Solitude is the only auditor that never sleeps. I learned that lesson in 2017, when I walked away from the ‘TruthChain’ audit—a project that would have compromised user metadata for the sake of a rushed ICO. That decision cost me a seat at the table, but it cemented something far more valuable: the conviction that trust is not a feature you bolt on after launch. It is the foundation. And today, as SoftBank appoints Yossi Cohen—former director of Mossad—as a strategic advisor for AI investments, I am watching that same tension between trust and ambition play out on a global scale.
Context: The Architecture of a New Empire SoftBank is not just another investor. Through its controlling stake in Arm, it owns the instruction set architecture powering nearly every mobile AI chip and a growing share of server-class AI accelerators. Founder Masayoshi Son has repeatedly declared that SoftBank will transform from a holding company into “the infrastructure provider for the AGI era.” The Vision Fund, despite its post-WeWork scars, remains one of the largest pools of capital in tech—with deep ties to Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds like Saudi Arabia’s PIF. Now, by bringing in Cohen, SoftBank is adding a layer of intelligence and security capability that no other AI fund can match. But for those of us who have spent years auditing smart contracts and building trustless systems, this move raises a fundamental question: When the gatekeepers of AI investment are former intelligence chiefs, what happens to the open, permissionless ethos that Web3 was built on?
Core: The Signal Behind the Appointment Let me be clear—this is not a decision about technology. It is a decision about risk. AI investment has become a minefield of geopolitical landmines: export controls, data sovereignty, adversarial attacks, and the looming specter of AI-powered surveillance. Cohen’s expertise in intelligence operations gives SoftBank a unique lens to evaluate these risks. Based on my own experience auditing decentralized protocols, I know that the most critical vulnerabilities are often not in the code but in the assumptions about who controls the infrastructure. SoftBank is now building a team that can “audit” the geopolitical risk of every AI startup it considers.
But here is where the Web3 angle becomes unavoidable. Cohen’s network in Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem—particularly the 8200 intelligence unit alumni—could open a pipeline for SoftBank to invest in cutting-edge security AI startups. Many of these companies develop tools for adversarial ML, zero-day detection, and privacy-preserving technologies. For Web3 builders, this is both an opportunity and a warning. On one hand, stronger security infrastructure could benefit the entire ecosystem. On the other hand, the same intelligence capabilities that protect networks can also be weaponized for surveillance. Code is law, but conscience is the interpreter. And the conscience of a former Mossad director is not the same as the conscience of a decentralized community.
Contrarian: The Trust Paradox The loudest voice is rarely the most aligned. In the crypto community, we often celebrate decentralization as an antidote to centralized power. But here is the uncomfortable truth: many of the protocols we use today rely on centralized infrastructure—cloud providers, API gateways, oracles—that are themselves vulnerable to state-level actors. SoftBank’s move could actually accelerate the adoption of privacy-preserving technologies like zero-knowledge proofs, which are essential for both AI safety and data sovereignty. When I launched ‘Verifiable Humanhood’ in 2026, using ZK proofs to verify human identity without exposing personal data, the challenge was not technical—it was convincing people that privacy could be both secure and scalable. A fund with Cohen’s security expertise might be more willing to back such projects than a traditional VC that sees only unit economics.
Yet the contrarian risk is real. By tying AI investment to intelligence, SoftBank may inadvertently create a chilling effect. Developers who care about ethical AI might avoid SoftBank-backed projects for fear of association with surveillance. This is not hypothetical—I saw it happen in 2022 after FTX’s collapse, when the entire industry retreated from any project that smelled of centralized control. Trust is rebuilt in silence, and broken in noise. SoftBank’s appointment is very loud noise.
Takeaway: A Fork in the Road We are standing at a fork. One path leads to a future where AI capital flows through intelligence-backed gatekeepers, potentially accelerating the deployment of secure AI but also centralizing control over the technology. The other path leads to a future where decentralized communities build their own security models, independent of state and corporate power. SoftBank’s move does not determine which path we take—but it forces us to choose. For Web3 founders, the message is clear: build your own trust, or it will be built for you. The question is not whether intelligence will be embedded in AI investment—it already is. The question is whether that intelligence serves the few or the many.
Code is law, but conscience is the interpreter. Let’s make sure our conscience is aligned with the permissionless future we were promised.
