Wishlonger is the Co-Founder and CTO of Pharos Network, where he leads the development of its decentralized protocol stack and drives key industry partnerships. Formerly CSO at ZAN, Ant Group’s Web3 arm, he specialized in security architecture and vulnerability management. With a research background from Microsoft Research Asia and advanced degrees from USC and Virginia Tech, Wish brings deep expertise in distributed systems and network security to Pharos’s mission of building scalable, cross-chain infrastructure for real-world assets.
At Token2049, one of the year’s premier Web3 events, we sat down with Wishlonger, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pharos. He leads a layer-one blockchain project designed to provide high-performance open finance infrastructure and liquidity for DeFi and Real-World Assets (RWAs).
Drawing from his extensive experience developing consortium blockchains at Ant, Wishlonger has led large-scale blockchain and web2 projects for governments and major institutions, including pressure-testing systems with over a billion users. This background in institutional-grade payment networks and high-throughput applications directly informs the architecture of Pharos, which aims to bring TradFi-level performance and reliability to Web3.
How do you see infrastructure design evolving to support the next wave of DeFi and Web3 adoption?
The most fundamental aspect is high performance. In traditional finance, transaction speeds are much faster than on most blockchains. Our experience comes from building consortium blockchains for Web2 projects and institutions, including supporting the largest NFT platform in China, which processed transactions for over a billion people during the Chinese New Year.
That pressure test taught us that institutions need very high performance, low latency, finality, and high throughput, especially for payment networks. That’s why we built Pharos as a high-performance blockchain with real-time finality to support these scenarios. As a benchmark, Visa’s network peaks at 90k transactions per second (TPS), and we are aiming for 50k TPS, which we believe is sufficient to support institutional applications, RWAs, and future payment networks.
Decentralization always sounds great until scalability enters the room, so where does Pharos draw the line between performance and decentralization?
There is indeed a trade-off, known as the blockchain trilemma, between decentralization, performance, and security. While you can’t achieve a perfect balance in all three, we leverage technology to optimize the network as much as possible. We draw the line by using a validator set of about a few hundred nodes. Although it’s not millions of nodes like on Ethereum, we believe it is still sufficiently decentralized.
Our network is secured through a Proof-of-Stake mechanism and reputable institutional validator operators from around the world, whose reputation, brand, and staked tokens all contribute to network security.
With more institutions testing Web3 rails for settlement, what role does Pharos play in bridging compliance with DeFi-native principles?
Our background in traditional finance (TradFi) and payment networks allows us to effectively collaborate with institutions and build their trust. This enables us to utilize our technology to support their onboarding process in a secure and compliant manner. For example, we developed a “Special Processing Network,” which functions like a customizable subnet on our layer-one. This enables banks and institutions to implement features like private transactions or specific KYC/AML rules without fragmenting liquidity from the main network.
We are also developing a Zero-Knowledge Decentralized ID (ZK-DID) system. This enables users to perform KYC once, with their credentials protected by ZK technology. Projects on Pharos can then verify a user’s KYC status without accessing their private data. For users, it means they only have to do it once to gain access to the entire ecosystem.
Regulation around crypto assets, especially RWAs, is tightening globally. How does Pharos plan to adapt, and do you see regulation as a constraint or an opportunity?
For us, regulation is definitely an opportunity. If you truly want to scale and integrate real-world assets, you have to collaborate with regulators. It’s necessary to onboard Web2 users and institutions seeking a regulated environment. Our background and resources enable us to navigate this process effectively. We are currently focused on Asia, specifically Hong Kong, China, and Japan, where many of these assets originate, but we also work closely with projects in the United States.
Some argue that cryptocurrencies are akin to stocks, while NFTs are comparable to baseball cards. Does this framing help institutions better understand the asset class, or does it risk oversimplification?
I don’t think that framing is accurate; it’s an oversimplification. We see ourselves as building an on-chain fintech city. In this city, Pharos provides the infrastructure, and the foundation acts like the city government, working to attract investors and citizens. It’s a real, organic economy. The native token is not a stock; it represents the city’s treasury, which is used to invest in infrastructure and ecosystem projects. Gas fees, on the other hand, act like taxes collected from citizens and companies operating within the city.
What does “crypto market maturity” look like to you in five years, and how does Pharos position itself for that stage?
It’s hard to predict five years ahead, as one year in crypto can feel like ten. Still, I believe the trend of Web2 and Web3 merging will persist regardless of market cycles. More users, companies, institutions, and even governments will shift toward this space.
For Pharos, our vision is to realize the “on-chain financial city” I described. I don’t care as much about rankings on DeFi Llama. Success in five years means Pharos has become a new on-chain financial hub, with strong infrastructure, high asset volume, and many users and projects that consider our platform their home. We want it to be a place where they can generate yields and build their own value within this ecosystem.