Founder of Nano Labs, Kong Jianping: A Practitioner of Idealism

Article: Xinyu, AK, "AIO News Character"

Editor: Ruocheng

The year 2018 was a year when digital currencies fell from the peak of a bull market to the depths of a bear market. On January 8 alone, the price of Bitcoin dropped from $16,000 to around $2,000. At that time, there was a joke: "There are many more millionaires on the street, and these people were originally billionaires."

But amidst this low point, a company was brewing a magnificent breakthrough.

Bitmain Technology rang the bell for its IPO on NASDAQ

On November 21, 2019, Bitmain Technology rang the bell for its IPO on NASDAQ, marking the birth of the "first stock in blockchain." According to participants' recollections, Bitmain's listing created two "NASDAQ records" at the time— the highest number of attendees at the bell-ringing ceremony and the largest number of viewers for a listing live stream in history. Whether in China or overseas, blockchain practitioners or investors, Bitmain's successful listing was akin to a nuclear bomb, igniting the Chinese blockchain community and providing countless builders in the winter with a shot of adrenaline.

Behind this milestone event was the driving force of an important figure—Kong Jianping (former co-chairman of Bitmain's board, now founder and chairman of Nano Labs). As the first issue of the "AIO News Character" column, this article will focus on Kong Jianping, taking readers on a close look at his personal story.

Kong Jianping

Seed

Kong Jianping, known in English as Jack Kong, was born in 1985 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. In the fall of 2004, 19-year-old Kong Jianping entered Wenzhou University to study law, marking the beginning of his rich and fulfilling university life, during which the seeds of entrepreneurship were quietly sown.

"I didn't want to ask my family for money anymore; I could do it myself." Years later, Kong Jianping explained his university entrepreneurial journey, "But due to a lack of work experience at the beginning, I could only start with the 'milk delivery' activity organized by the school's student association." He would wake up at five or six in the morning to deliver milk to the dormitories. Although a bottle of milk cost only a few dimes, it represented a small income for Kong Jianping and changed his habit of sleeping in. Most importantly, he finally took the first step. After a long period of preparation, in his junior year, Kong Jianping founded his own campus studio—Hongtuo Studio. During his spare time, he often took the bus to the city to communicate with off-campus organizations. After various discussions, he successfully introduced driving school training and accounting qualification training into the studio. After more than a year of hard work, the studio developed rapidly, with monthly income once reaching hundreds of thousands, making Hongtuo Studio one of the most profitable studios at the school.

"Most majors do not have an absolute conflict with entrepreneurship; for entrepreneurs, when opportunities arise, you must seize them." His past entrepreneurial experiences gave Kong Jianping even more courage. "Now it's still far from enough." Ultimately, after graduating with a law degree, Kong Jianping decided to venture into business. "Perhaps I can create a greater enterprise, even a new world and civilization." A seemingly unrealistic seed filled with idealism took root in Kong Jianping's heart as he moved toward the future.

The First Tree

In 2013, Bitmain Technology invented the world's first Bitcoin ASIC miner—the "Avalon Generation 1." At that time, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed from $13 to over $1,000, and Kong Jianping purchased an old Avalon Generation 1 miner from the second-hand market.

The world's first Bitcoin ASIC miner

By the end of that year, the Bitcoin market was like a roller coaster, soaring high before suddenly plummeting, causing many speculators to suffer heavy losses. Clearly, this miner did not make Kong Jianping any money; instead, it resulted in a loss. "Although I lost quite a bit of money at that time, I felt that this industry had great potential. Humanity must undergo a profound blockchain revolution in the future, and this decentralized blockchain technology will disrupt various industries in society, and the disruption has already begun." Based on this extreme belief, despite the initial losses, Kong Jianping resolutely invested in Bitmain Technology in 2015 and continued to increase his stake, becoming the company's third-largest shareholder and entering the core management team.

