Exclusive Interview with Jessie, Head of Investment and Incubation at ZetaChain: In the Era of AI × Web3, What Is Truly Underestimated Is Execution力.

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

As AI becomes a definitive trend, Web3 infrastructure is迎来了一个新的分水岭：either continue to remain in the technical narrative within the industry, or move towards real users and actual usage scenarios.

In the last cycle, many infrastructure projects accumulated a large number of developers, but it has always been difficult to produce applications that are truly widely used. "AI × Web3" is not lacking in narratives; what is truly scarce is transforming the narrative into products and getting enough users to genuinely use them. Entering the AI era, whether applications have real usage value has become more important. This question has been further amplified, forcing projects to reassess the relationship between product, growth, and execution.

On January 27, ZetaChain announced the official launch of ZetaChain 2.0 and introduced the first consumer-facing application——the privacy-centric AI interface Anuma, which has entered the testing phase and is now open for a public waiting list.

Odaily Planet Daily seized this opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with Jessie, the head of investment and incubation at ZetaChain, focusing on the developmental path of AI × Web3, the directional choices of ZetaChain 2.0, and how the first consumer-facing application Anuma embodies its product and growth logic, etc., summarizing the key contents of the interview discussion. Below are the highlights of the Q&A:

Q1 Could you briefly introduce your background? What experiences led you to delve into the Web3 industry?

I completed my high school and undergraduate studies in the United States. After graduation, I returned to China and worked in the VC industry for three years. The real impetus that pushed me towards Web3 occurred in 2021. On one hand, the traditional VC industry was entering a relatively stagnant period with few new structural opportunities; on the other hand, the cryptocurrency industry was rapidly developing in 2021. However, for me, what was more important than rising prices was that the industry was clearly moving towards the mainstream.

I saw traditional institutions, including large banks and consumer brands, begin to engage with crypto assets, NFTs, and collaborate on-chain with Web3 companies, which was unimaginable before.

Although I had been exposed to the cryptocurrency industry as early as 2015 and 2016, it was not until 2021 that I clearly recognized the qualitative change in the industry, and it was at that point that I made the formal decision to enter.

Q2 As the head of investment and incubation at ZetaChain, what are the core goals of your department?

From the very beginning, ZetaChain's most core metric has been the number of users, rather than indicators like TVL that are more focused on capital scale. Whether at the start of my tenure or during discussions about the company's mission and vision with the founders, there was a clear consensus: ZetaChain aims to create truly large-scale application-level products aimed at C-end users, hence "users" has always been the most important judgment standard.

In different stages of development, the focus of market efforts has also varied. From the early entry of the product into the market, to the token launch and the period following it, we primarily focused on building brand recognition and establishing foundational systems. During this phase, we organized around 150 to 200 offline events in various regions globally while pushing the token to almost all major trading platforms to ensure that users in different countries and regions could understand ZetaChain. The core goal for this stage was to fully open up the "entry" and "awareness" of users.

Over the past two years, this phase's goal has basically been accomplished. Starting last year, with the development and gradual implementation of AI-related products, our market objectives have clearly shifted—from “making more people aware of us” to “truly retaining and serving real users.”

This year, we have a very clear goal: to drive the ZetaChain ecosystem applications to achieve at least 500,000 monthly active users. This is not easy, so the focus of the current team is clearly divided into two parts: one is to continue advancing brand building, and the other is result-oriented user growth marketing, centered on acquiring and activating real users.

Q3 Currently, ZetaChain has covered over ten million users. From a market perspective, which data indicators best reflect your judgment that “the product and ecosystem are heading in the right direction”?

In my view, ZetaChain 2.0 is the stage where we truly begin to gain momentum. The core point in judging whether the product and ecosystem are on the right track is not the overall scale of on-chain data, but whether the 2.0 product is starting to be genuinely used and accepted by more Web2 users.

In the past two years, as a public chain, our ecosystem development was relatively in a "multi-directional parallel" state— as long as someone was building, we would support it regardless of direction. This was a very normal phase in the early stage of public chains. However, after entering 2.0, we made a more explicit choice to focus on AI-related application directions.

