Rich Jiang G’21 has come up with quite a few business ideas throughout his time in Syracuse as a Computer Science student (both undergraduate and graduate) at the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences.
Rich joined the Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse University Libraries at the Bird Library during his undergraduate junior year as he worked on his ventures. He initially joined to explore a business idea for a music application where you would be able to stream the same music with your friends. Rich’s next business venture was a mental health application. Now, as a graduate student, matured with past experiences from the ventures he tried to explore before, Rich has a new exciting business idea – Beam Wallet.
To put it in simple terms, Beam Wallet is the “Venmo for cryptocurrencies.” What is unique about Beam Wallet is how simplified it is compared to other platforms. The way that cryptocurrency moves now is through addresses and hashes. Rich is working a way around that by selecting a name and domain for your crypto wallet that could be substituted for the hashes. Currently, Rich is researching on how to provide affordable service to his potential users.
Rich came up with the idea when he was thinking of how to completely get rid of physical wallets. Phones can now replace debit and credit cards, but Rich is thinking of a future where his users will have the ability to replace traditional paper documents like identification cards, passports, driver’s licenses and house deeds with digital NFTs instead.
As an ambitious man, things can become overwhelming. Even though you are passionate about your venture, burn out can make you lose passion for your work. However, Rich has cracked a code. He has gamified his work life. He tries to see working on his business like a challenging game, so he never gets bored or tired of it. Naturally, this idea comes from his past obsession for gaming.
Rich has now moved on to other hobbies such as reading mangas and working out with his trainer. Always looking to better himself, coming up with exciting ventures and most importantly, being engaged in what he is doing, there is no doubt that Rich could really change how the cryptocurrency world works.
Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Natalie Lui ‘22; photo supplied