Unchained Podcast Summary

Episode: How Virtuals' New AI Accelerator Will Bring Humanoid Robots to the Real World

Host: Laura Shin
Guest: Jansen Tang, Co-founder of Virtuals Protocol
Date: February 23, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the intersection of crypto, AI agents, and humanoid robotics, focusing on the launch of EastWorld Labs—a new AI accelerator by Virtuals Protocol. Host Laura Shin interviews Jansen Tang about how this accelerator aims to enable the deployment of humanoid robots in real-world scenarios, combining tokenized economic layers, remote teleoperation, and large-scale data collection to drive the next wave of innovation in AI, robotics, and crypto-enabled commerce. The conversation spans the practicalities, challenges, vision, and socio-economic implications of a future hybrid society of humans, virtual agents, and robots.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Vision Behind EastWorld Labs

• Virtuals Protocol aims to foster a hybrid society where robots, virtual agents, and humans co-exist and collaborate economically.
• The launch of EastWorld Labs is intended as an "incubator or makerspace," bringing together robotics and AI founders for:
  • Easier fundraising
  • Acquiring training data and models
  • Scaling distribution
    (05:00, Jansen Tang)

*"The goal here is: can we make it easy for founders who want to build humanoid use cases at a consumer surface area to have an easier life... through raising funds, garnering data, training models, and obtaining distribution at scale?" — Jansen Tang (05:02)

2. Unique Accelerator Mechanism

• Two Paths to Enter:

  1. Tokenization Path: Founders launch a robotics token. If the token surpasses a $5M market cap, they gain residency—free humanoid robot, technical support, university collaborations.
     • Partnering with universities: CMU, NTU Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Oxford (07:20)
  2. Incubation Path: For non-token teams, direct seed funding and collaborative development.
     (06:16-08:15, Jansen Tang)

• Physical hub: 10,000 sq ft space in central Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia—home to 30 Unitree G1 humanoid robots, one of the largest global fleets.
  (08:22-09:26, Jansen Tang)

3. Startup Project Focus — Remote Teleoperation as First Step

• Short-term focus: Remote teleoperation of robots in high-wage markets (e.g., U.S., Australia) by operators in lower-wage countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam).
• Comparison: Analogous to call centers/BPO, but for physical labor—retail, hospitality, plumbing, mechanics, HVAC, and more.
• Rationale:
  • Immediate cost savings (40–60%)
  • Valuable real-world robotic data for training AI toward full autonomy
  • Gradual transition: Human-in-the-loop → full robot autonomy over 1.5–2 years
    (09:40-14:22, Jansen Tang)

*"Imagine a robot deployed in the States, but remotely controlled by a human in a cheaper country... The cost savings, even with today’s economics, is about 40 to 60%.” — Jansen Tang (10:30)

4. Humanoid Robot Details & Teleoperation Use Cases

• Robots: All Unitree G1s (max spec), highly dexterous (backflips, grasping).
• Potential household model:
  • Buy your own robot, which can be remotely “possessed” by relevant specialists as needed—a plumber, chef, cleaner, etc.
  • Alternatively, robots could be dispatched as a service. (14:38-18:11, Jansen Tang & Laura Shin)

*"You have a robot at home...and the soul of the robot gets replaced—so a plumber comes in to fix the pipe. If you need to cook, a chef enters the soul. One robot, multiple souls." — Jansen Tang (15:59)

• Robot price: $20,000–$60,000 (price dropping; early adoption expected in commercial, not household, settings).
  (20:03, Jansen Tang)

5. Security, Abuse, and Societal Impact

• Physical Security: Damage and attacks similar to protests against self-driving cars; need for onsite ops support and robot “self-defense” (anecdote: robot accidentally smashed office furniture).
  (22:10-24:04, Jansen Tang)
• Societal Backlash: Likely whiplash against job automation, echoing white-collar job impacts from AI.
  (24:26, Jansen Tang)
• Cybercrime: Potential for robot misuse; traceability depends on operational safeguards, though a “robotic cybercrime unit” could emerge.
  (27:05-28:33, Jansen Tang)

*"There's going to be a robotic cybercrime unit coming out in the FBI." — Jansen Tang (28:23)

6. Data Collection for AI Training (“Data Lake”)

• Two data streams:
  • Egocentric data: Video of human activities (e.g., via body cameras or smart glasses)
  • Teleoperation data: Detailed mapping of human operator actions to robot joint and force data
• All teams in the accelerator contribute to a shared data lake; this collective dataset is intended to be a unique global resource for training autonomous robots.
  (29:06-31:02, Jansen Tang)

7. Intersection of Robotics, Crypto & Tokenization

• Crypto as a tokenization and coordination layer:
  1. Tokenization incentivizes founder participation and community building—tokens accrue value through trading fees/taxes and early airdrops to stakeholders.
  2. Blockchain-based coordination (future): Autonomous robots will use smart contracts to interact, transact, and organize, e.g., robot chef hiring robot drone for food delivery.
     (31:29-34:07, Jansen Tang)

*"If a team wants to build a project that tokenizes, they get attention...when people trade their tokens, they get a tax out of it...And then, blockchain as that coordination layer for robots—machines working with machines through smart contracts." — Jansen Tang (31:32, 32:07)

8. Virtuals Protocol Ecosystem Deep Dive

• History & Evolution: Originated from the need for true autonomous agents; launched innovative tools like Luna (autonomous Twitter KOL) that controlled a real crypto wallet.