Therefore, now when we assess whether the direction is correct, the most key indicators we look at are the actual usage situations of Web2 users, such as the scale of users actually using the product, activity levels, and whether there are continuous usage behaviors. From this perspective, the current stage is still a process of “just beginning verification” for us, and this real user data is key to judging whether this directional choice is correct.

Q4 Behind these key data, what do you think is the most underestimated aspect of ZetaChain currently? Is it user scale, technical maturity, or what developers are currently building?

This is a great question. My answer may sound somewhat "abstract," but I believe it is very critical—what is most underestimated about ZetaChain is the mindset of long-term construction and the ability to execute continuously.

In the current market environment, where information is highly transparent, both users and investors are quite clear: the vast majority of projects enter a state of stagnation soon after the token is launched. Many teams may maintain certain activities before the unlock, but after it is completed, regardless of the project's size, innovation and iteration often slow down rapidly, or even completely stop.

What differentiates ZetaChain is that we consistently think and try: what directions can genuinely bring about real usage, and what innovations can generate long-term user value. Over the past year, we cannot guarantee that every attempt has been successful, but we can certainly say—we have never stopped product iteration and directional exploration.

In my view, the ability to continuously experiment, quickly adjust, and keep pushing forward in a complex or even adverse market environment is a very rare and valuable competitive advantage. This aspect is exactly what the current market often underestimates about ZetaChain.

Q5 ZetaChain initially stood out in interoperable L1 with a more simplified and universal approach, and 2.0 clearly extends this capability to AI. How do you judge that now is the right time to incorporate AI into the core strategy?

From the perspective of the entire cryptocurrency industry's development, the most successful aspect of Crypto so far has been the establishment of a highly open, permissionless system for the circulation of value and assets. This has been fully validated and has become the industry's most vital foundational capability. Subsequently, whether it is stablecoins, cross-border payments, or more complex data and application forms, they are essentially extensions built on this foundation.

Rapid popularization of AI is another variable that can no longer be ignored. Over the past year, AI has entered the daily lives of ordinary users at an unprecedented pace and has formed extremely high usage frequency and user engagement. This means that the generation, use, and concentration of data are being dramatically amplified.

It is against this backdrop that we believe "now" is a very critical timepoint. On one hand, AI's reliance on data is deepening; on the other hand, the centralization of data also raises issues of privacy, security, and control. The market is beginning to genuinely feel these contradictions, and this is where decentralized infrastructure can exert its value.

From ZetaChain's perspective, 2.0 is not simply about “chasing the AI trend”, but rather an extension of design philosophy. In the past, we addressed the interoperability issues in a multi-chain world; today, we face the data collaboration and privacy challenges in the multi-model era. Essentially, we are always building a coordination layer across systems—extending from between chains to between models.

We believe AI has become a definitive trend, but the underlying issues of data ownership and privacy have yet to be systematically resolved. When models become new infrastructures, data and memory become core assets, privacy is no longer an added feature but a structural necessity. Therefore, incorporating AI into the core strategy and building capabilities around data and privacy is a natural extension of architectural logic, rather than a directional shift.

This judgment also stems from the genetic makeup of our team. ZetaChain's core contributor Ankur Nandwani is also a co-creator of Brave and $BAT. Brave, with privacy as its core philosophy, provides users with a fast, secure, and non-tracking browsing experience. As of October last year, its monthly active users had reached 101 million. This long-term insistence on privacy has made us more certain: in the multi-model era, true infrastructure must simultaneously address interoperability and data sovereignty issues.

Q6 ZetaChain 2.0 has launched its first consumer-facing application Anuma. As a product that can run across multiple AI models while retaining user memory, how do you hope the outside world views Anuma? Is it a growth product or a “window to understand ZetaChain 2.0”?

For us, Anuma is primarily an independent consumer-level product, rather than merely a showcase to "explain ZetaChain 2.0."

From the product and market perspective, we made it clear from the beginning that Anuma's target users are Web2 users, not just Web3 users. Our marketing, product design, and user communication are all done according to the logic of Web2 products—the aim is to reach those users who are willing to use the product long-term and genuinely need it, rather than merely showcasing technological concepts.

