CZ: Speed-first trading software, FPGAs over ASICs, and Bitcoin white paper’s role in adoption

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, outlines technical and strategic lessons for trading platforms: prioritize speed by removing database lookups and keeping computations in memory; simplify pre-order and pre-trade risk checks to reduce latency. He cautions against custom silicon (ASICs) for high-frequency trading because algorithms evolve too rapidly; FPGAs offer a practical compromise between performance and reprogrammability. CZ also praises the Bitcoin white paper for clear, accessible writing that aided adoption, and highlights guerrilla marketing and community engagement as effective early-growth tactics. He recounts Binance’s ICO history—noting 80–90% of ICO buyers were Chinese—and says the token’s fee-discount model materially accelerated user acquisition. CZ stresses that steady active users are a better health metric than revenue or volume, and comments on regulatory shifts: the Biden administration’s approach is viewed as more constructive than the prior administration’s stance. On compliance, he frames Banking Secrecy Act violations as registration failures and notes AML/KYC efficacy varies by implementation. Key takeaways for traders: focus on execution speed and system stability, expect hardware choices (software vs. FPGA) to influence latency-sensitive strategies, monitor user engagement metrics over short-term volume spikes, and watch regulatory signals from U.S. authorities as they can reshape exchange access and liquidity.