Im Daniel Im

Founder and CEO of @BeliefMarket_ & 승부사 \\ PhD dropout @ NYU, ex-researcher at @HHMIjanelia \\ Founder of @AIFounded

[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.

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

A name can trap a product.

People heard “Belief Market” and assumed they already understood us.

But they didn’t.

We could keep the recognition we earned.

Or rename the company and explain the vision clearly.

What matters more?
Recognition or understanding?

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

@Math_files Hmm is it about happiness?

[Stat.ML Papers @StatMLPapers]

Solving Stochastic Fixed-Point Equations with High Probability https://t.co/aOkxPMjsQl

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

@TheMathFlow I just like starring at it

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

The feed is becoming obsolete.

The next major social app will be built around:

A. Watching people
B. Arguing with people

Which one wins?

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

Bad first experience with @Kling_ai .

I was excited to try generating a video.

I purchased credits, so i can test out the platform.

Even after purchasing credits, it keeps giving "new task cannot be submitted temporarily."

Keeps showing subscription, even after buying credits... WTF

[Movez @0xMovez]

Andrew Ng just dropped a 3-hour course on how to become an AI Engineer in 2026:

• 00:00 - How to build agentic AI systems
• 04:25 - Future of AI engineering
• 23:38 - AI Prompting full course
• 2:52:17 - Creating an app with AI in 30 minutes

This 3-hour watch could replace 10 AI engineering courses on the internet.

Watch it today, then read how to run a self-improving system in the article below.

[h100envy @h100envy]

https://t.co/249JaHcEz7

[Jack Morris @jxmnop]

new paper from our work at Meta!

**GPT-style language models memorize 3.6 bits per param**

we compute capacity by measuring total bits memorized, using some theory from Shannon (1953)

shockingly, the memorization-datasize curves look like this:
___________
/
/

(🧵)

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

I dislike myself, observing myself constantly consulting with AIs...

Mostly it's about people relationship and communication, which isn't my forte.

Using AI tools improve the outcomes but won't improve my ppl skills...

Dillema...

[Temmy | DeFi Analyst🦇🔊 @Only1temmy]

yesterday, vitalik shared one of the biggest updates on ethereum’s future.

a lot of people saw the chart and got confused, so here’s the tldr:

- two weeks ago, ethereum researchers met in berlin after earlier talks with client teams in svalbard.

- the big idea from those talks is "lean ethereum".

- not one upgrade. more like a 3 to 4 year rebuild of ethereum’s core parts.

- the merge changed ethereum from proof of work to proof of stake.

- lean ethereum looks like the next major chapter after that.

- it touches consensus, execution, blobs, privacy, proofs, gas, state, and client architecture.

- ethereum wants faster finality, so l1 transactions can settle quicker.

- it wants more blobs, so l2s get more space and cheaper fees.

- it wants recursive starks to handle more verification, instead of making everyone recheck everything the hard way.

- privacy also gets more attention inside the protocol, especially around mempools, frames, and shielded transfers.

- quantum safety has moved up the priority list too, especially for blobs, signatures, and other vulnerable parts.

- the biggest change for apps is "state".

- state is where ethereum keeps token balances, nfts, smart contracts, defi positions, and onchain records.

- vitalik says ethereum may keep today’s flexible state mostly intact, but add new state types that are cheaper and easier to scale.

- that could work well for erc20s, nfts, and many defi use cases.

- apps may not be forced to rewrite everything.

- but apps that adapt to the new design could get much lower fees.

- over the next few years, expect higher gas limits, more blob capacity, faster slots, better privacy, stronger proofs, and a lighter ethereum design.

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

If we want to make the Lean Ethereum consensus chain aggressively more "lean", and add strong validator privacy (ZK-unlink deposit from staking activity from withdrawal, and re-anonymize stakers every day), here is a path:

https://t.co/Gdee7tE53R

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

LLM leaderboard:
https://t.co/J5EmDR80J7
https://t.co/aLPXiFbqbS

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

AI tools leaderboard:
https://t.co/61Uks5289X

[Biggest Sunny🧘‍♂️ @MrAvailable409]

Cc: @Daniel_J_Im Thank you

[Math Files @Math_files]

Area of circle ⭕

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

@kchonyc Korea head coach embarrassingly sucks;;;; 😭📷📷

[Im Daniel Im @Daniel_J_Im]

"OpenAI saw SpaceX lose $800 billion in market cap in ten days and said we can wait until 2027."
😂😂😂