Mike Belshe

CEO @BitGo ($BTGO)
Creator of HTTP/2.0

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Just wait til the regulators come help

[David Sacks @DavidSacks]

This is concerning. For the first time, a Chinese model Kimi K3 has taken #1 on the Frontend Code Arena and is scoring at or near the frontier on other benchmarks.

Meanwhile America is tying itself in knots: politicians and bureaucrats are banning new data centers, piling on state regulations, and pushing for new federal agencies to pre-approve frontier models.

This is how you lose the AI race. The rest of the world won’t play by our rules if we bog ourselves down. Permissionless innovation is how America won the internet and became the technological envy of the world. We can do it again with AI -- while addressing risks in a targeted way -- or we’ll watch our lead evaporate.

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Damn I have to think for myself... Lol

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

AI regulation is the same as an AI ban. It's a dumb idea.

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Network state school schooled by state.

[Balaji @balajis]

Should the global tech community continue investing in Malaysia?

Given recent events, I raise this question respectfully for the consideration of Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim), for the people of Malaysia, and for our friends in the Malaysian tech community. The answer will be of interest to anyone in global tech that’s considering building, investing, or expanding in Malaysia, including executives at Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, founders of tech unicorns like Coinbase and Solana, and investors at the world’s largest venture capital funds like a16z and Polychain.

As context, I am the former CTO of Coinbase and former General Partner at a16z. In October 2024, I opened a startup society called Network School in Malaysia, because I felt I’d been invited in by the government’s pro-tech policies.

Specifically, the KL20 initiative set out Malaysia’s ambition of becoming a top 20 global tech hub. Their MDEC digital nomad visas and MM2H investor visas were created to facilitate an influx of global talent and capital. And the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone was announced to facilitate the flow of capital and talent between Malaysia and Singapore, where I live. When taken in combination with Malaysia’s datacenter buildout and its policy of welcoming visa-free visits for 98% of the world, it seemed like Malaysia might be a great place to build a global tech hub that was simultaneously inexpensive and easy to visit (especially for non-Westerners).

And that’s what we did, by creating Network School. It’s an international tech community with its first node in Forest City, Malaysia. We picked Forest City because it had millions of square feet of empty space, because it was one hour from Singapore’s capital markets, and because it was within the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. Then, within 18 months, without a single penny of government money, we built Network School into a global attraction that brought thousands of engineers, investors, and builders from 70+ countries to learn technology, burn calories, earn online, and have fun, integrating with the local Malaysian economy along the way.

Indeed, in terms of quantifiable contribution to the Malaysian economy, we’ve already invested 100M+ MYR in our campus to make it startup-friendly. For perspective, that’s about 4% of the budget of Johor, the Malaysian state where Forest City is located. We employ dozens of Malaysians directly and indirectly at every level from executive to staff. We’ve backed Malaysian tech startups like Collektr, hosted events for local teams like Superteam Malaysia, and are major customers of many local businesses like barbers, laundromats, and restaurants. We’ve also revitalized the multibillion-dollar Forest City project, causing millions of MYR in real estate appreciation. And, as the video below describes, we were on the cusp of a 500M+ MYR expansion to grow our community, as well as a global merit scholarship with my friend Amjad Masad of Replit.

However, that emerging multi-billion dollar success story — which should rightfully have been hailed as a huge victory for the pro-tech policies of the Malaysian government — is at risk of being derailed by a fake story spread by an anonymous account named MP4P.

In short: on the day before the July 11 Johor elections, MP4P posted an Instagram post falsely accusing Network School of harboring illegal aliens. The sensational accusations caused a tizzy in Malaysia, until Malaysian authorities came to our campus on July 14 to investigate. (I should note that the officers were very polite and professional.) After checking hundreds of physical passports from 40 countries, including dual passport holders, the authorities confirmed to the press on July 15 that all travel documents were in order. During the process, we cooperated fully; in the thread below you can see a photo of the men, women, and children of Network School smiling and holding up their passports in the bright daylight. Our faces are shown and our names are known; we have nothing to hide.

