Reclaiming Data Sovereignty: Ownership and Distribution Rebuilt

An Exclusive 2022 Interview with Tim Gong, Founding Partner of SIG China & Chairman of ByteTrade

The future architecture of Web3 needs to support digital asset transactions based on massive personal information.

DeFi that exists only as a financial layer is unsustainable. For it to endure, DeFi must be integrated with applications that generate value from information.

Editor’s Note: Recently, SIG led a $40 million funding round for ByteTrade, a Singapore-based platform for Web3 applications. The move drew significant attention, given SIG’s reputation as the renowned early investor in ByteDance, with a broader portfolio of over 260 companies and more than $4 billion in total investments.

The investment was further highlighted by the personal commitment of Tim Gong, Founding Partner of SIG China, who assumed the role of Chairman. With a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton and a background in physics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Gong brings deep technical expertise to his role.

The decision by such a storied firm and seasoned investor to build in Web3 prompted important questions about their long-term vision. In this exclusive interview, MarsBit News speaks with Tim Gong to explore the strategy and thinking behind this significant move. The full transcript follows.

Could you start by introducing SIG, also known as Susquehanna International Group?

SIG is a global quantitative trading firm with a 35-year history. As a leading market maker and proprietary trading firm, we use advanced high-frequency trading algorithms and technology to trade our own capital, all while maintaining an excellent compliance record. Despite our significant presence in the global financial market, we’ve remained a low-profile firm, rarely making headlines or appearing in public reports. The Wall Street Journal once described us as a “mysterious and opaque black box” because of this.

SIG Asia Investments is our global venture capital arm, fully owned by the parent company. We are one of the more successful early-stage investment funds of the Web2 era. We were initial and early-stage investors in ByteDance and Musical.ly, and have been deeply involved in their growth from the very beginning. Today, we remain one of ByteDance’s largest institutional investors. Beyond that, we’ve invested in over 260 startups across China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and the United States. Many of these have already seen successful exits, and many more are only now starting to emerge. This portfolio also includes ByteTrade, a company incubated by SIG.

From a venture capitalist’s perspective, could you briefly share your view on the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem?

I am very optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency. To me, it’s just the natural next step in the information revolution. We went from read-only in Web1, to read-write in Web2, and now we’re moving to ownership and trading in Web3. When you turn information into a digital asset and decentralize it, you can solve so many of the problems we see with today’s Web2 platforms. It truly gives ownership back to the users, prevents these big platforms from acting recklessly or even maliciously, and makes the rules of the game transparent. That’s what people really mean when they say, “code is law”.

But we have to be realistic. We’re still in the very early days of blockchain and cryptocurrency. The reality is, the entire crypto market still moves in lockstep with tech stocks, and its total market cap isn’t even as big as Apple’s. So from a purely financial view, it’s not really an “alternative asset” yet. It acts more like one big tech stock you could call “crypto”. For Web3 to really break out, it must build a completely new economic model—one that’s not dependent on Web2—and form a true, self-sustaining ecosystem. That’s the only way it becomes an asset class that moves independently—or even inversely—of traditional tech and finance.

This whole revolution—turning information into assets—plays directly into SIG’s two biggest strengths: sophisticated financial trading and deep technological innovation. I really believe we can make a significant contribution here.

Think about traditional finance. One of its defining features is regulation. A huge part of SIG’s success has always been our ability to innovate within a strict regulatory framework. Right now, both Web2 and crypto are running mostly on self-discipline. But in a largely unregulated space like crypto, that “decentralized” banner has been used to cover a lot of undisciplined behavior, and the results haven’t always been great.

That’s where the new technology creates an incredible opportunity. Instead of just relying on self-discipline, we can use decentralized tech to give ownership back to the users, provide them with technical and financial tools to capture value, and hard-code the rules. We can actually transform that idea of self-discipline into “code is law”. That’s the future we’re focused on building.

What are your thoughts on the past, present, and future of DeFi?

From my perspective, DeFi really emerged from the frustrations people had with centralized exchanges. On one hand, you have unregulated exchanges that can act maliciously, and on the other, you have compliant ones that are often too slow to keep up with financial innovation. I see DeFi as a powerful balance between these extremes. It operates in a lighter regulatory environment, but more importantly, it gives users the tools to protect themselves, like managing their own keys and verifying the code. That’s why I’m confident DeFi is here to stay.

On a technical level, I think what DeFi has really demonstrated is that blockchain isn’t just a theoretical concept; it’s robust enough to handle complex, real-world financial applications.

However, one of the biggest challenges I see is that DeFi can’t be sustainable if it only exists as a financial layer. It needs to be connected to something that generates a self-sustaining loop of value. I think that’s why we’ve unfortunately seen many projects, even some of the largest ones, end up looking a lot like Ponzi schemes.

So, for me, the key to DeFi’s long-term success is integration with applications that generate real value from information. When these applications create value, a sustainable ecosystem can form. It’s a bit like traditional banking—a bank thrives because its borrowers take loans and generate returns that are higher than the interest they have to pay.

