safe to say that metaverse will be the next new battleground. 7. Metaverses and Blockchain have gone hand in hand for some time, long before Facebook announced its foray into the sector. Does Go consider Torum to be a relevant player in the industry? Yes, we’ve actually rebranded Torum into a SocialFi Metaverse project in October 2021. The open and immersive virtual experience from metaverse is a perfect combination with blockchain. The rebranding of Facebook into Meta certainly pushed the Metaverse adoption to a new height. Since one of the core features of Metaverse is open, I think the world will be moving straight into Web3. And Torum has started our first Metaverse journey by launching the first PFP Metaverse Avatars - Torum Avatar NFT. In an open and decentralized world, identity is no longer represented through our face, but through virtual Avatars. I feel that before we can onboard everyone to the Metaverse, the digital identity tech has to mature. 8. What do you think will be the next big trend in blockchain? I think it’s going to be a combination of SocialFi and digital identity. In 2021, we saw how social media giants are adopting blockchain technology. Twitter is building NFT verification and Bitcoin Tipping. Reddit is rumored to be developing an NFT trading platform. The rebrand of Facebook into Meta. These moves are pulling the global population into the crypto world, which I believe will stir up the rise of SocialFi eventually. And as major corporations like Walmart are embracing Metaverse, we might see the rise of digital identities. The metaverse is a great accelerator for digital identities, just like how Covid fosters the adoption of digital businesses. 9.- If you could choose one industry leader to meet, who would you choose? It would be CZ of Binance. I have always looked up to him and taken inspiration from how he builds the Binance team and continuously maintains its position as the leader of cryptocurrency exchanges through fast and consistent execution. And recently, he has also spoken about the future outlook for SocialFi, where he believes that SocialFi is going to be one of the two main drives for crypto adoption in 2022. CZ has always been spot on when it comes to prediction. Given the opportunity, I would really love to meet CZ and chat about SocialFi together with him. 10. What considerations do you have in the SocialFi sector for the next few years? I think the transition of social media users from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 will be the toughest challenge for SocialFi. How are we going to convince the general public to use Web3 social? It’s also hard enough to educate the public about public and private address management. That being said, looking at the trends that emerge in 2021, we will find that blockchain has been finding its way into different sectors used by men every day. Finance led to DeFi. Art led to NFT. Gaming led to GameFi. It’s natural that the Web3 popularity will lead Social into SocialFi, where everyone can finally own the content and incentive right back to our own. 11. What should Torum users expect for 2022? New listings, Major partnership, Monetization with token utility. 12.- Who can join Torum? Any special recommendation for those interested? Torum is an open platform that is free for everyone to join. Though it works best for people who are either interested in crypto or have invested in crypto. As everyone on Torum is a cryptocurrency user, it will be strange to enter Torum where everyone is screaming “HODL”, “APE” all around the place.