With that said, the process is the punishment. What MP4P did is very similar to the American crime of “swatting”, because MP4P created a hoax report of a serious threat, thereby forcing the Malaysian police to take time away from protecting the Malaysian people towards investigating a nonexistent issue. Moreover, this anonymous MP4P account has also called for Malaysia to boycott Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft…a move that would cost ordinary Malaysians thousands of jobs…even while MP4P’s own Instagram collaborators promote their Apple and Google apps! I mean, we aren’t talking about a credible accuser, but just someone screaming inconsistently at the top of their lungs on social media for traffic, an all-too-common phenomenon these days.

Anyway, at this point, all further investment we were planning to make in Malaysia is on hold until we get sufficient assurance that such issues won’t recur. So are the investment plans of many of our friends, including the execs and investors at global tech firms that we brought to Forest City. Because to put it very plainly: we have invested 100M+ MYR in Malaysia, while creating jobs for dozens of Malaysians, and our faces and names are known. Our Malaysian executives and employees deserve the benefit of the doubt over anonymous internet trolls.

There are two paths forward. In the first case, if Malaysia still wants continued global tech investment, if it wants to be a top 20 tech hub, if it wants us to revitalize Forest City, then we request an audience with the Prime Minister’s office to discuss the terms of a memorandum of understanding between Network School and the Malaysian government, similar to the document recently signed between the Solana Foundation and the Kazakhstan government.

Specifics can of course be discussed, but we would publicly commit to abiding by all Malaysian laws (we already do) and respecting Malaysia’s sovereignty (never in question). In return, they’d get to know our friendly community, and realize that we actually chose Malaysia because we thought it was a great place to build a tech hub where engineers from the global South, investors from the West, and builders from Malaysia itself could meet new people, build cool things, and perhaps create millions of dollars in economic growth in the fullness of time.

That vision of peace and trade, internationalism and entrepreneurialism, is still on the table. We aren’t asking for any money — just a meeting, to help restore confidence in Malaysia as an investable jurisdiction. Alternatively, if you don’t want our investment, or those of our colleagues at billion dollar funds and trillion dollar companies, we will of course respect your wishes, and reallocate our capital to other countries instead.

Either way, we will remain friends and abide by your decision. Please let us know.

[BitGo @BitGo]

Today we're announcing institutional-grade qualified custody and off-exchange settlement for USDM1, the world's first natively issued onchain secured sovereign bond.

Institutional clients can hold this dollar-denominated sovereign bond in regulated custody on BitGo and use it for collateral and settlement through BitGo's Go Network.

Available on Stellar, Ethereum and Solana.

Read more in our PR 👇

https://t.co/NX1nxH3dh0

[Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital]

We must ban golf courses immediately…

Golf courses vs Data centers:

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@ThomasFarley Definitely agree the issuer should have more control!

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

smh... The entire system is built against "third party stock tokens" from the DTCC today. What are they gonna do? Shut down the DTCC?

[CoinDesk @CoinDesk]

LATEST: An industry group for transfer agents is urging the SEC to favor issuer-sponsored tokenized shares over third-party stock tokens as it writes rules for moving U.S. equities onto blockchains.

Read the full piece by @sndr_krisztian on CoinDesk

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Stablecoins are swiftly turning into global payment infrastructure. BitGo is doing our part to advance this.

Grateful to the team at @BitGo who make this possible, and to be named to @thestablecon’s Most Influential List alongside so many others working towards the same goals.

https://t.co/gkHdp7IrS4

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@YuvalRooz Congrats Canton team!!!

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@ThomasFarley I’m not 1pct convinced that the Wall Street banks objections to stablecoin yield in the Clarity Act are entirely because they are worried about deposit flight at small, community banks

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

The industry kept saying tokenization was years away.

Today, it happened. And it happened on BitGo.

@The_DTCC converted DTC-held assets into tokens and used them in real production trades, the largest tokenization production initiative the industry has ever seen.

BitGo's infrastructure is the only one equipped to make this possible. Full-stack, globally regulated, and Canton-ready.

Congratulations to the entire DTCC team and our partners @marex, and @drivewealth on this major milestone.

The tokenization gap is closing here at @BitGo.

[BitGo @BitGo]

Congratulations to @The_DTCC on delivering the largest tokenization production initiative to date.

