Podcast Notes | Conversation with Justin Sun: Extreme Loneliness is Also a Form of Freedom

Compiled by & Editor: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guest: Justin Sun (Founder of TRON)

Host: Bonnie / Bonnie Blockchain

Podcast Source: YouTube (https://youtu.be/ZQrxbd-r_MM)

Original Title: Justin Sun: Extreme Loneliness is Also a Kind of Freedom! | About Quantum Threat Day, Buying Bananas for 200 Million, and Those Crazy Decisions You Can't Understand! Justin Sun [Bonnie Blockchain]

Broadcast Date: October 14, 2026

1. A Life-Changing Childhood Story

Host: You mentioned at the beginning that there was a story that changed your life?

Guest: One of those stories changed my life. When I was young, my parents sent me to boarding school. They originally wanted me to play golf, but later my parents… After I went home, I had to go back to boarding school. The result is that you are always alone. My parents later separated, so when I went home, there was no family. When you are young and need to confide in someone, where do you go? No one. My life changed completely; I could only rely on myself. But we also gained something from it, which is freedom. Just like you said, extreme loneliness is also a kind of freedom.

Host: At the highest level, is it very lonely?

Guest: Most people get the opportunity to make their own life decisions at eighteen, twenty-five, or even thirty; I got that opportunity at nine. Just like I used to.

2. Million Dollar "Justin Sun Award": Redesigning Academic Awards for the AI Era

Host: You offered a million-dollar prize for solving mathematical problems; why mathematics?

Guest: First, I believe mathematics is the foundation of cryptocurrency. Today, the vast majority of cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, TRON, Ethereum, are all built on mathematical theories, so providing incentives to the mathematics community is very important, and advancements in mathematics can also help crypto grow. Second, in the internet age, mathematics has begun to become a "project." Previously, it was anthropological mathematics, then machine learning mathematics, and today most results are starting to be proven by AI, which has a formal verification system that can basically provide verifiable results directly. I think traditional awards like the Olympics or the Nobel Prize are too slow for the entire industry; we can't spend a year or even four years to reward someone. So the "Justin Sun Award" is designed entirely for the AI era, just like crypto, with instant rewards: we publish all important open problems in science, and as long as you prove a mathematical breakthrough using systems like Lean, you get the award immediately. It’s not like an Olympic lifetime achievement award that takes a lifetime to earn; it’s more like an agile bounty. We don’t care whether the problem is solved by a person or an AI agent; as long as it’s solved, we pay. Many people joke that this annual award might be the last mathematics award for humanity; so what? Why not give the award to AI?

Host: OpenAI has already won an award, right?

Guest: Yes. In fact, today OpenAI released some new things, so my team and I shared the problem repository with them to see if OpenAI can solve more. If OpenAI wins every year, we will give them the award every year; it would be very interesting.

Host: Is mathematics your favorite project?

Guest: Yes, it is for me. I think it’s important, and it can also help our business. Because today everyone is researching quantum attacks, we are also developing NIST's post-quantum cryptography standards, which can help resist quantum attacks and promote their implementation. We are developing these and hope to validate our commitments on the testnet next year.

3. Quantum Threat Day (Q-Day): A Black Swan Underestimated by the Entire Industry

Host: I remember the last time we were on stage, you mentioned Q-Day and TRON's hedging plan.

Guest: Yes. I still think Quantum Threat Day (Q-Day) is underestimated by the entire Bitcoin industry. I’m not saying I’m moving fast, but the Bitcoin community as a whole is moving very slowly. We have been in it since 2012, and the entire community's upgrades are extremely slow. Even within two years, getting the Bitcoin community to pass a protocol upgrade is almost impossible. The worst-case scenario is that a top AI or a mysterious cracker violently breaks Satoshi's early public key cryptography, and the approximately one million Bitcoins he holds could be compromised. Just think about how much impact that would have on Bitcoin's value.

Host: How big is this risk?

Guest: Wall Street and BlackRock managers, they are not using Bitcoin and do not understand the technological progress of Bitcoin. They feel that enough time has been spent on these matters, just like when Apple released a problematic update, and two minutes later a new update is pushed, everyone updates, and that’s it. But they have invested so much money without understanding the technology; it’s crazy. Not every Apple stock manager studies the iOS system, but Q-Day will be a big problem; it’s just that no one knows when it will come, and everyone is predicting what impact Q-Day will have on Bitcoin's value.

4. TRON's USDT Moat, Network Effects, and US Stock Tokenization

Host: Congratulations to TRON. Now you hold over 94 billion USDT, which is half of all USDT. With so many different blockchains wanting to compete with you, how have you managed to win so much?

