Recently, Shenyu, co-founder of Cobo, and Jin Ming, founder of Achain, engaged in an in-depth dialogue covering topics ranging from investment frameworks, Bitcoin, DeFi, and AI Agents to the meaning of life.
During the conversation, Shenyu shed the halo of his early days as a 'mining giant,' revealing a highly rational introspection. He candidly admitted that early success involved an element of luck and reflected on his cognitive leap in viewing DeFi as a '200-year condensed financial history.' In the current era where AI deeply governs cognitive input, this cutting-edge builder consistently adheres to long-termism, maintaining clear and unique independent thinking within the bustling crypto space.
The following are the core observations and insights distilled from this dialogue:
'DeFi is a Compressed Course in Financial History'
Shenyu sees DeFi as an experimental field for understanding finance. Mechanisms like lending, market-making, and liquidity mining essentially re-answer questions that traditional finance has already addressed. Personally participating in protocols is akin to experiencing hundreds of years of financial product evolution in an extremely short time. For him, the value of DeFi thus became the motivation to supplement his knowledge of financial history and theory.
Therefore, his investment framework grew from practice. Shenyu mentioned that he lacked a complete investment framework early on. The method he later developed is closer to a cycle: start with practice, accumulate experience in real markets, then abstract patterns from results to form a framework, ultimately training it into intuition. The key is to constantly raise questions through action, then fill in the gaps in financial history and theory in reverse.
'As AI Lowers Execution Costs, Human Will Becomes More Important'
AI is dramatically shortening the distance from idea to implementation. The main obstacle for many ideas in the past was the high cost of execution; now, knowledge, tools, and the capacity for action are compressed into the hands of individuals. As long as there is a clear enough 'seed,' it can be rapidly tested. The stronger the technology, the more important human direction, judgment, and the will to persist in action become.
However, increased possibilities can also amplify builder confusion. AI brings an almost limitless executable space, making 'choosing the topic' the biggest challenge. Shenyu admitted that during the mining era, he possessed a strong sense of mission and creative impulse, but now finds himself in a more uncertain phase, having yet to find a direction broad and systematic enough. Nevertheless, he still defines himself as a builder: one meaning of existence is to add a bit more possibility to the world that didn't exist before.
'Agent is Evolving from an Efficiency Tool into a Cognitive and Self-Understanding External Brain'
Shenyu has deeply integrated AI and Agents into his daily life. On the information input side, tasks like reading original long-form articles, filtering materials, and compressing them into PPTs are handled by a self-built note-taking system based on evolutionary thinking and an AI-filtered daily digest. For daily interaction and cognitive assistance, he has configured three Agents with distinct roles: one is a tool-rational Agent providing highly rational action plans and decision advice; one is a more feminine, gentle Agent responsible for emotional analysis and empathy, even once keenly pointing out he 'might have death anxiety'; and the last is a blind-spot prompting Agent, which combines his historical information and personal behavior to specifically help him identify cognitive blind spots. The role of Agents has already expanded beyond traditional assistants, extending into a companion-like 'cognitive external brain.' They not only process information and tasks for people but also deeply participate in emotional care, blind-spot correction, and the construction of a second thinking system.
'Core Assets Must First Have a Sufficiently Large Long-Term Value Space'
Shenyu also revealed his primary principle for selecting core assets in the interview: the TAM (Total Addressable Market) must be sufficiently large, and there must be a macro vision capable of supporting long-term holding. He believes that only when an asset not only presents short-term opportunities but also potentially participates in shaping the technological, financial, or social structures of the next decade or longer does it deserve to be a candidate for core positions.
He employs a three-layer position management logic: first, small exploratory positions; then, increasing allocation through continuous validation; finally, upon seeing the long-term vision clearly, entering a core phase where positions may rise to around 20%. Currently, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tesla have truly passed through this set of tests, with SpaceX still in the observation and timing phase.
Whether Ethereum can remain in the core portfolio depends on its next-generation infrastructure value. Although Ethereum has entered his list of core assets, its position is being reevaluated. The new criterion is whether Ethereum can further become the operational and collaborative infrastructure for AI Agents. If it can accommodate the new demands of the machine economy, Ethereum might still maintain its core status; otherwise, the original investment logic needs reassessment.
'Bitcoin is Better Gold'
The essential difference between gold and Bitcoin represents the contest between two major paradigms and camps: the 'digital currency + AI' camp versus the 'gold + industrial manufacturing capacity' camp. Shenyu believes 'Bitcoin is better gold,' with the most fundamental reason being its complete non-intermediation and the asset disposal rights it grants to sovereign individuals. Traditional gold often requires layers of intermediaries and institutional custody for verification and liquidity, whereas Bitcoin can be fully controlled and disposed of autonomously by individuals without relying on any intermediary institutions, truly realizing individual asset sovereignty.
There are primarily two types of technologies that significantly enhance sovereign individual capabilities. BTC changes how individuals control and dispose of assets, allowing value to be held and transferred autonomously, independent of traditional institutions. AI enhances the individual's own capability boundaries, enabling one person to accomplish knowledge and execution tasks that previously required an organization. The former strengthens asset sovereignty, while the latter amplifies individual productivity.
'The Philosophy of Few and Deep Investments'
Traditional asset allocation emphasizes reducing portfolio volatility by holding low-correlation assets like gold, stocks, and Bitcoin, but Shenyu does not subscribe to this investment philosophy. 'Human cognition and energy are limited; the assets one can truly understand deeply are actually very few.' Instead of purchasing assets one doesn't understand to satisfy asset allocation theory, Shenyu's investment philosophy is closer to 'few and deep.' He believes defensive capability doesn't come from holding more asset classes because correlations converge in extreme situations. When a true systemic crisis (an extreme event) occurs, those assets you thought would balance each other often end up collapsing or performing in sync. Diversification works in highly stable markets but often fails in the face of true 'disasters.'
