Will Singapore become a Web3 hub? Coinbase, Ripple execs weigh in at TOKEN2049.
According to a Forbes article published earlier this April, China, India, and Hong Kong have made waves for thriving Web3 ecosystems.
While crypto activity is active in those countries, some experts believe Singapore will become another Web3 hub in Asia.
As part of this year’s annual TOKEN2049 Singapore convention—the world’s largest crypto event—Emma Cui, founder and managing partner of venture capitalist firm LongHash Ventures, joined Hassan Ahmed, country director for Singapore at Coinbase, and Fiona Murray, managing director for APAC region at Ripple for a panel discussion last Thursday (September 19) to share their insights.
Singapore as a potential Web3 Hub
Having an eye for talent is crucial in any industry, and the Web3 space is no different. Cui, who has travelled in and out of Singapore for studies and work, noted that the city-state has “always been relentlessly seeking talents”, and attributed it to the nation’s meritocracy-based system.
On the macro scale, Ahmed stated that Singapore has cemented itself as a financial and fintech hub over the last decade, describing the country as an “open economy” which is deliberately designed for business growth.
He elaborated that Singapore incentivises companies to set up their regional headquarters and operational offices in the country, and for Coinbase, setting up their offices here allows many doors to be opened to the rest of the APAC region.
“When we were thinking of how to really enter the APAC region the right way, Singapore really stood out to us as the right combination of access to other markets, access to talent, the regulatory level that we needed for our business model to be able to set up roots here and invest in the long-term.”
On the other hand, Murray shared that Ripple already views Singapore as a Web3 hub. “Not a potential one, but it’s all happening right here, right now,” she stated.
Aside from having regulatory clarity and the right frameworks to legitimatise businesses, Murray highlighted the importance of innovation and the need to have access to banking services.
Every entity needs a bank account, and that’s not given in many jurisdictions here. The banks are encouraged to work with safe [and] responsible Web3 organisations, and that makes a huge difference to being able to innovate effectively.
Fiona Murray, APAC managing director for Ripple
She added that Singapore has a reputation for stability, where given the “crazy” nature of technological innovations, entrepreneurs and business leaders need to rely on stable organisations to grow without worrying about political troubles.
The “smooth road” set by regulations
On the regulatory front, all three panellists went through the “smooth road” facilitated by the Singapore government and relevant agencies.
“Having that foundation of a ‘fit-for-purpose’ licensing framework for what they call digital payment tokens sets the stage right, because it sets the rules of the game in a very clear way,” added Ahmed.
In particular, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) maintains an open dialogue with industry players and releases consultation papers, which is essential given the nascent market stage. This collaborative approach allows both parties to balance access, innovation, and consumer protection.
Two other notable agencies that were given a shoutout were the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) and Temasek for facilitating funding for Web3 firms, with the EDB offering grants to startups.
Ahmed added that it is “easy” for a company to be incorporated in Singapore, and the regulatory clarity helps the business grow within set boundaries. It is also worth noting that there are regulatory exemptions, which the lack of would often stifle innovation before it is needed.
“Overall, I’d say that [the process is] relatively straightforward. It’s still complex but relatively straightforward,” he concluded.
The role of education
Aside from government agencies and ministries, Singapore’s local universities are also working on building the next generation with the skills to live in a possible Web3-powered world.
Murray expressed her enthusiasm and said, “Singapore is fantastic at predicting what trends there are and then building talent to fit those requirements and those needs that are coming up.”
She explained that education is an essential operational pillar at Ripple, where they launched the University Blockchain Research Initiative in 2018. This programme funds universities and academia to conduct research and solve real-world problems. To date, Ripple has provided over US$60 million under the initiative.
In Singapore, Ripple partnered with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to launch the NUS FinTech Lab. The company also funded the enrollment of 300 students and mid-career professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and two-thirds of the cohort found full-time work in fintech at the programme.
Murray commended Singapore universities for acknowledging the impact of Web3 in today’s society and shared that she hopes they can also work with the private sector in the future.
Efforts in education also present an opportunity for the creation of new jobs. Cui explains that there are two metrics to look at.
One is how big the sector has expanded, with many startups becoming multi-million dollar companies over the years, where the company will need to increase their headcount as they grow.
The second factor comes down to the quality of the jobs created. “It’s not just about creating jobs, but high calibre, high impact jobs,” Cui iterated, with many companies establishing regional or leadership teams in Singapore.
Ahmed ended the panel stating that Singapore is undergoing its second or third cycle with digital assets, with the FTX saga forcing them to rethink their approach in the world and shift their focus from offering useful products to commercialisation.