Guest: First, cryptocurrency has a strong network effect, just like Facebook. When it first came out, you could use other social software, but Facebook was different and hard to switch from. Today we have over 400 million real users who are still trading on it every day. Just like Facebook, if you are not on Facebook and use other software, you cannot send messages to others. TRON is the same; if you do not use the TRON network and use other public chains, the money cannot be sent to that network, and the money already on the network is also hard to exchange for other networks. This is a user choice; today on WhatsApp, tomorrow on X, but that’s just communication. Once money comes onto the chain, it’s hard to leave. We have 400 million users, and basically, we add about 500,000 new users every day. I think it’s hard to change the network someone uses; once they enter this network, the network effect of cryptocurrency is very strong.

Host: What about the second point?

Guest: Second, our team has been doing our best to provide products that users really need. In Q4 of this year, we will launch tokenized stocks on the TRON network, ensuring that all users can access major indices and stocks like QQQ and S&P 500, allowing stablecoin users to invest directly in core US stock assets without leaving the chain, connecting on-chain funds with the entrance to traditional financial markets.

5. WLFI Investment: Helpless at the Time

Host: Speaking of the US, knowing what you know today, if you could go back in time, would you still invest in World Liberty Financial (WLFI)?

Guest: I think I would still invest because at that time it was "helpless." I only saw all the information after I invested; they didn’t give me enough commitment, so I couldn’t make my own decision and had no reservations. If something is helpless, it’s hard to say whether you regret it later.

6. Lonely Childhood: Nine Years Old in a Go Boarding School, Parents Divorced

Host: I want to ask about your childhood story or your growing-up experience. Is there anything that shaped who you are today? For example, what your parents did.

Guest: Absolutely. One story that changed my life is that my parents sent me to boarding school when I was only nine years old. At that time, they wanted me to learn Go, which is the last board game to be conquered by AI. Before me, there were many other games, but the last one to be ended by AI was Go. Today, learning it is meaningless because even the strongest players cannot beat AI; it’s like you need two people to deal with one AI. At that time, the atmosphere for Go in China was very strong, with many young players, and all the good players were in Beijing and Wuhan, so I went to Wuhan to learn Go.

Host: Could you only learn Go?

Guest: Yes, because all the Go players were in Beijing and Wuhan. And it was very urgent because the rule was that you had to become a professional player before the age of 13. If you didn’t qualify before 13, even if you were very successful, you could never become a professional. So I went to boarding school and practiced Go 100% from a young age.

Host: Was your practice a lonely journey?

Guest: Yes, at first, I might only know how to play Go, but later it became everything to me. Because I went to Wuhan, my parents divorced, and when I came back, I had to go back to the training school. You know, it was just me, forever. Just like the soldiers who retreated to Taiwan during the international war; the commander said you would only stay for a while and then return to southern China. They believed it, but in fact, they lived in Taiwan forever, and their families back home never had the chance to return, having to find a new life in Taiwan. For me, the reason for going to boarding school is no longer important because my life changed completely; after that, I relied entirely on myself, and we also gained something from it, which is freedom.

7. Extreme Loneliness is Also Freedom

Host: In one of your recent articles, you wrote, "Extreme loneliness is also a kind of freedom." Will the world become very lonely?

Guest: In fact, we still have many people competing; it’s a large group, completely not lonely. But for me, perhaps these experiences made me feel the truth of life earlier. Most people leave home at eighteen, twenty-five, or even thirty to have the opportunity to decide their own lives, while I got that opportunity at nine. So you leave home at nine and never return; boarding school became my home, and then my parents left, and I never went home.

Host: When you were young and needed to confide in someone, where would you go?

Guest: No one. My home is in Guangdong, over a thousand kilometers from Wuhan, and even my classmates in boarding school have families and live in Wuhan. I couldn’t trouble anyone; I had to decide everything myself. But I think this gave me a lot of courage to decide to go to space, to participate in moon landings in the future, and even possibly go to Mars. As long as Musk says it’s safe, I will go.

8. Crazy Decisions are for Experience, Not Marketing

Host: People say you’ve done a lot of crazy things, like buying bananas and bidding for lunch with Buffett. Is this an investment or marketing?

Guest: For me, it’s an experience. My motivation for extending my experiences is different from most people; what others find important is not important to me. For example, I decided to meet Musk; I believe that will also make big news, but the reason is not marketing; going to space is the same, and buying bananas is the same. Because I think bananas are cute. You spent 6.2 million dollars; yes, that was mine. The auction bottom line was 7 million dollars; I just wanted the ultimate life experience that money can’t buy.

Host: People think many of the things you do are brave actions or that you are doing marketing?

Guest: But in the end, for me, I just want these experiences, and these experiences are very important to me. As I become more famous, people start to attach a lot of meaning to what I do. But for me, this is my life, this is my experience, and we decided to just go straight after that, it's that simple.

Host: Aren't you excited?

Guest: I am excited. I'm just thinking about everything I do, while also considering that I go to training school at night. If you say you go to training school at night, it must be a promotional move, right? It's quite interesting, isn't it? So I think it's the same.

Host: I really enjoyed this discussion, it was very touching and very engaging.

Guest: Thank you.