After riding the success of Bitcoin, Singaporean entrepreneur Herbert Sim believes transhumanism is going to have its moment in 2023 thanks to Elon Musk

It’s hard to miss Herbert Sim when he enters a room. Light bounces off the giant gold and diamond Bitcoin pendant that hangs from a long chain around his neck. To those in the industry, he is known by his moniker, The Bitcoin Man - the jet-setting businessman who has been amplifying the message of decentralization and Bitcoin since 2010.

Sim’s lifestyle is the result of perfect timing, entrepreneurial savvy, his faith and lots of hustle. Now, after 12 years as the self-appointed global Bitcoin ambassador, he’s ready to take the leap into the fascinating and terrifying world of transhumanism, the belief that humans can evolve beyond current levels of physical and mental ability with the help of technology.  

Sim has always been drawn to movements that challenge the status quo and seek to propel humanity forward. Raised in Singapore, he left in 2007 to pursue his degree in mass communications at Oklahoma City University. It was here that he first experienced campus activism and it opened all sorts of new possibilities for him. After being exposed to the ideas of the Cypherpunk movement and then the revolutionary concept of Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer digital currency system built on decentralized technology, he was hooked. He combined his interests in journalism and marketing to start writing about decentralization, privacy and data sovereignty. In time, he became a well-known voice, educating people about the Cypherpunk movement. 

Cypherpunk emerged in the 1980s when a group of computer scientists and mathematicians started sharing their thoughts that cryptography was the only way for individuals to ensure anonymity and protect their privacy from the prying eyes of government agencies. In his manifesto published in 1993, one of the founders of the Cypherpunk movement, Eric Hughes, wrote, “Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money. Cypherpunks write code. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide.”

Sim is proud to have played a role in amplifying the movement’s message. “In the early days, I was the loudest marketer for Cypherpunks,” he said. “Coders do not know how to do marketing. So it took a marketer to join and help them propagate this.”

He built the website Crypto Chain University in 2010 as a repository for white papers, articles and resources to further the understanding of blockchain, cryptocurrency and decentralized technologies.

Cypherpunk decentralization

“My ideology of backing Cypherpunks was never to be against governments, per se,” he said. “It was about bringing awareness to privacy and decentralization. I believe in decentralization for finance. People should be in charge of their own finances.” It was around this time that he started acquiring Bitcoin. 

In 2013, he returned to Singapore and began building startups, studying, working as a marketer and exploring opportunities. He founded a multi-award winning online luxury fashion magazine, Wardrobe Trends Fashion. As social media usage began exploding globally, Sim recognised its huge potential in helping him spread his message. He used his marketing nous to grow his way to 1 million followers making him the most-followed Singaporean on the planet at the time. He was also one of the first blue-tick verified crypto influencers. 

So what about his Bitcoin? 

“The thing was, I still held onto my Bitcoins, and forgot about it because I was so focussed on building WardrobeTrendsFashion and trying to make it the next big thing,” Sim said. “Little did I know that my Bitcoin was amassing in value. It hit $1,000 back in 2014, so I shifted my focus back to crypto.” Sim experienced his first losses in 2014 when the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange collapsed as a result of embezzlement. Nevertheless, his overall gains were significant enough to pay off his U.S. education and his subsequent MBA. He still ponders whether that was the best use of his Bitcoins, noting he would be so much richer today had he just left the coins in his wallet. 

Bitcoin Man is born

In 2016, Sim officially created the The Bitcoin Man brand and started hustling as a speaker at crypto conferences throughout Asia. It paid off and he started seeing the profile of Bitcoin increase. 

“Between 2013-2017, 70 percent of the entire world's trading volume of Bitcoin was in Asia/China,” SIm said. “Sixty-six percent of mining during this time was in China. The entire shift was from west to east. I think I can claim some credit for that because I was channeling Asian traffic about Bitcoin.” 

He’s not done promoting Bitcoin, either, and has an eye-popping price prediction.

“Even today, every conference that I speak at, I keep repeating the same thing: Bitcoin will be a million dollars each by 2030,” he said. “And I stick to it, because I'm actually pretty sure based on the fundamentals. It’s exponentially growing and mass adoption is happening.”

Back in 2017, the Chinese government was becoming increasingly suspicious of cryptocurrency and began to monitor the activities of crypto exchanges. In September the government banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) which had become the preferred capital raising method for crypto ventures. In a brazen nod to crypto, Sim took out a major advertisement in October 2017, covering the side of a prominent skyscraper on the riverfront in central Shanghai with the word “Bitcoin Man” (in Chinese), all lit up in lights.

In October 2017, Herbert Sim took out a major advertising campaign for Bitcoin Man in Shanghai

In November 2017, he joined cryptocurrency exchange Huobi as global operations director just over a month before China implemented its blanket ban on cryptocurrencies in December. This move quickly forced Huobi to move its operations to Singapore.

“It is interesting to note that Changpeng Zhao (CZ) exited China, and founded Binance in July 2017,” Sim said, referring to the world’s largest crypto market “That was how the exchange quickly rose to prominence compared to the crypto exchange titans of that day - Huobi and OKEX (now OKX) that were based out of China.”

Bitcoin's peaks over the years (it reached a high of about $69,000 in November 2021) have afforded Sim the ability to invest in a diverse mix of blockchain, metaverse and Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups. Of his recent investments, he is most excited about Solidus AI Tech, which will offer Artificial Intelligence-As-A-Service. He has also invested in an Indian web3 startup that is building a crypto ecosystem including a digital wallet, gaming and NFT marketplace. He directed a portion of his Bitcoin wealth to World Vision, the Christian humanitarian charity, and has supported an orphanage in Thailand that has educated 153 children from kindergarten to college. It is his faith and his humanitarian endeavors that have kept him grounded in a sector defined almost wholly by the price fluctuations of a single digital token. 

Transhumanism

Sim is now moving toward what he believes is the next big thing - transhumanism. Moreso, he believes Elon Musk will be pivotal in these developments, not least because the billionaire has the world’s loudest voice box at his disposal, Twitter.  

Musk recently announced that human trials of his Neuralink computer chip will commence within six months. Neuralink, which Musk co-founded, is a technology company developing what it says is a “fully implantable, cosmetically invisible brain-computer interface to let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go.” The company is currently exploring assistive applications such as access to computer applications that can be controlled by the brains of people suffering paralysis.

Swedish Philosopher Nick Bostrom, who Sim views as a mentor, and British Philosopher David Pierce have founded Humanity+ (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) to foster collaboration and debate as humanity charts its next iteration. According to their website, transhumanists believe that technology and science can “eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.” The movement advocates for genome selection or the insertion of devices into the body to achieve their goals. The ultimate aim is to improve the human condition, ultimately leading to the evolution of the human species.

Sim believes that “Elon Musk will start selling the dream of not just sending people to the moon, but the dream of transhumanism. Meaning every other human today will gain super intelligence through a neurochip placed in your hand or forehead, giving you super strength [and] super intelligence. It’s more than the chip. It’s a genetic upgrade.”

He added,  “I foresee the tech research teams of the world all moving towards this. 100 percent. This is all coming.”