Hong
Kong
and
Singapore
are
the
usual
destinations
for
crypto
fund
headquarters
in
Asia.
Jason
Fang,
managing
partner
and
co-founder
at
Sora
Ventures,
disagrees,
picking
Taipei
as
the
place
to
open
a
new
office
and
run
the
fund
from
and
host
the
next
iteration
of
its
Sora
Summit
conference,
which
takes
place
on
Dec.
16
during
the
Taiwan
Blockchain
Week.
Fang
says
that
the
only
crypto
companies
that
really
only
need
to
be
in
these
cities
are
exchanges,
because
of
the
legal
clarity.
It’s
not
the
case
for
venture
capital
firms.
“A
lot
of
these
exchanges
looked
into
areas
like
Hong
Kong
and
Singapore,
where
regulation
is
a
lot
more
black
and
white,
which
actually
protects
the
exchange,”
he
said.
Taiwan
doesn’t
have
the
same
sort
of
strict
regulations
and
licensing.
“In
Taiwan,
we
don’t
have
any
restrictions
in
terms
of
any
exchanges.
So,
you
can
have
anything
you
want.
There
are
no
restrictions,
and
you
don’t
need
a
VPN
to
run
anything,”
he
continued.
Fang
says
this
is
important
because,
as
a
VC,
he
is
working
on
the
bleeding
edge
of
tech
and
exploring
new
segments
that
aren’t
yet
regulated.
If
he
were
licensed
under
Hong
Kong
or
Singapore’s
law
there
would
be
plenty
of
restrictions
on
what
he
can
invest
in,
or
say.
“Sora
Ventures
invests
in
forward-thinking,
innovative
areas
often
beyond
current
regulatory
scope
–
ventures
that
are
ahead
of
their
time
and
not
yet
on
regulators’
radar,”
he
said.
Fang
has
plenty
of
experience
in
Hong
Kong.
Way
back
in
2018
–
an
eon
ago
in
crypto
years
–
Sora
Ventures
hosted
its
inaugural
Sora
Summit
in
Macau,
a
Chinese
autonomous
territory
best
known
for
its
casinos.
A
young
Sam
Bankman-Fried
was
in
attendance,
and
the
conference
left
such
a
positive
impression
on
him
he
canceled
his
return
ticket
to
the
U.S.
and
stayed
in
nearby
Hong
Kong
to
plot
how
to
bring
Alameda
Research
(and
later
FTX)
to
Asia,
eventually
opening
an
office
for
this
hedge
fund
in
the
city,
so
he
recalled
in
his
trial.
The
rest
is
history.
Crypto
of
the
current
year
looks
much
different
than
in
2018.
Beijing’s
attitude
towards
it
has
changed,
and
running
a
digital
assets
fund
in
Shanghai
isn’t
the
best
idea
from
a
compliance
perspective.
Developing
drugs
on
Bitcoin
Central
to
crypto’s
thesis
is
revolutionizing
finance
through
decentralization,
taking
out
rent-seeking
intermediaries.
DeFi,
or
decentralized
finance,
with
all
its
flaws
and
epic
hacks,
is
the
synthesis
of
this,
linking
up
parties
and
counterparties
with
efficiency
that
only
smart
contracts
can
provide.
Decentralized
Autonomous
Organizations,
or
DAOs,
are
like
the
corporations
of
DeFi
–
a
series
of
smart
contracts
that
emulate
an
organization
with
roles,
titles,
and
rewards.
But
what
if
these
DAOs
could
be
used
to
do
more
than
create
the
next
pepecoin?
One
incarnation
might
include
DeSci
–
or
decentralized
science
–
hacking
together
answers
to
medical
problems
by
building
drugs
via
DAOs
and
not
big
pharma.
“Another
category
that
we’re
extremely
bullish
on,
but
again,
a
very,
very
early
narrative,
is
decentralized
science,”
Fang
said.
“Science,
in
general,
is
a
much
larger
industry
that
can
be
disrupted.”
Fang’s
vision
is
to
reduce
the
obstacles
in
drug
development
over
time.
Through
DeSci
he
says
the
community
can
better
reward
scientists
who
make
meaningful,
real-world
contributions,
rather
NFTs
of
frogs
and
monkeys.
The
idea,
he
says,
is
over
the
course
of
the
coming
years,
and
the
goal
is
to
be
able
to
shrink
a
bottleneck
for
drug
development
while
compensating
scientists
well
for
their
time.
Coinbase
CEO
Brian
Armstrong
is
also
a
believer
in
DeSci
and
will
be
keynoting
Sora
Summit
to
promote
ResearchHub,
a
platform
he
co-founded
that
rewards
researchers
with
cryptocurrency
for
sharing
their
work
and
advancing
science.
Everything
is
so
damn
centralized
Sora’s
DeSci
ambitions,
like
everything
else
it
is
investing
in,
are
based
on
the
Bitcoin
blockchain.
There’s
a
whole
DeSci
universe
out
there,
and
Sora
isn’t
the
first
to
make
moves
in
this
space.
But
it’s
the
first
to
do
it
completely
on
Bitcoin.
Fang
views
centralization
in
the
crypto
industry
as
a
significant
risk,
particularly
in
its
potential
to
stifle
innovation
and
create
vulnerabilities
in
blockchain
projects.
“Solana,
for
example,
has
a
Solana
Ventures
or
the
Solana
Foundation,”
he
said.
“The
majority
of
their
development
that’s
going
on
is
basically
invested
by
these
two
companies,
which
is
basically
a
centralized
entity.”
“If
one
of
those
two
things
vanishes,
they’re
f—d,”
he
continued.
Bitcoin,
he
says,
will
walk
a
very
different
path
because
miners
–
as
decentralized
as
you
can
get
–
are
the
ones
benefiting
from
development
in
bitcoin
utility
thanks
to
the
higher
fees
and
are,
in
turn,
funding
it.
And
a
strong
mining
industry
strengthens
the
decentralization
and
security
of
the
network,
like
a
sort
of
flywheel.
“Miners
are
way
richer
than
Solana
Foundation,”
he
says.