Blockchain and Entrepreneurship: A Conversation with MBA Candidate Edison Siu (Founder, Solo)

Last week, SOM hosted the second annual Yale Blockchain Conference. The conference featured panels from a number of industry experts and alums. Included in the lineup was SOM alum and keynote speaker Edison Siu, who organized the first Blockchain Conference at Yale in 2024 and returned to speak about his company, Solo. Founded in 2024. Solo is a blockchain company that focuses on enhancing user verification within the Web3 ecosystem.

The Program on Entrepreneurship caught up with Edison in the wake of the conference to discuss his journey.

What inspired you to start Solo? Was there a specific problem or moment that sparked the idea?

The idea for Solo was sparked during a blockchain course I took at Yale, taught by Professor Ben Fisch. One lecture focused on Worldcoin and its attempt to create a “proof-of-humanity” system using biometric orbs. That discussion opened my eyes to a fundamental need in the Web3 ecosystem—verifying real human users in a decentralized way.

I was fascinated by the implications. While Worldcoin’s approach was bold, it raised serious concerns around hardware centralization, privacy, and regulatory compliance. I started to wonder: is there a way to build a system that verifies human uniqueness without relying on centralized infrastructure?

That question led me to discuss the concept with two brilliant minds—my now co-founders, Professor Sissi Wu, an AI expert focused on user behavior analytics, and Professor Stephen Wang, a specialist in zero-knowledge cryptography and blockchain architecture. Together, we envisioned a decentralized, privacy-preserving solution for continuous humanity verification—one that didn’t rely on proprietary hardware, but could instead leverage widely accessible mobile devices.

What started as a classroom curiosity quickly evolved into a mission. The more we explored, the more we realized that Sybil attacks were crippling real-world applications across Web3—from airdrops and governance to data labeling and DePIN. Solo was born to address this gap. Our goal is to build a scalable, secure, and user-friendly proof-of-humanity protocol that enables what we call “credible anonymity”—a future where users can remain anonymous, yet accountable, in the new internet.

Can you walk us through your background before launching Solo? Have you always been in tech or crypto?

My journey into crypto started back in 2017 when I was involved in the “Kimchi Premium” arbitrage - one of the early opportunities that highlighted the inefficiencies and potential of the global crypto markets. In 2018, I transitioned into a more structured role, leading marketing for one of the first licensed crypto exchanges in Asia. That experience gave me exposure to both the regulatory landscape and the importance of user trust in building Web3 infrastructure.

Later, while pursuing my MBA at Yale, I led the SOM Blockchain Club and co-organized the first-ever Yale Blockchain Conference in 2024. Through that experience, I deepened my understanding of the ecosystem from both a technical and policy perspective, and also connected with many researchers and builders working at the intersection of crypto and real-world use cases.

These experiences laid the foundation for Solo—combining my passion for crypto with a mission to bring scalable, privacy-preserving identity infrastructure to Web3.

What does success look like to you personally, and has that definition changed over time?

To me, success means creating real, lasting impact on society—building something that doesn’t just generate returns, but fundamentally improves how people live, connect, and interact. This definition of success became much clearer after I joined the Yale MBA program, where the school’s mission of “educating leaders for business and society” deeply resonated with me. It reinforced my belief that entrepreneurship should serve a broader purpose. With Solo, we’re not just building another Web3 tool—we’re aiming to redefine digital identity and enable more fair, secure, and human-centered systems. That, to me, is what success looks like.

What has been your biggest technical challenge so far, and how did your team overcome it?

One of our biggest technical challenges was building a biometric verification system that is fully decentralized while still protecting user privacy. Most existing solutions either rely on centralized hardware or expose sensitive user data during the process. We wanted Solo to be different—something that works on any mobile device, proves each user is a real, unique person, and preserves privacy at every step.

To overcome this, we combined advanced cryptographic tools like homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs to verify users while preserving their biometric data. This required close collaboration between our team’s expertise in cryptography, blockchain systems, and AI. It took months of iteration and testing, but we ultimately created a scalable and privacy-preserving architecture that can support real-world use cases across Web3.

What is your biggest milestone that you’ve reached to date?

Our biggest milestone to date has been securing integration partnerships with a strong lineup of high-impact Web3 projects, including Sapien, Perle AI, GEODNET, Synesis One, and PublicAI. Each of these partners operates in domains where proof-of-humanity is critical—whether it’s data labeling, decentralized mapping, or AI alignment—and they’ve chosen to work with Solo to ensure their user base is made up of real, verified humans, not bots. These agreements not only validate the need for our solution but also give us a direct path to acquiring tens of thousands of users from day one.

In parallel, we closed our pre-seed funding round led by Draper Associates and joined by Velocity Capital. We’re also fortunate to have the backing and guidance of some of the best minds in the space, including Brian Retford (Founder of RISC Zero), Ahmed Rashed (Founder of Perle AI and former Head of Growth at Scale AI), and Matt Katz (Founder of Caldera). Their support affirms our technical and strategic direction and gives us a unique edge in executing our vision.

Together, these partnerships and backing have given Solo both the credibility and momentum to become the foundational layer for identity in Web3.

How do you see Solo contributing to building a more human-centered internet?

Solo contributes to building a more human-centered internet by ensuring that every digital interaction is tied to a real, unique person—without compromising privacy. In today’s internet, bots distort online communities, drain resources from real users, and undermine trust in digital ecosystems. Solo solves this by enabling decentralized biometric verification that is both privacy-preserving and scalable, so users can prove they are human without revealing who they are.

Our long-term vision is to enable “credible anonymity,” where users can remain pseudonymous while building verifiable reputations and being held accountable for their actions. This foundational layer of trust unlocks an entirely new form of the Web3 economy—one where users can access uncollateralized loans, meaningful credit scoring, and personalized recommendations, all without sacrificing their privacy. It also allows individuals to retain ownership of their data, choosing when and how it's shared or monetized. By anchoring digital identity in privacy-preserving but verifiable human authenticity, Solo paves the way for a more equitable, secure, and human-first internet.

What advice would you give to other founders working at the edge of privacy tech, crypto, and AI?

Stay focused on solving a real human problem - technology should be in service of that. At the intersection of privacy, crypto, and AI, it's easy to get caught up in hype or complexity. But the winning solutions are the ones that are not only technically sound, but also usable, compliant, and clearly aligned with user needs. Build with privacy as a core design principle, not as an afterthought, and surround yourself with collaborators who bring both technical depth and ethical clarity. And most importantly—stay resilient. The frontier is where it's hardest, but also where the biggest impact is made.