As one of the earliest manufacturers of ASIC miners globally, in 2015, Kong Jianping boldly declared in his social media circle, "I want to grow the company to a value of 100 billion." Many friends considered this overly idealistic, believing that achieving 10 billion would already be impressive. However, with the development of Bitmain's AI chip business in 2016, just two years later, in 2017, Bitmain's valuation in the industry rapidly surpassed 100 billion. On August 8, 2018, Bitmain became the first to achieve mass production of 7nm ASIC miner chips, a month ahead of Huawei's release. In September, the first-generation AI chip, Kendra (model K210), also achieved mass production, becoming the world's first commercial chip based on edge computing RISC-V. By June 30, 2019, Bitmain was the second-largest manufacturer of Bitcoin miners globally, with the Bitcoin miners sold by Bitmain accounting for 21.9% of the total hash power of all Bitcoin miners sold worldwide.

Looking back on his entrepreneurial journey, Kong Jianping humbly attributes all of this to "coincidence." "We were just lucky to encounter the great development of the entire industry when it was still unknown and unrecognized, which allowed us to achieve today's scale and results." But Kong Jianping emphasized, "Of course, you also need to have enough belief to hold on." Thus, the first seed of the blockchain industry was sown ten years ago, quickly taking root and sprouting, becoming not just a towering tree but also giving rise to a whole forest. The listing of the "first stock in blockchain" not only pushed the blockchain industry toward the mainstream world but also guided many confused companies in the industry toward a new direction.

The Second Tree

In 2020, Kong Jianping officially left Bitmain Technology after his term ended, no longer serving as co-chairman and director of the board. Subsequently, he and his friend Sun Qifeng officially founded Nano Labs (hereinafter referred to as "Nano Technology"), once again planting a new seed toward the world of his ideals.

In an open letter, Kong Jianping stated, "In the era of the metaverse, there may be unprecedented explosive innovation opportunities in human history, with innovations in the metaverse being born every second! The metaverse will be the melting pot and touchstone of human technological innovation! We believe the metaverse is a new era of human civilization. Perhaps my current understanding of the metaverse is still immature, marked by too many imprints of the material world, but the best way to predict the future is to create it, and we will continue to strive. Salute to Satoshi Nakamoto, and thank you for this great era!"

Perhaps when spoken by others, all of this sounds like a fantasy. But when this seemingly unrealistic "idealism" combines with Kong Jianping's practical spirit, it may indeed become a reality. Today, Kong Jianping is leading the team at Nano Technology to work hard toward the grand dream of "weaving the underlying network of the metaverse."

As a service provider for the underlying infrastructure of the metaverse, Nano Technology has a clear core goal: to provide solid infrastructure construction for Web3 and the metaverse track, becoming the "Power of Metaverse." Nano Technology has lived up to expectations, achieving revenue of 39.44 million in its second year and securing $20 million in equity financing led by Yongwan Capital, with Hashkey and several other investors participating. Even more astonishingly, just two years later, on July 12, 2022, Nano Labs successfully went public on NASDAQ, with a market value reaching $637 million at one point.

After its IPO, Nano Labs successively incubated new businesses such as the iPollo 3D elastic computing power network and Pineapple 3D printing, with iPollo providing low-cost, high-efficiency computing power services for the metaverse track, while Pineapple 3D printing turns blueprints and IP from the metaverse into tangible objects, integrating them into people's real lives.

This new sapling has clearly grown tall.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee exchanges ideas on the metaverse with Nano Labs founder Kong Jianping

From the founding of Bitmain Technology in 2013 to now leading a new entrepreneurial team at Nano Labs, after the accumulation of time and the baptism of setbacks, Kong Jianping continues to look to the future as an "idealist" and is always practicing for it. Life is not just about the struggles of the present; there are also poetry and distant dreams. "Idealism" is not the exclusive domain of a certain generation or group of people, but when dreams truly reflect reality, every story belonging to it deserves respect. It is important to know that in this rapidly changing and thriving era, only by taking concrete steps can true surprises emerge.

Now, Kong Jianping is traveling everywhere for the development of the Chinese Web3 industry, and his efforts have been recognized by the industry. In April 2023, Kong Jianping was officially appointed by the Hong Kong government as a director of the Hong Kong Cyberport, taking on a new responsibility to help China, represented by Hong Kong, seize new heights in the global Web3 landscape.

"The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago; the second best time is now."

The story of Kong Jianping and Web3 continues.