The “palace politics” of crypto exchanges: power struggles and loyalty games

I have a wild theory that all Chinese exchanges are essentially a "digital version of the Forbidden City". Exchange bosses can be treated as "emperors", and all exchange dramas can be understood as "court politics".

Some emperors, like Jiajing, were devoted to Taoism and proficient in imperial power. They let two gangs of subordinates check and balance each other. They turned a blind eye to internal corruption and were willing to share some power. If one person succeeded, everyone else would benefit.

Some emperors emphasized absolute loyalty, were decisive in killing, and would not allow anyone to bargain. Once someone tried to seek more benefits or challenge authority, they would be swept out.

Let's talk briefly about the topic of palace politics within crypto exchanges. This is pure fabrication and is for entertainment only.

Power Struggle

To understand palace politics, we must first get rid of a naive idea that there is no absolute distinction between good and evil, loyalty and treachery.

In "The Ming Dynasty 1566", although Yan Song was denounced as a treacherous minister by later generations, he relied on his extraordinary political skills to sit on the prime minister for many years and landed safely, and to a large extent helped to enrich the national treasury; however, after the Qingliu came to power, the thunderous anti-corruption campaign made the Ming treasury even emptier.

Where are there purely loyal and treacherous ministers in the world? There are only people who are useful to the emperor at this moment and useless people, as well as people who struggle to get to the top and those who fail in the struggle.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes struggles.

Power requires personnel to land. The core of the struggle between Yan Song and Xu Jie lies in the struggle for personnel power in the Ming Dynasty court. Whoever can place his own people in the six ministries and nine ministers can master the actual power and influence the actual operation of the court.

The power struggle of the exchange is the same, which is essentially a struggle for key positions.

For example, the most core departments such as listing, finance, and investment. Too many monks and too little porridge, so the parties are bound to fight.

As a boss, I am often happy to see the subordinates fighting.

When subordinates compete with each other, it is difficult for them to form a strong enough alliance, eliminating the possibility of challenging authority.

The fight between the two parties makes each party motivated to provide the boss with negative information about the other party, so that the boss can obtain more comprehensive and multi-angle internal intelligence, and also grasp the subordinates' pigtails.

Of course, this kind of fighting between subordinates must be kept within a controllable range. Excessive infighting will lead to waste of resources, low efficiency, and even endanger the overall stability of the organization.

When one party's power is too large and even threatens the boss's authority, the boss will use some "imperial power tactics", such as internal promotion or introduction of a professional manager from outside, and give him great power to clean up the other party's people.

For Emperor Jiajing, the core problem is: How to choose absolutely reliable ministers in the court where "loyalty and treachery are difficult to distinguish"?

Exchange bosses still have this problem.

The suppression of competitors and the sudden raid of regulators are visible dangers, but in the eyes of exchange bosses, the biggest dangers may often lurk around and are not easy to detect, such as the betrayal of people around them. Therefore, nepotism has become the optimal solution at present - key positions are often held by the founder's relatives, friends, classmates and even family members, even if they lack professional ability. Facts have proved that nepotism or mom-and-pop shops are the safest in the crypto market. Corruption and anti-corruption The struggle for power is inevitably inseparable from corruption and anti-corruption. The two are two sides of the same coin and are both means to gain power. The key to court politics is how to judge the situation and stand in the right line.

To form an alliance, you often need a "bond", such as fellow townsmen, the same school, the same professional experience... These can all become a connection point, but more importantly, interests. Relationships between regional classmates and others also rely on money to maintain.

How to gain the trust of the "big brother"?

In addition to giving emotional value, it is more important to give some handles and actively expose weaknesses. "Big brother, all my problems are here, you can take whatever you want, I will follow you in the future."

Therefore, bribery or participating in collective corruption is actually the most effective means of expressing loyalty, and it is also a way to test whether a person is loyal or not. Through money, several people are tied to a rope. Can they not work together and help each other?