We’re very excited to be a part of that experience, and we’re going to do our part to push that movement forward as well.
Hassan Ahmed, country director, Singapore at Coinbase
Also Read: TOKEN2049: What experts at the world’s largest crypto event say will drive crypto mainstream
Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post
Here’s our rating of every haunted house at Sunway’s NOF10, so you know which to shortlist
I didn’t know what to expect when I signed up to join Sunway’s Nights of Fright 10 (NOF10), but I couldn’t deny that on the day of our visit, the evening air was eerie, sending chills down my spine as we waited for the gates to open.
Growing up, I’ve always been a horror junkie. Family movie nights typically consisted of films that instilled in me a fear of the unknown. It was this exact fear that made me avoid haunted houses, just in case there were actually evil spirits lurking about.
But maybe NOF10 was the perfect setting for me to finally confront that fear.
So, with three of my colleagues (Claudia, Shathana, and Fadhilah), we waltzed into the ghost’s den for the media preview of NOF 10.
Watch your back
While speaking to the Assistant General Manager of Marketing and Park Experiences at Sunway Theme Parks, Michelle Soong, she told us that a must-visit attraction is the Scarytales Haunted Theatre premiering “The Island of the Dolls”.
It’s an immersive theatre experience where visitors are seated in a mini cinema hall with rows of benches. Throughout the short film (roughly 15 minutes), some of the characters would walk out from secret wall panels to scare you.
All the while, you’re forced to stay in your seats while they occasionally roam around the theatre hall, waiting to spook their next victim.
We won’t spoil the plot of the film, but a quick online search of “doll island” will give you a hint. Knowing that the theatre’s production crew committed themselves to filming in Mexico (where the story is based) added a nice touch too.
I’ll admit that I might have squeaked a few times. Those who get frightened easily are advised to not sit near the walkways.
Our rating: 6 out 10. It was enjoyable but not very scary.
Now onto (what we believe are) the main highlights of NOF10—the haunted houses. Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers ahead.
Eight haunted houses for the screamish
In total, there are eight haunted houses to visit:
- Horrorwood Studios
- The Freezer
- Van Helsing
- Bone Man
- Silent Hill
- Whitechapel 2888
- Summer Camp Nightmares
- Alice
Each has its own theme and they’re spread out at different points across the Sunway Lagoon venue. There’s a map of the park close to the Van Helsing haunted house (turn left after the main entrance) that can help you navigate the area.
Our waiting time for each haunted house visit ranged between 15 to 25 minutes. So if you’re planning your trip to NOF10, we recommend wearing your most comfortable pair of shoes to avoid blisters and pain.
Oh, and don’t forget to pack lightly if you’re not planning on renting the theme park’s lockers. A small crossbody bag would be best to store your belongings and keep your hands free in case you suddenly feel the need to… run.
Horrorwood Studios
Horrorwood Studios brings iconic horror villains like Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street to life.
Entering the hallways felt almost like a tour through a classic horror movie wax museum—except, not all the exhibits were fake. Just when you think you’ve escaped from the likes of Freddy Krueger and Pennywise, the hallways lead you to a maze-like setup.
The keyword here being maze because there are actual dead ends you can end up on, making this one of the most engaging attractions.
Zombie-like creatures were lurking in every corner and had us on edge the whole time and jumping at every turn. A Ghostface ghoul really got us good with a perfectly timed jump scare.
Our rating: 8 out of 10. The interactive maze element was fun, and the nostalgic horror movie theme kept us hooked.
Van Helsing
Next, we went into Van Helsing, which is a NOF10 rebranded version of the famous Scream Park.
The attraction kicked off with three rooms where a screen narrated Van Helsing’s story. Unfortunately, the loud music drowned out most of the narration, so we couldn’t catch much of it. Still, the actors playing Van Helsing’s assistants did a fantastic job with their roles.
However, be warned: this attraction features heavy strobing lights, so if you’re sensitive to those, it’s best to skip this one.
Despite the eerie atmosphere, we felt like there weren’t enough jump scares, and the long, mostly bare walk to the end dulled the fear factor a bit.
Our rating: 6 out of 10. While the acting was solid, it didn’t deliver the level of scares we were expecting.
Bone Man
As its name suggests, Bone Man is a skeleton-filled attraction that was equal parts creepy and immersive.
The house opens with a strange collection of artefacts, supposedly human flesh and brains preserved in mini jars. Before you can linger on that unsettling sight, you’re thrust outside into a dark, smoky walkway.
At times, we weren’t sure if we were going the right way, which added to the unsettling feeling of being lost in the dark. The eerie environment felt never-ending as if the skeletons, smoke, and darkness were going to close in on us at any moment.
