Zhuangchen Zhou, better known as "JJ", is a Community Manager at Ledger, a French cryptocurrency hardware wallet company. Prior to his venture into the world of technology, JJ was a rowing coach at the Chinese Olympic Rowing team, working with Western coaches such as Steve Redgrave and Paul Thompson to help Chinese rowers win Olympic gold medals.
JJ received his Certificate of Rowing Leadership from Community Rowing Inc. in 2017 after receiving his BA in International Relations from Tufts University in 2013. At Tufts, JJ was part of the Tufts University Rowing Team and joked that his full-time degree was in rowing, and his university major was his minor.
JJ's intellectual interest is twofold - to connect with people and understand how the world works. His first curiosity brought him around the world - Russia, Kenya, Brazil, and Northwestern China to work on documentary photography projects under the guidance of Gary Knight,
Samuel James, Heather Barry, and Sherman Teichman from the Institute of Global Leadership at Tufts University. His second curiosity pushed him to dive nose deep into political philosophy and studied the traditions of western political philosophy under professor
Robert Devine. It was in this intense period that JJ sharpened his skill to understand complex ideas, see the world in thousand shades of gray, and formed a post-Christian, anti-nihilistic worldview heavily influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche.
The combination of his interest and skills in storytelling and philosophy (and political economy to a certain extent) led JJ to Bitcoin, which he considers to be the soundest money in the world and could be part of the solution to economic issues caused by the domination of Keynesian Economics of the 20th century.
I met JJ as a freshman who wanted to do a video documentary on the veterans of the Great March, uniquely both the Communists and the Nationalists. I was struck by his intelligence, determination, and began a four year mentorship which culminated in his strong collaborations with the programs of The Program on Narrative Documentary Practice. My last encounter with him at Tufts was a fun one, as we had many conversations as he helped me pack up the greater portion of the 10,000 volumes of my “Labyrinth,” dominantly my collection of personal books within the Institute Library.
Then I came across this stunning and unusual accomplishment of endurance, which shocked me, but given his tenacity and powerful persona, did not surprise me. It's been my pleasure to introduce him to Convisero member, Alex Gladstein, who given his interest in Bitcoin, Alex had sent on this provoking article.