A great example of what I mean is GameFi. I believe the game itself should be the source of value, with DeFi simply providing the financial infrastructure for exchange and pricing. In my view, true GameFi is “Play-to-Earn”, where finance empowers the gaming experience. This is very different from the “Earn-to-Play” models we see so often, which I feel reduce games to being mere financial instruments.

How do you view the fundamental nature of Web3?

The way I see it, the core of Web3 is really about establishing ownership, pricing, and the ability to trade information. At its heart, it’s still about information distribution, or exchange. That’s why I believe Web3 is a genuine revolution in how information is distributed, one that’s driven by blockchain technology and the financial logic of crypto.

If you look at the Web2 world, we basically saw two main models emerge. There’s the “people finding information” paradigm, which is perfectly represented by search engines like Google. Then you have “information finding people”, which is what recommendation engines like ByteDance are built on. In both of those models, the common thread is that large, centralized platforms are the ones who develop and control the algorithms that ultimately determine what information we all see.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these platforms brought enormous benefits by making access to information and services incredibly efficient. But at the same time, they’ve raised some really critical questions that we now have to grapple with: Who are these algorithms really serving? And how much are they shaping the way we all think?

So, from my perspective, for any innovation to truly be called Web3, it has to provide answers to those questions. This means giving individuals back control over their own information and the algorithms that manage it. But I also think it’s crucial to understand that the technology alone isn’t enough. We also have to design an economic and financial system that gives people a real incentive to participate consistently and sustainably over the long term.

What is the most important technology in Web3 to achieve efficient, fair, and low-cost information exchange or digital asset transactions?

As I perceive it, the first core technology is what I call the Personal Cloud. You can think of it as a private information warehouse for each user, combined with personalized intelligent bots that they control. The technical challenges here are quite significant, and they’re the questions we’re focused on solving. For instance, how do we enable information exchange while making sure the user always stays in control? How do we transform these “personal software bots” into a product that’s as intuitive and user-friendly as the iPhone? And how can we package complex distribution algorithms to run efficiently on a personal device or an edge cloud?

The core technology teams within our SIG portfolio have actually been researching these engineering problems for years. Now, through ByteTrade, we’re seeing the first real applications emerge from that work, and I believe people will be able to see them very soon.

Perhaps a simpler analogy is to imagine giving every person their own decentralized version of Google’s search engine or ByteDance’s recommendation engine. The crucial difference is that these intelligent bots are designed to serve the individual personally and intelligently, rather than serving the goals of a centralized platform.

And then the second core technology, of course, is the blockchain and cryptocurrency layer. That’s the part that makes the whole system economically viable by enabling all of this information to be priced and traded.

You just discussed the technology of distributed intelligent bots, whose core was already established in the Web2 era. Could you elaborate on how blockchain technology will be applied in the Web3 era?

As far as I’m concerned, what blockchain fundamentally does is turn information—both the private data users generate and the content distributed to them—into high-frequency, tradable digital assets. This is the mechanism that allows the entire Web3 ecosystem to function. I also believe this is the key for DeFi to become truly sustainable and finally move beyond the pitfalls of Ponzi-like structures.

You know, a lot of people today point to scalability as the biggest technical challenge for blockchain. They say that existing public L1 chains can barely support DeFi applications, let alone a global information platform. However, I see things a little differently. If we correctly identify blockchain as the “financial system” of Web3, then this quest for infinite on-chain scaling becomes unnecessary. After all, we don’t expect our online banking platform in Web2 to handle the same traffic as TikTok.

That’s why I don’t believe the future of Web3 is a “fat protocol, thin application” model, where all information and logic has to be forced on-chain. My view is that we should fully leverage the massive and mature application ecosystem that Web2 has already built. For the vast majority of high-frequency application-layer tasks, such as video playback, AI inference, content retrieval, recommendation algorithms, trade matching, and price calculation, the logic will continue to run off-chain, yet still in an online environment. The crucial difference is that the digital assets generated by these applications will then be settled and traded on-chain. In other words, I see Web3 as a combination of “fat protocols and fat applications.”

So, for me, the most critical area of blockchain technology is its connection to these powerful off-chain systems, like the intelligent bots in a Personal Cloud. Making this seamless will require significant innovation in APIs, programming languages, no-code tools, virtual machines, and more.

At the same time, we’re very optimistic about a multi-chain ecosystem. I believe a multi-chain approach is the only way to achieve true decentralization. I envision a future where each information application can run on its own L1 or L2 chain, specifically optimized for its digital assets, with all these chains interoperating through cross-chain bridges.

How will distributed bots be connected with the metaverse and blockchain in the future?

Let me paint a picture of what I believe the metaverse could really be. Imagine you have your own intelligent bot assistant. This bot would act as your trusted agent in the digital world. It could manage the private key to your blockchain hot wallet, signing off on all the small micropayments you need to make. It could also be your social guide, recommending new virtual places or friends, and even handling networking and conversations for you.

Going even further, this assistant could help you turn your own personal data into digital assets and trade them to earn an income. The whole point is to free you up to focus completely on what you want to do, whether that’s entertainment or work. And that, to me, is where the real value is created.