Although there weren’t as many traditional jump scares, the experience was more about the lingering atmosphere—the kind that creeps up on you. The fog, the dark passageways, and the constant sense of not knowing where to go made it feel like we were wandering through a forgotten underworld.
Our rating: 6 out of 10. The immersive setting was great, but it could’ve used more scares.
Whitechapel 2888
Despite the eerie doll-like setup, Whitechapel 2888 felt more whimsical than scary.
There were plenty of long corridors to walk through, but aside from the dim lighting and eerie props, it lacked the tension or surprises that make for a truly frightful experience. Occasionally there will be “possessed ghosts” making appearances.
That said, we can’t deny that this attraction had great aesthetics. There was a haunting beauty to the setup, especially with the detailed doll displays and the dramatic use of lighting. But for those expecting more interactive thrills or jump scares, it might fall short.
One unusual, entertaining moment was the live performance of a creepy doll perched on a balcony, singing from above as we passed through. It was strange and unexpected, giving Whitechapel a theatrical twist, but it didn’t quite make up for the overall lack of frights.
Our rating: 6 out of 10. The setup was visually impressive, but the scare factor was low.
Silent Hill
A popular IP that Sunway bagged for NOF10 this year, Silent Hill is the attraction that many are surely excited for. It’s one of the longer haunted houses and takes about 15 minutes to reach the end.
The Silent Hill attraction doesn’t have a guide, so you’ll be holding onto a rubber tube “rope” with the rest of your group. It helps make sure that nobody gets lost halfway through as it’s a rather large attraction.
However, it was a bit uncomfortable for the person holding the “rope”. Shathana’s arm was constantly pulled back by the rest of the group as she led them through the maze. In her own words, “It kinda dampened my experience a little because I had to wait for everyone to catch up with me.”
You’ll be walking through both indoor and outdoor sets depicting the deserted town of Silent Hill. Ghostly characters from the game will pop up to scare you, including The Nurses and the iconic Pyramid Head.
Our rating: 8 out of 10. The set was spooky and the characters will certainly give you a fright.
Summer Camp Nightmares
Think of all those Hollywood movies about a killer on the loose at a summer camp and you’ll get the gist of NOF10’s Summer Camp Nightmares. It reminds me of the slasher film series, Friday the 13th.
Similar to Silent Hill, this is also an unguided tour, set in a “camp far from the city”. The first step onto the set and you’ll already be greeted by wailing victims of the killer. Girl and boy campers were either “strung up” by their bunkers or had their bodies slashed.
The more you progress into the haunted house, the more blood you’ll come across. If gory horror isn’t your cup of tea then we recommend giving this a pass.
Those sensitive to strobing lights should also turn back as it’s a heavy feature during one part of the haunted house.
Our rating: 9 out of 10. The set was well done and the details were good, though we wish the music wasn’t as loud.
Alice
Have you ever wondered if Alice in Wonderland was really about a girl who took one too many pain meds and started hallucinating?
Well, this Alice attraction at NOF10 brings visitors on a trippy adventure down wonderland. Emphasis on “trippy” as you’ll be given 3D glasses that interact interestingly with the surroundings.
Just check out the photos we took, it captures our vision pretty well.
One of the shorter attractions (about 10 minutes), this is a beginner-friendly spot if you’re new to haunted houses. There aren’t as many jump scares but it’s still entertaining nonetheless.
Our rating: 6 out of 10. Although not as immersive as the other haunted houses, it’s a cool attraction that plays on your senses.
For the love of a bloody good time
This being the 10th edition of Sunway’s Nights of Fright, my team and I had rather high expectations. Sunway has been in this industry for over 10 years now and they’ve learnt a thing or two about scaring people.
Otherwise, this wouldn’t be a profitable offering that thousands of Malaysians look forward to each year.
NOF10 definitely delivered on giving us a spooky fun night, though some of us (like me) got more scared than others. Call me a wuss, but I even got nightmares later on based on two characters I saw at NOF.
If there’s one piece of feedback we’d like to share with the organisers, it’d be that NOF might benefit from using silence to their advantage in certain haunted houses or areas.
After all, isn’t it scarier to not know when someone (or something) might strike you in the dark, with your mind going in overdrive with “what if’s”?
Besides the haunted houses, there’s an array of other activities and Scare Zones to check out too: Slasher Street, Day of the Dead, Karak Highway, and Pontianaks, Pocongs, and Pumpkins!
Sunway Lagoon’s night rides are also open, including the Tomahawk, Grand Canyon River Rapids, and Lost City of Gold Scream Coaster.