As the only regulated qualified custodian integrated into DTCC Tokenization Services, BitGo is proud to have facilitated this milestone with our regulated wallet and settlement infrastructure, helping enable the secure management of DTC-tokenized securities.

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@nic_carter Yup. All you guys bailing to TX and FL will pay for my California high speed rail that doesn't work! Lol. Suckers

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@SenFettermanPA NY and CA are just ceding it to TX and FL

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@america I guess she's confessing that democrats only win when there is cheating

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Design matters. We haven't focused enough on usability of wallets, RWAs, DeFi, or even stablecoins.

This is a huge push at @BitGo today also.

It's taken us a long time to get to a point where we can truly focus on it. The enabler is regulators that aren't trying to kill you for even trying. Grateful to be here!

[Mike Cagney 🇺🇸 @mcagney]

https://t.co/09U1ibhUhQ

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

When I was working on HTTP, I used to say, "there's no money in protocols".

Then crypto seemed to prove that wasn't entirely true.

But as the real applications emerge on chain, we realize it is in fact true.

Similarly, tether & usdc accrue the value as applications.

The money has always been in the application, not the protocol.

[Lorenzo Valente @LorenzoARK]

The Robinhood Chain is the cleanest case study of what happened to ETH's economics over time.

Since inception, @RobinhoodApp Chain has grossed ~$816K in revenue.

@Arbitrum, the middleware provider, takes 10%: ~$80K.

Arbitrum then pays Ethereum for settlement: $1,538.

The margin profile roughly:

Robinhood: 89%
Arbitrum: 10%
Ethereum: 0.15%

If your thesis is "ETH is money," Robinhood building here is ultra bullish. More activity, more ETH collateral, more lindyness.

If your thesis is "ETH is a revenue generating asset," this is the ultra-bear case.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: Robinhood was never going to build on Solana, Sui or any monolithic L1. They want the stack customization. They want to be landlords, not renters. Ethereum won this deal on merit.
It's just not pricing it right.

A healthy split to me looks more like:
Robinhood: 75%
Arbitrum: 10%
Ethereum: 15%

Ethereum sells the most valuable settlement layer in crypto at marginal cost. Things need to change. @ethlabs_org

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@thibauld I'm not against that, of course! But the DTCC is not going to be second in line on this issue. And the DTC issues third party tokens. So the article is pretty nonsensical as is.

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@zGuz Like I said, the gov't has no ability to police the money it gives away...

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

The govt has no ability to police the money it gives away.

The only solution is to realize the government should not be allocating the money to begin with.

[American Debunk @AmericanDebunk]

🚨 Nick Shirley discovers three medical equipment companies operating out of one apartment.

You won't believe this.

Three durable medical equipment companies are registered to a single residential apartment in New York City.

They are set up to receive major Medicaid payouts for supplying necessary patient gear. But when asked where the actual equipment is, the occupant gives a clear answer.

"No, I don't have any."

That is the reality of the paper-only medical supplier.

Fraudsters register multiple entities to one residential address to maximize Medicaid billing.

They bank on the assumption that regulators will never knock on the door.

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

@inner_concerns Your concern is theoretical. The patent office prevents American companies from copying but does nothing to prevent copying outside the US. It's a mirage that it works at all

[Mike Belshe @mikebelshe]

Patents are simply outdated. National security aside, the whole program should be shutdown. No more patents at all

[Vivek Sen @Vivek4real_]

PALMER LUCKEY:

“PATENTS ARE CHINESE INSTRUCTION MANUALS.”

“STOP PATENTING EVERYTHING.

THE FOUNDING FATHERS NEVER PREDICTED A WORLD WHERE THE ENTIRE PATENT OFFICE COULD BE DOWNLOADED EVERY MORNING, RIPPED OFF, AND USED TO FIGHT A WAR AGAINST YOU.”

“WE NEED TO FUNDAMENTALLY REVISIT THE PATENT SYSTEM.”

“I THINK WE NEED TO MASSIVELY EXPAND THE NATIONAL SECURITY PATENT PROCESS.

YOU CAN OBTAIN A CLASSIFIED PATENT THAT YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DISCLOSE TO ANYONE...

WHILE STILL MAINTAINING EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS.”

“WE NEED TO MASSIVELY EXPAND THAT PROGRAM.”