Anndy Lian
Anndy Lian: In the noisy Web3 world, insist on being the most unpopular awakening.
In the noisy Web3 world, narratives often ring louder than facts, and the emergence of new terms often outpaces the iterative rhythm of technology.
From ICO to DeFi, from NFT to RWA, and to the latest round of AI+Crypto... the concepts in the industry are constantly innovating, with a pace that almost surpasses people's understanding of its essence.
The core of Web3 should be built on consensus - decentralization, openness, and community-driven.
However, after many years of rapid expansion and capital intervention, these originally solid values are being diluted: more and more projects rely on narratives to build value, more and more people treat Web3 as a trend rather than a belief, and those who can truly maintain community consensus awareness are becoming increasingly rare.
Because of this, Anndy Lian (Twitter account: @anndylian) is particularly precious.
He has a formalized resume: advisor to the Mongolian government, board member of the Hyundai Group in South Korea, cross-national digital strategy maker, author of multiple bestsellers... By rights, he should have become the most 'decent' and 'safe' voice in the industry.
But he chose a different path — lonelier, sharper; less pleasing, but more real.
He does not blindly trust regulation, does not chase trends, does not cater to power. Among many identities, he always retains a more essential self-positioning: a person who still takes the original intention of Web3 seriously.
And such persistence is rare in today’s industry.
Introduction of this episode's guest
Anndy Lian, a blockchain expert in the field of international government cooperation, has served as a Web3 policy and digital consultant in multiple countries including South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia;
A bestselling author, he has written works such as (Blockchain Revolution 2030) (NFT: From Zero to Hero), covering policies, industries, and public education;
An active investor and a board member/advisor for several companies, he has long focused on early-stage projects, technological infrastructure, and the development of the global digital economy;
He has nearly 200,000 followers on X (Twitter), making him one of Singapore's most influential Web3 opinion content creators.
———-I am a dividing line———-
█ “The decentralization of Web3 has long been dead”
For a long time, Anndy’s work has been carried out in the meeting rooms of government agencies.
In 2017, multiple countries began exploring digital governance, which led him to participate in the formulation of digital asset regulatory frameworks in Singapore, South Korea, Mongolia, and other places, discussing 'how to understand Web3' with regulators at the same table.
This experience of 'close contact' with the system allows him to see the true logic when regulation stands from the national perspective:
Financial powers are concerned with how to integrate Web3 into the existing financial system.
Emerging countries care whether blockchain can empower infrastructure.
And the vast majority of regulatory standards are essentially protecting existing capital!
“Regulation will definitely come! But the rules set by the country are mostly protecting the wealthy.”
This is his most direct and honest judgment.
Long-term experience within the system has not made him trust power more; instead, it has made him clearer about how power operates, how it influences the market, and how it shapes the industry. Thus, he draws a clear judgment —
“Crypto needs regulation, but it is not the government or any power institution that regulates it, but a set of trustworthy rules.”
Behind this sentence is his vigilance towards the boundaries of power, and his protection of the original intention of the industry. It is this insight that ultimately leads him to say:
“The decentralization of Web3 has long been dead.”
This is neither pessimism nor rebellion, but his calm analysis of the reality of order.
In his view, precisely because decentralization is incredibly difficult in reality, it is even more necessary for someone to maintain distance from power and leave time for the community and users — those who truly allow Web3 to exist.
█ Finding real value in the ruins of narrative
If we put the history of Web3 on a timeline, we will see a familiar pattern: narrative birth → rapid expansion → capital influx → group frenzy → logical fragmentation → story sinking.
ICO, DeFi, NFT, GameFi, RWA... without exception. Anndy does not oppose new narratives, but he opposes 'replacing facts with narratives'.
When discussing the hottest RWA in the current market, he offered a viewpoint that made the entire industry uncomfortable:
“If a real estate developer performs well, there is no need to go on-chain; if not, no one will buy even if it goes on-chain. Many RWAs are metaphysical stories.”
NFTs are the same in his eyes:
“Apart from art, the underlying logic of most NFTs is just money-grabbing.
But he is not a person who takes a counter-narrative stance. He is just clearer than most people: what can truly form long-term value will never rely on emotional accumulation, but on the sedimentation of ability.
If he has to give an answer, these capabilities are the true foundation of Web3 in the next decade:
1. AI + Blockchain: The next generation of consensus engine
In his view, the underlying structure of Web4 has already vaguely appeared:
AI determines consensus
Blockchain carries the underlying architecture
Humanity reduces subjective manipulation of the system
Governance rights shift from organizations to models
“I believe in code more than ever, trust AI, and therefore trust humanity more cautiously.”
This is a technical judgment, as well as a governance philosophy.
2. Prediction Market + Oracle: The underestimated 'infrastructure capability'
Prediction markets are not just 'betting on the future', they can serve risk management, asset pricing, social consensus, financial products... while Oracles are the entry points for all off-chain information to enter on-chain. He believes:
“They are not tracks, but foundational capabilities that can exist for years.”
In other words, it is truly something that crosses cycles.
3. Privacy: the 'standard capability' for all chains in the future
He believes that the privacy track will be short, but privacy capabilities will last.
“Privacy will not become a major track, but will become the standard configuration for all chains.”
Just like the security module of an operating system, it is not sexy, yet indispensable.
Therefore, his investment judgment follows one very simple logic: “Can this direction last long?”
This is his investment philosophy and his method for filtering illusions.
█ Industry bigwigs talk about the future, he talks about the present
On conference stages, the industry has always liked to talk about the 'future': project parties talk about ecology, VCs talk about cycles, experts talk about trends.
But for Anndy, the judgment of a project's value is not complicated, even close to brutal: “If a project doesn’t even have a community of 500 real users, I won’t touch it.”
This sentence sounds simple, but in an industry supported by PPT, Roadmaps, and financing news for its heat, it is almost a form of 'rebellion'.
He cannot tolerate that kind of:
0 Products
0 Users
0 Real business
Yet still packaging the project of the 'next revolution'.
He focuses on three things:
Whether the technology can really run
Whether the users truly exist
Whether the community can truly reach a consensus
He stays away from the empty talk of industry bigwigs but is willing to answer retail investors' questions in his spare time. This is not sentimentality, but an extremely simple value choice: returning to where Web3 should belong — to the crowd and community.
█ Epilogue: The Weight of the Sober
In the Web3 world, stories are often easier to tell than structures, and trends are easier to chase than value.
But when the tide recedes, what can truly remain is never the loudest voice, but the calmest judgment.
Anndy has traversed policies, capital, institutions, and communities, yet has never become smooth.
On the contrary, his boundaries have become clearer over time: no catering, no evasion, no decoration, no embellishment.
He criticizes pseudo-narratives because he believes in real value;
He questions regulation because he understands the logic of power;
He stays away from the scene but walks with users;
He knows how difficult decentralization is, yet still believes that technology should make the world fairer.
This persistence is not radical, but a form of clarity; it is not rebellious, but a vigilant watch over the essence of the industry.
The noise will continue, narratives will change, illusions will cycle. But clarity will always be scarce.
And precisely because of its scarcity, it becomes even more important.
Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CwJEZw_pMvzIVc7xURLE9g
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