Specific to crypto exchanges, internal corruption, insider trading and other problems are difficult to eliminate for two reasons.

First, whether it is speculation or work, the vast majority of people go to the cryptocurrency circle for only one purpose, to make money.

Especially when working in "high-risk companies" such as exchanges, many employees, especially those who have switched from traditional industries, will not have any sense of identity and belonging to the company at all, but just think about how to make the most money in the shortest time.

Second, crypto exchanges are always a gray area. Compared with corruption in traditional enterprises, corruption in exchanges is easier to escape legal sanctions and easier to make a big deal small, or a small deal small. At most, they can just walk away, but the purpose has been achieved.

This is also a long-term employment problem for exchanges.

The emperor's weakness

The bosses of crypto exchanges and emperors have the same tragedy:The higher the position, the more difficult it is to establish a true trust relationship.

Everyone who approaches them may have different purposes: some covet certain core powers, some covet wealth, and some have ulterior motives. In such an environment, suspicion becomes instinctive and precaution becomes a habit.

This trust deficit ultimately leads to a smaller and smaller decision-making circle.

When I was a kid, I always had a puzzled question:Why was there always a "traitor" beside the emperor, and why was he favored?

Emperors are all lonely. They are not short of money or power. What they lack is love and loyalty, which is also the weakness of emperors.

Once someone contributes love and loyalty to the person in power, making him feel like a spring breeze, even if this person's talent is relatively average, he has the value of existence.

In the digital Forbidden City of the exchange, technical talents are not scarce, marketing experts are not scarce, and even funds are not scarce. The only thing that is truly scarce is also true loyalty.

Love and loyalty, a simple way to show it is to support the emperor no matter what he does.

Running a crypto exchange is not an easy task. It is physically and mentally exhausting. Not only do you have to participate in peer competition, but you also have to guard against hackers and fight wits and courage with regulators. At this time, the bosses of the exchange are often exhausted and even

People are not plants, who can be heartless? Being recognized, loved, and needed are the natural desires of human beings.

Ordinary people also need love and loyalty, but they are still at the bottom of Maslow's pyramid of needs, still struggling for life, and have no time and ability to pursue the value satisfaction of higher-level needs.

Women around the emperor

The women around the emperor here are not the so-called harem of gossip, but female executives.

Exchanges often have a large number of female executives, which is a very reasonable thing.

A traditional financial boss who is very influential likes to reuse female executives. Because, in his opinion, women are more loyal than men. No matter how much a man is paid, he will never be satisfied in the end. Even after being promoted and gaining a lot of wealth and power, many men do not have much gratitude and loyalty in their hearts. Instead, their self-confidence is raised, and they think "I can do it too."

The essence of power is the desire for loyalty and the fear of betrayal.

In the highly competitive environment of the stock exchange, the bosses are most worried about "cultivating their own gravediggers."

After gaining power and wealth, male executives often regard their current positions as a springboard to higher power. They are more inclined to attribute their achievements to their personal abilities rather than the grace of their leaders to promote them. They are more likely to choose to leave at the right time and start a competing company or seek a higher position.

Female executives tend to show stronger organizational loyalty and pay more attention to long-term and stable career development rather than risky entrepreneurship. They are more willing to attribute their success to teamwork and leadership cultivation, so they value their existing positions and organizational relationships more.

In addition, another major challenge facing cryptocurrency exchanges is frequent crisis events and user communication. In this area, female executives often show unique advantages.

For example, women are generally better at identifying, understanding and responding to other people's emotions, which is particularly important when appeasing angry users, handling complaints and crisis public relations. In contrast, men are more likely to get emotional and confront users when dealing with relevant public crisis events.

Therefore, in my opinion, the power of women in the crypto world is far underestimated.

It's quite interesting. Looking back at history and the present, no matter how technology develops, whether in the traditional business world or the encrypted digital world, the nature of power has never changed.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

The moon waxes and wanes, and the water overflows when it is full. This is the ultimate fate of all power games.