ZetaChain 2.0 is more like the underlying infrastructure that addresses data, privacy, and collaboration issues; whereas Anuma offers an intuitive and usable product form for ordinary users based on this foundation. The relationship between the two is that of underlying capability and upper-layer application, but in execution order, we chose to focus first on refining the product itself.

In this sense, Anuma is not a "facade to explain 2.0," but a product that has been honed to Web2 standards. We simply believe that, in the current environment, using blockchain to protect data and privacy is the best technical choice to achieve this goal.

Q7 From the market and growth perspective, which category of developers does ZetaChain 2.0 currently prioritize attracting? Is it Web3 native Builders, independent AI developers, or traditional teams undergoing transformation?

Currently, we prioritize independent developers in the AI field and AI teams that already possess certain product capabilities, rather than the traditionally defined Web3 native Builders.

Our developer strategy is not limited to Web3. We chose blockchain as the underlying framework because it is currently a more suitable technical choice for data collaboration, privacy protection, and openness, rather than merely wishing to confine developers within the cryptocurrency industry.

In practical execution, a lot of the team's current efforts are focused on collaborating with the AI developer ecosystem, including independent developers and AI startup teams, while investments in purely Web3 scenarios are relatively less.

We hope ZetaChain 2.0 will be understood as foundational technical infrastructure aimed at the AI era: developers can focus on doing well with products and applications, rather than revolving around tokens or short-term narratives. This is also why we judge that the AI developer community aligns better with the long-term direction of ZetaChain 2.0.

Q8 In this current cycle, many infrastructure projects face a common problem: there are many developers, but very few applications actually come to fruition. What do you think is the most important path to avoid dependency in the ZetaChain 2.0 phase?

I think the most important thing is to avoid path dependency of “only serving the Web3 internal cycle” from the very start.

In the 1.0 phase, a common practice in the industry was to attract developers and users through hackathons and token airdrops, but the results show that this model more easily attracts short-term profit-driven participants rather than teams that genuinely focus on refining products and are truly user-oriented. This is also why many infrastructure projects have “many developers but few applications running out.”

After entering 2.0, we made a very clear adjustment to our developer strategy—shifting the focus to AI Builders with a Web2 background. From the perspectives of ecosystem scale, product capabilities, and understanding of user needs, the developer base in Web2 and AI fields is more mature and thus more likely to produce genuinely usable products.

At the same time, in user and application growth, we also deliberately avoided the common “incentive-driven” methods from the previous cycle. Given that the target is to create products aimed at Web2 users, the growth logic must revert to Web2—driven by actual product strength and user growth means, rather than relying on airdrops or short-term incentives.

Ultimately, we value the starting point of developers—whether they come for short-term gains or are willing to build truly valuable applications for users long-term based on ZetaChain 2.0's underlying capabilities. This choice itself represents our most important step away from path dependency in the 2.0 phase.

Q9 From the current standpoint, how do you view the various narratives in the AI × Web3 field? Rather than "which directions are overvalued or undervalued," do you pay more attention to another layer of questions?

If I must use “overvalued or undervalued” to describe it, I feel that the problem is not the narratives themselves but the determination to execute these narratives.

Over the past two years, I have indeed seen many ideas related to AI × Web3, which are very good in principle, and some of which have even been validated in the Web2 world. From a technical perspective, Web3 is indeed a more suitable solution in many scenarios. When these projects first appeared, I would often think “this is a great idea.”

However, I am saddened to see that many projects, once launched, did not continuously invest resources to actually fulfill the initial ideas they spoke of. The story is elaborately told, but execution significantly slows down after the token is issued, even halting altogether.

So if there is something that is overvalued, I think it is expectations for "long-term execution capability"; and what is undervalued is precisely the ability to continuously invest amidst uncertainty, to keep experimenting, and to truly get things done.

This does not only occur in AI × Web3 but is a common issue across the entire Web3 industry. Many teams are full of idealism in the early stages, but after the project achieves a certain level of success, fewer and fewer are willing to continue to bear long-term risks and reinvest resources to tackle more challenging tasks.

From the perspective of industry development, this shortsightedness is truly regrettable. Because what can genuinely push Web3 towards the mainstream is never a specific narrative, but a team willing to persistently and solidly pursue a good direction.

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