As Hong Kong’s longest serving financial secretary, what piqued your interest in NFTs and crypto?

Tsang: My background was in technology. In high school in the 1960s, I started coding, but it wasn’t a popular thing. I went on to study at MIT, a school that puts a lot of emphasis on technology. Since then, I’ve followed the development of different technologies. Even though I was with the Hong Kong government for about 30 years, and was involved across politics, finance and education, I have always remained interested in technology, so naturally [began looking into] the field of NFTs when they took flight.

Technology evolves so fast: what you learnt at university may not be applicable today. How did you gear up your NFT skills?

Tsang: There aren’t many textbooks on NFTs just yet. The best way to learn about this sort of thing is to engage with it. I’ve been actively looking into NFTs and virtual assets for a couple of years.

Was that what inspired the Choi Yeah NFT project?

Tsang: Yes, and in the past few years in Hong Kong, people have been quite frustrated about different things. I thought creating NFTs and giving them away for free might bring some cheer. It’s also an opportunity to educate more people about NFTs, Web3 and the metaverse, which are all things that will increasingly be part of everyone’s life, like it or not. Claiming an NFT for free is a good incentive for them to start learning.

Tell us about the design.

Tsang: All 3,000 pieces are simple line drawings of me, but there are different variations in colour, posture and accessories, such as glasses and ties.

Read more: Membership at This New Club Gives You Access to Exclusive NFT Artworks

Why did you choose to work with Yosuke Yamauchi?

Tsang: Usually the existing NFTs out there are very elaborate and [are of] colourful, cartoonish figures. I wanted to create something different. I’ve been following Yosuke’s work for some time. This artist is quite famous for working with lines and simple figures.

How is this project different from existing NFT projects out there?

Leung: A lot of NFT projects are [designed to] raising money. But John’s is completely free: we’re not trying to make any money out of this. We want to [mint] it on a private chain, to allow people to transfer it to Ethereum after six months. Secondly, NFT holders won’t only receive a jpeg; they will get real-life experiences and benefits. Holders will get a small gift from John and our team every two months. It could be a poem from John or a chance to interact with him. You’ll just have to find out.

Who will you give the NFTs away to?

Tsang: I have a few target groups: Esperanza, an NGO I founded, and Dialogue in the Dark, which works to changing public attitude towards people with visual impairment. The group is raising money, and I think its projects are very worthwhile to support. The third group is members of StashAway, whose work I’ve always been interested in. After I left the government, I would like to work with young people like Stephanie on work related to technology.

Out of all the different wealth management companies, why did you decide to work with StashAway?

Tsang: I joined a number of events that StashAway did. One of the last things that I worked with them on was Concert in the Dark, a 2017 event by Dialogue in the Dark. The concert, which took place in complete darkness, was amazing, and I think StashAway does incredible work in supporting people and organisations with site difficulties.

StashAway is an advanced technology platform. I believe its wealth management system will disrupt the entire market and make everything more accessible to people in different [wealth] brackets. Unless you have a couple of million US dollars, you probably don’t have access to a private banker. But with StashAway, even for someone who has HK$10,000, they manage your money invested in ETFs [exchange-traded funds), as soon as you identify a risk level. That fits into what I want to be involved in, and I want to use NFTs to incentivise more people to open accounts, because I think that’s the way to manage your wealth in the future.

Choi Yeah will be available for minting at 9pm on July 12, 2022. Find out more at choiyeah.io

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