Every half an hour, there will be various performances throughout the night at different locations. Some are at the main stage while others are scattered across the venue, so be sure to keep a lookout. If you get squeamish and want a break, there are a few F&B spots to rehydrate and fill your tummies too.
All in all, the experience wouldn’t have been as exciting or enjoyable without the stellar performance by the cast and crew this year. We have to commend all the actors that added an edgy and spooky vibe to the event.
Whichever attraction you choose, we hope you have as much of a spook-tastic time as we did. Sunway’s NOF10 will be available for six weekends only, plus one final day on Halloween itself.
Tickets are sold on Sunway Lagoon’s website as well as on Klook. Admission tickets (inclusive of popcorn and a devil’s horn accessory) start at RM128. There’s also a package with the Xpress Pass for RM226.
- Learn more about Nights of Fright here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
Also Read: 5 scenarios in which you would appreciate having the reliable ASUS Vivobook 16 for work
Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post
Google paid US$2.7 billion to rehire an engineer who quit in 2021—and it may be a great deal
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author.
Over the past two years, Google has cut in excess of 13,000 jobs, reportedly to reduce its operating costs. That didn’t stop it, however, from writing a cheque to license Character.AI this August.
The sum? US$2.7 billion.
Character.AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by two of its former engineers, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who quit the company in 2021. The service offers personalised conversational chatbots based on fictional or real characters that users can interact with as they would with other humans.
It was Shazeer that Google was reportedly after. The engineer is one of the authors of the breakthrough 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need”, which introduced the transformer architecture underpinning the development of AI which is changing the world before our eyes.
While at Google, together with De Freitas, Shazeer co-developed a chatbot not unlike ChatGPT, called Meena, who was able to talk about a range of topics a user asked about. In an internal memo, he boldly predicted this new technology would one day replace Google’s search and create trillions of dollars in value.
Unfortunately, he then ran into a problem—not a technical but a social one: Google’s executives refused to release the bot to the public, concerned i.a. about safety risks (though it may have been more than that).
Like many pioneers, Shazeer bounced off the wall of corporate bureaucracy and quit in frustration, accusing the company of not being brave enough. Together with his colleague, he then founded Character.AI, seeded with US$43 million of investor’s money, and did what Google refused to.
Merely three years later, his former employer came knocking with big bucks in hand, netting Shazeer alone a few hundred million dollars.
The deal involves licensing Character.AI’s technology, due to the fact it speeds up access to it by Google, which would otherwise be delayed by a drawn out process, requiring formal approvals from regulatory bodies, should the company be acquired outright.
But, more importantly according to reports, it brought Shazeer back to Google, in a senior role of one of three leaders spearheading the development of the giant’s own AI technology: Gemini. Talk about proving your bosses wrong!
Has Google gone mad?
The sums Big Tech is spending, while making thousands of people redundant, have been raising eyebrows globally over the past two years.
Such is the nature of business, though. You’re paid by how valuable you are to the company. Those 13,000+ people that Google let go since 2023 clearly weren’t able to produce as much as two engineers and 30 or so people who are rejoining the company with them following the deal.
For Google, AI is not so much an opportunity as an existential threat.
As Shazeer himself observed, access to information through intelligent, conversational systems can make Google’s web search obsolete. And that’s a big deal, considering that search advertising is responsible for nearly 60 per cent of the company’s revenue.
Last year, this translated to US$175 billion dollars. As you can see, then, the US$2.7 billion it’s paying to bring back one of the pioneering mavericks of AI is a small price to pay, especially given the threat of acquisition by competitors.
Perhaps when Shazeer was still at Google, the fear wasn’t so much the technology’s safety but precisely the fact that an early release would mean cutting the branch the company was sitting on, since nobody has so far cracked the problem of making money on AI.
It made sense to wait for what others come up with and observe how the market develops. After all, Google itself wasn’t the first search engine in the world when it launched in 1998.
But this reluctance to act made smart people leave, undercutting its ability to compete with AI startups, supported by Google’s rivals, leading to a series of blunders with the release of Bard and later Gemini, which provided all sorts embarrassingly misleading information, like putting glue on a pizza.
The future of Google is now at stake, and it must get all the brainpower it can on board. If it is willing to give people like Shazeer more freedom, it may soon turn out that the billions it spent were the best investment it has made in years.
At the very least, it’s an insurance policy against its competitors, for whom Shazeer and his colleagues could have ended up working against Google’s best interest.
Also Read: Are we safe? AI bot tries to rewrite its own code to cheat the limits imposed by researchers
Featured image: Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer, Character Technologies
M’sians can finally watch award-winning local filmmaker Jared Lee’s works in cinema this Oct
Jared Lee has made it into news headlines numerous times during his career, and deservingly so. A visionary Malaysian filmmaker, Jared and his studio Grim Film have won many awards for their work.
