Phala Network founder Marvin discusses the entrepreneurial journey in Web3 and the future of AI

Marvin's transition from an ordinary worker to a Web3 entrepreneur began in 2018. He and his partners believe that the core value of Web3 lies in solving the trust crisis, and TEE technology is the key to achieving this goal. Based on this concept, they founded Phala Network, a decentralized cloud platform based on TEE hardware.

The project faced many difficulties in its early stages, but joining the Polkadot ecosystem became a turning point. Phala adopted a strategy of fair token distribution, gaining broad support from the community. Despite lacking endorsements from top investors, Phala ultimately succeeded in launching on mainstream trading platforms, thanks to its strong community foundation and the momentum of the Polkadot ecosystem.

During the period from 2021 to 2022, Marvin and his team faced challenges in finding product-market fit ( PMF ). Upon reflection, they realized that infrastructure projects must find real application scenarios, and the team should fully focus on this goal. To this end, they moved to the United States in 2023 to be closer to the target market and users.

Through continuous experimentation and communication with potential customers, Phala gradually found a sense of PMF. Marvin emphasized that the hallmark of finding PMF is that people are willing to pay to use the product and often use it in unexpected ways.

In the process of searching for partners, Flashbots and ELIZA became key players. The collaboration with Flashbots stemmed from both parties' shared interest in TEE technology to address off-chain censorship issues on the Ethereum network. Meeting with ELIZA's founder Shawn led to the birth of the Spore project, an innovative attempt that combines AI Agent and TEE technology.

The Spore project aims to achieve truly autonomous AI, allowing AI to be self-sufficient and not rely on human financial support. After its launch, the project was highly sought after in the market, reaching a peak market value of 80 million dollars. This success made Marvin place greater importance on the AI sector and decide to delve deeper into this field.

Regarding project potential, Marvin believes that Phala is in a leading position in the infrastructure sector required for the large-scale adoption of Web3. He emphasizes that the key is to focus on the project's growth space and practical application scenarios, rather than short-term quantitative data.

Marvin believes that the current cryptocurrency market is highly retail-driven and attention-driven. He suggests that developers should think about how to capture market growth opportunities in this environment, rather than simply mimicking others. He emphasizes the importance of thinking from first principles, focusing on delivering unique value.

In the intersection of AI and cryptocurrency, Marvin is particularly focused on two directions: AiFi( AI finance) and swarm( multi-AI agent interaction). He suggests paying attention to the most popular AI-related posts on social media to grasp market trends.

Finally, Marvin recommended a few industry figures worth paying attention to, including members of the Nous Research team, Shawn and Yohei Nakajima, who have demonstrated strong building capabilities and market insights in the AI field.