The CEO Magazine Asia - February 2018

theceomagazine.com | 117

After reportedly being

livid about the Hong

Kong stock exchange

(HKEX) missing out on

the US$25 billion IPO

of Chinese ecommerce

giant Alibaba Group,

HKEX CEO Charles Li

has been pushing to

change the law in the

region to scrap the ‘one

share, one vote’ rule.

Many of China’s tech

billionaires prefer to

regain control of their

companies with a

dual-class share

structure and are

bypassing Hong Kong

in favour of listing

in the US.

BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Given the elusive nature of cryptocurrency,

it seems hard to fathom the amount of

energy it consumes on a daily basis. How

can something that doesn’t really exist,

except online, harm the environment?

The answer is mining. Bitcoin can only

exist while there are miners to validate

the transactions, and these miners need

to race to solve complex mathematical

puzzles to bid for the right to do so.

As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

surge in both price and popularity as an

investment option, enormous amounts of

electricity are needed to fuel the whole

thing. Vast banks of mining computers,

50% of which are said to be in coal-

consuming China, are churning 24/7 to

keep the bitcoin dream alive. According

to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy

Consumption Index, the cryptocurrency

burns through 95,514,951KWh of

electricity per day, which would power

the entire country of Denmark.

C

A

P

T

U

R

ING^ CH

IN

E

S

E

U

NICO

R

N

S

“IF YOU LOOK AT

WHAT YOU HAVE IN

LIFE, YOU’LL ALWAYS

HAVE MORE. IF YOU

LOOK AT WHAT

YOU DON’T HAVE IN

LIFE, YOU’LL NEVER

HAVE ENOUGH.”

• OPRAH WINFREY

¥

36.45

(US$416,000)

MILLION

The highest amount paid for

a Bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s

famous New Year auction in

2018. Although the tuna was
      huge, weighing in at 470kg,
      that still equates to around
      US$715 per kilogram.

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