The metaverse will be a series of dApps built on the Web3 foundation of distributed information exchange and digital asset trading. These applications will need to provide a user experience that is just as seamless as what we’re used to in Web2. It’s on top of these dApps that all the applications for virtual and augmented sensory worlds will ultimately run.

We’ve long heard the phrase “information is a digital asset”. What is the key requirement to make this a reality across different application scenarios?

First, it depends on the technological innovation and engineering practice that I mentioned earlier. I’m talking about that combination of a multi-chain ecosystem working together with off-chain, peer-to-peer intelligent bots that make up the Personal Cloud.

Second, it’s about identifying the right application scenarios. It’s not enough to just have low transaction costs and clear benefits—that’s the baseline. Let’s take the metaverse as a practical example. In that world, every single interaction we have generates value. To actually realize that value, the first step is ensuring that the valuable information belongs to us as individuals, not to a platform. From there, decentralized services running on our Personal Cloud can calculate the corresponding asset values. And finally, highly efficient cross-chain trading bots can make sure everyone receives their fair share of those assets. A perfect illustration of this would be a decentralized content recommendation engine that runs on your own Personal Cloud, using your own user-controlled data to make suggestions.

We’re already seeing the door open for these kinds of information-based applications with GameFi and SocialFi. They’ve started the process of turning information into digital assets. For instance, you can look at a project like STEPN as a form of “STEPFi”—it successfully transformed motion data into a digital asset. Of course, I think it’s important to acknowledge that these application ecosystems are still very much in their early stages and are far from being fully developed.

Could you give us a detailed introduction to ByteTrade and BPC (ByteTrade Personal Cloud), including the engines, functions, and recently launched products?

BPC, or the ByteTrade Personal Cloud, is the embodiment of that first core Web3 technology I was discussing: personal information storage combined with intelligent algorithmic bots that interact directly with the blockchain. Our fundamental goal is to build a decentralized software infrastructure that empowers anyone to develop their own applications. This foundation includes:

• A decentralized storage network
• A next-generation smart contract execution engine
• An API platform for public chains and exchanges
• A recommendation engine
• Tools for building and packaging intelligent bots and a cloud-native execution platform

Then, building on top of that core technical infrastructure, we incubated a layer of financial infrastructure, which is an area that aligns perfectly with SIG’s deep expertise in financial trading. This layer includes:

• Wallets, but more importantly, automated wallets managed by intelligent bots.
• Cross-chain value exchange networks. OBridge is a great example—it uses personal algorithmic bots to create a decentralized cross-chain bridge and exchange. Compared to the bridges in use today, we believe OBridge offers a significant improvement in security, capital efficiency, and compliance.
• Trading tools. For instance, CODA is developing tools and algorithms for trading options in the crypto market, which is an essential component for any personal, intelligent trading bot.

On top of this infrastructure, ByteTrade will incubate Web3 applications focused on information distribution. Let me give you a few examples:

• PeopleMint: A SocialFi project designed for content creators, where we will experiment with bot-driven content analysis, distribution, and the corresponding token pricing and incentive models.
• Blocktube: Our vision for a Web3 video platform. In this model, each video is an NFT, and users pay the creator’s tokens to watch, pay for bandwidth, and can even earn rewards by helping upload content for others. It also allows developers to build their own personal intelligent recommendation bots featuring different types of content.
• ByteChat: A decentralized instant messaging system where each bot can function as a chat server, enabling direct communication between any two users.

We’re excited about what we’re building, and I hope you’ll keep a close eye on these projects as they develop.

At your age and with your experience, are you also going “All In” on crypto?

In my opinion, technology has always been an incredible force for revolution and for improving people’s lives. Even though it’s often developed by a small group of elites, I believe it ultimately becomes an asset that belongs to all of humanity, passed down from one generation to the next.

The challenge, however, arises when that technology is controlled by just a few—whether it’s a state, a family, or a massive platform. It’s just human nature that they will seek to maximize their own interests. Now, if the benefits they create lead to a virtuous cycle, that’s fantastic—they can use them to build a better ecosystem for everyone. But if it creates a vicious cycle, the outcomes can be really harmful. And too often, the easiest way to profit is by exploiting our very human weaknesses.

In the Web2 era, the only constraints we had on that kind of exploitation were regulation or relying on corporate self-discipline. But in the Web3 era, for the first time, the technology itself genuinely offers the hope of overcoming these human weaknesses, because it’s grounded in principles like decentralization and “CODE IS LAW”. That’s why I’m convinced that the decentralization of capital markets and the rise of DAO-ification are simply inevitable.

In this new world, things like brand recognition and massive scale aren’t the most important things anymore. As someone who has been in this industry for a while, I feel like my personal “all in” has its limits. What I truly hope to do is inspire the younger generation to use these tools to work toward a world that is more open, more fair, more efficient, and ultimately, more balanced. To wrap this up, I’ll just borrow a phrase from our industry: what we really need is for more people to go from HODL to BUIDL.

Translated from the original interview published by MarsBit News.