pSTAKE Finance, a leading liquid staking protocol under the Persistence One ecosystem, is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. John Shu as its new Research Lead. This strategic hire marks a significant step toward pSTAKE’s vision of building the foundational infrastructure for the convergence of artificial intelligence and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Dr. Shu brings a multidisciplinary background spanning artificial intelligence, big data systems, and innovation research, with a strong academic and entrepreneurial portfolio
A Unique Profile Bridging Research and Real-World Application
John holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering and is a current Doctoral Candidate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He also holds a Master’s degree in Technical Entrepreneurship and Management from the University of Rochester. His career bridges deep technical expertise with applied innovation across sectors including cleantech, digital media, and blockchain systems.
His academic work includes publications in top-tier conferences such as CHI, AAAI, ICML, NeurIPS, and CVPR, and he has served as a reviewer for prominent journals such as IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI) and the Journal of Business Venturing.
Dr. Shu has taught university-level courses in:
- Deep Learning
- Big Data Analytics
- Web & Mobile Programming
- Applied Innovation and Venture Creation
- Problem Solving in Computer Science
Advancing the AIFi Frontier
At pSTAKE, Dr. Shu will lead research initiatives focused on AI-native architecture, the tokenization of AI agents and datasets, and the design of composable financial protocols that reflect the rapidly evolving nature of artificial intelligence.
His recent research includes cutting-edge work on:
- Simultaneity-Centric Byte Pair Encoding for LLMs
- LLM-based Music and Symbolic Representation Understanding
- Disruptive Innovation in Emerging Technology Markets
These contributions will inform pSTAKE’s ambitions to:
- Enable financial attribution and liquidity for AI-native assets
- Bridge on-chain and off-chain computation for verifiable model interaction
- Support decentralized model coordination, evaluation, and value accrual
A Research-Led Future for Product Intelligence
John Shu’s appointment underscores pSTAKE’s commitment to world-class research as a driver of long-term innovation. As pSTAKE expands its scope beyond liquid staking, John will lead the charge in architecting the next layer of AI-Native architecture where machine intelligence becomes financially sovereign.
“John’s arrival marks a turning point for us. His work sits at the intersection of AI, incentive design, and applied decentralization exactly where the future of web3 is heading,” said `Emeka, Head of marketing at pSTAKE. “We’re excited to build with him as we lay the foundation for AI-integrated financial systems that scale far beyond current imagination.”
Please join us in welcoming Dr. John Shu to the pSTAKE team.
We’re building the rails for the Web3 era, and this is only the beginning.
