Recently I started learning Chinese Web3 vocabulary. If you are like me, you are constantly trying to learn new things, and you may be in your early learning stages of Web3 learning right now. Most of my study interests center around making myself more useful to my clients, my family, and issues and organizations I care about. I started studying Cantonese 21 years ago as a young volunteer for my church. I spent two years in Hong Kong learning languages the best way I know how: studying hard in the morning and then trying to use what I learned talking to native speakers the rest of the day.
Learning Chinese Vocabulary
I started studying (standard/Mandarin) Chinese 19 years ago, briefly in the U.S. and then for a year in Sichuan Province. (Spoiler alert: they don’t speak standard Chinese in Sichuan!) As my friend said to me: “If you can understand Sichuan-accented Mandarin, you can understand anything.” I spent that year continuing my dedicated self-study in the morning and practicing with my English students, taxi drivers, and everyone else who would put up with my halting Chinese interspersed with Cantonese words.
As a professional with a family, I no longer have an hour or more each day to study Chinese, but I spend 10 minutes studying Chinese (加油 !) and 10 minutes studying Spanish (mi español es muy malo, pero soy guapo!). I also get to use my Chinese in my work, which is one reason I love my firm and my work as an international attorney.
Learning Chinese Web3 Vocabulary for a Prospective Client Meeting
Recently I took a 20-minute initial call with a Chinese-owned company in the US looking to issue an NFT token on one of the popular blockchains (probably Ethereum). I didn’t know what we were going to talk about exactly, so I prepared this Web3 vocabulary list ahead of time, with Google Translate’s help.
The prospective client wanted to understand some of the main legal issues surrounding NFTs. I explained that NFTs, generally speaking, are either intellectual property or securities. This is why NFT creative studios need technical talent, influencers or artists, and some good IP and securities lawyers at their backs. DAOs are basically unintentional partnerships that stretch across the globe and cross (and crisscross) both securities and corporate entity thresholds and should not be formed without doing it correctly.
Was my Chinese perfect during this exercise? No, but I loved the experience of forcing myself to learn new vocabulary words and use them in real time. I relish opportunities like this that make me nervous, excited, worried, and optimistic all at the same time.
DAO = 去中心化的自治组织 qù zhōngxīn huà de zìzhì zǔzhī
(to) issue = 发行 fāxíng
Token = 令牌 lìng pái
Coin = 硬币 yìngbì
Securities = 证券 zhèngquàn
NFT = 非同质化代币 fēi tóng zhí huà dài bì
Mint (NFT) = 铸造 zhùzào
Drop (NFT) = ?
Cryptocurrency = 加密货币 jiāmì huòbì
Mining machine = 矿机 kuàng jī
Bitcoin = 比特币 bǐtè bì
Ethereum = 以太坊 yǐtài fāng
Business plan = 商业计划 shāngyè jìhuà
Partners = 伙伴 huǒbàn
Owners = 业主yèzhǔ
Members = 成员 chéngyuán
Financier = 金融家 jīnróng jiā
Lender = 贷方 dàifāng
Equity 权益 quányì
Debt债务 zhàiwù
Where Do We Go From Here with China and Web3?
If you thought that Chinese companies would stop investing in Web3 technologies just because the government shut down crypto mining, then you don’t know the determination and resiliency of Chinese companies. And you may also have forgotten that the CCP wants China to be a leader in all things tech. It is a national security issue and a national economic issue.
If you are part of the Chinese Web3 speaking community, please find me on LinkedIn and join our newly created Linkedin Group called Web3 Law. We plan for it to become a leading forum for discussing Web3 legal issues and for posting articles that will advance knowledge and discussions regarding Web3. With the polyglots in our professional circles, we will definitely hit cross-border issues because Web3 is inherently cross-jurisdictional. Even if you only have a passing interest in Web3, you should join the group. And as always, if you can improve my vocabulary list above, please do, and I will share an updated version of this in the future. Good luck out there.