Most recently, they were recognised for their short film Horologist, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and won Best Animation at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) Film Festival in 2023.
And yesterday, we got to witness the award-winning work itself on the big screen at the premiere of Grimoire, an anthology of three of Jared’s short films.
“I’m very grateful for how it happened, actually,” the filmmaker said about the opportunity to work with GSC to screen the film.
Turns out, thanks to media coverage (including Vulcan Post’s), he caught the attention of the cinema. One thing led to another, and they decided to work together to screen the award-winning animation to Malaysians.
But Holorogist is just a short film, and it wouldn’t make much sense to just show it like you would with a feature-length film. GSC wanted to make it part of its Malaysian Animation Film Festival (MAFF), organised in collaboration with MDEC.
However, that would mean that Horologist would be screened alongside 13 to 14 other short films.
“I saw that happen last year with one of my other films, and I was like, no. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that should happen,” Jared admitted with a laugh.
He continued to explain, “We can sit through a two-hour movie, no problem. But when we sit through back-to-back, different stories, different characters, different styles, you get very tired at about the sixth, seventh film. I feel like it’s unfair, actually, for every work.”
So, he came up with a proposal decided to put together an anthology of three short films, and that anthology would become Grimoire.
Not necessarily gunning for commercial success
Speaking honestly, Jared said that Grimoire is likely not going to be a commercial success. “100%,” he tacked on. “I’m not jaded, yet. But I know the reality of our local cinema scene.”
“But what I hope at least to the people who choose to come in to watch this thing, they find something that they like. That’s success for me,” he expressed.
Jared shared that if he was actually asked (and paid) to create something, it wouldn’t be Grimoire. First of all, he would likely make the language of his film Malay.
“Movies aren’t cheap, and we have to cater to mass to make back the cost, to make everyone’s effort seem okay, so we can make the next one.”
He shared that he was actually offered to make Malay movies already, but he took a step back from that because he knew how important the first film for a director is. Coming from a background as a YouTube filmmaker, he wanted his first step into the movie industry to be a very careful one.
Thus, he decided that showcasing an anthology of shorts would be a good place to start to see where he stands within the scene.
“The door is not closed to when it comes to catering to mass, but still hopefully it’s a script that I believe in,” Jared added.
Having had the opportunity to attend various film festivals over the years, Jared’s top advice for other filmmakers is to attend these festivals.
“It’s not really about the money because you get good festivals even in Singapore,” he said. “But not here. We really feel like we want to bring it home. Not the scale, but the feeling. You get replenished as a creative just being there with fellow creatives.”
Stories about human greed
The three short films featured in Grimoire are The Last 7, Influencer, and Horologist. Each of these have been recognised by film festivals and have bagged some accolades.
Explaining the film, Jared shared that the curation of the three short film revolves around a social issue that humans go through, with each piece tackling a different matter.
The filmmaker shared that he’s always been fascinated with the human obsession with greed, and thus the three short films each touch on that from different lenses.
Don’t expect to just be watching these three short films, though. Tying the three films together is new content that was created specifically for Grimoire to add a layer of storytelling.
Without giving too much away, I will say that the short films were very gripping. Each of them seemed to be set in a parallel and somewhat dystopian universe. The second film, Influencer, probably has the most mass appeal, and I say that in the best way possible.
I absolutely loved the storytelling and art of Horologist, and wished that the animated short film was longer.
Altogether, the runtime was around one hour, though I wish each short film ran on for longer.
The anthology will be screened throughout MAFF, held from October 3 to 30. According to GSC’s website, tickets for MAFF 2024 are priced at RM15 and are available through GSC’s e-payment platforms (web, app, and kiosk).
The locations included for MAFF are Mid Valley, BBCC, 1 Utama, IOI City Mall, Gurney Plaza, Dataran Pahlawan, Paradigm JB, and Suria Sabah.
An exciting new work to come (and fund)
On the night of the premiere, Jared showed a short 30-second clip of their exciting new upcoming animated project.
“I wanted to show what we are currently working on, so you get a better gauge,” he told Vulcan Post.
Jared added that he’s been making his rounds, trying to make the right connections in order to bring that project to life. Once again, movies aren’t cheap. Even as an award-winning filmmaker, it’s difficult to drum up the funds needed to bring that work to the screen.
“It’s definitely mainstream, and it’s not just for the Malaysian market. I’m aiming bigger first. If I fall…” Jared trailed off. “I’ll just try my best.”
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