• Stack & Products:

  • Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP): Smart-contract rails for agent-to-agent collaboration
  • Butler: Human-facing agent service on X (Twitter)
  • Unicorn: Launchpad for agent projects
  • Virtual Revenue Network: Revenue-sharing system
    (36:46-44:13, Jansen Tang)

• OpenClaw Integration: Positions ACP as the “Stripe” to OpenClaw’s “Shopify”—“rails” for an agent-dense world. (44:13-45:21, Jansen Tang)

• Ecosystem Tokenomics:

  • Token pairs required for project launches
  • Taxes on trading and transactions accrue to the Virtuals treasury and stakers
    (50:46-54:13, Jansen Tang)

9. Infrastructure & Future Scalability

• Virtuals is built primarily on Base (L2), with support for Solana.
• Exploring non-sequential blockchain architectures for scaling parallel agent-to-agent jobs
  (54:13-57:49, Jansen Tang)

*"We realize that if you want to scale this using smart contracts and blockchain, you need some form of parallelization in place." — Jansen Tang (57:42)

10. The Ultimate Vision: Everyday Life in a Hybrid Society

• Envisioning a world where “every task you don’t want to do, there’s an agent or robot to do it for you.”
• Even relationships could be replaced by agents or robots, raising profound questions about economic models, productivity, and abundance.
  (58:49-61:02, Jansen Tang)

*"If you don't feel like working, there's a robot that's going to make money for you... you don't even think about it.” — Jansen Tang (59:18)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The “multiple souls” robot:
  “One robot, multiple souls… you just switch the operator for each specialized task.” — Jansen Tang (15:59)

• On job displacement:
  “We're going to live in a world of insane productivity / abundance... There will be a collapse of the current economic models built around scarcity.” — Jansen Tang (60:20)

• On balancing progress and regulation:
  “That's a question for governments to solve...We just bring innovation and speed it up—the world will adapt.” — Jansen Tang (25:39)

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:06 | Guest intro—Jansen Tang (Virtuals Protocol, EastWorld Labs launch) | | 05:00 | EastWorld Labs — Mission and setup | | 06:16 | Residency entry mechanisms | | 08:22 | Malaysian robotics hub, 30+ humanoid robot fleet | | 09:40 | Teleoperation and “human-in-the-loop” model | | 10:30 | Wage arbitrage and use case mapping | | 15:59 | The “multiple souls” concept—one robot, many remote specialists | | 20:03 | Robot unit prices and commercial adoption | | 22:10 | Security challenges—robot durability, operator oversight | | 27:05 | Cybercrime, traceability, and future law enforcement | | 29:06 | Data collection strategy (egocentric and teleoperation data) | | 31:29 | The crypto angle: tokenization and agent coordination layers | | 36:46 | Virtuals’ history—past products & agentic commerce development | | 44:13 | OpenClaw integration; vision for “rails” of agent economy | | 54:13 | Infrastructure, L2 choice, scaling, parallelization needs | | 58:49 | The ultimate vision: hybrid society, daily life with robots and agents | | 61:17 | Accelerator application process and founder support | | 62:55 | Accelerator success metrics: unicorns, robots making news | | 63:54 | Social links and wrap-up |

Accelerator Details (EastWorld Labs)

• Application Process:
  • Website: [Expected at eastworlds.io / eastworlds.com] (check official Twitter for updates)
  • DM via Twitter: @VirtualsIO
• Support offered:
  • Free humanoid robot per team
  • Data, research & university partnerships
  • In-person collaboration space, technical and BD support

Final Thoughts & Takeaways

Jansen Tang and Virtuals Protocol are making a bold bet that the convergence of AI, robotics, and crypto can be catalyzed by a globally-minded, open-innovation accelerator. EastWorld Labs stands at the forefront, offering founders the tools, data, and economic mechanisms to build the next generation of “autonomous economic actors.” As physical and digital agents merge, the podcast paints a future both thrilling and daunting—marked by mass automation, new models of abundance, and evolving roles for both humans and machines.

Follow Virtuals:

• Twitter: @virtualsio

Learn More:

• EastWorld Labs (coming soon)
• Virtuals Protocol