About Johnson Lai
Head of Data & AI · Qwen Model Ambassador Link to heading
I’m a Forward Deployed Engineer based in Malaysia/Singapore. I embed with teams to fill the gap between what AI tools can do and what the team actually needs, then ship production systems that run in their real environment instead of staying as slide decks.
Self-taught engineer and UWA alum. Today I’m Head of Data & AI at 
Chromia, where I create an agent-first approach to marketing, engineering, and operations. Also Model Ambassador at 
Qwen. Previously Cofounder/CTO at Chasm, COO/CTO at Hooga Gaming, and Senior R&D / Mobile Engineer at CoinGecko.
What I do Link to heading
My work is split into three focused areas:
🛠️ Forward Deployed Engineer → Embedding with teams in Malaysia/Singapore to redesign workflows and ship AI-native systems.
⚡ Crypto × AI → Decentralized inference, on-chain AI agents, transparent data, and agent commerce.
🤖 Local LLM → Private inference, fine-tuning, evals, and local GPU workflows with Qwen, llama.cpp, vLLM, and SGLang.
Available for Link to heading
Forward-deployed engagements at the AI × crypto intersection: agentic systems, on-chain AI, local LLM deployment, fine-tuning, and end-to-end product builds.
Experience Link to heading
| Role | Company | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Head of Data & AI | Chromia | Oct 2024 – Now |
| Qwen Model Ambassador | Alibaba Qwen | May 2026 – Now |
| Cofounder & CTO | Chasm Network | Nov 2023 – Oct 2024 |
| COO / CTO | Hooga Gaming | Jun 2021 – Nov 2023 |
| Head of Product / Advisor | Pacer | 2022 |
| Co-organizer | ETHKL | 2020 |
| Senior R&D / Mobile / Product Engineer | CoinGecko | Dec 2018 – Feb 2022 |
| Fullstack Engineer | PhytoMark | Jun 2017 – Jan 2018 |
Selected Work Link to heading
💻 Open source & contributions Link to heading
- Luce DFlash on Blackwell consumer GPUs (2026). Shipped DFlash support for 5090 / GB10 DGX. Qwen3.6-27B @ 35 tok/s on GB10, ~3× faster than vLLM+DFlash, ~9× vs vLLM bf16. OpenAI-compatible tool calling out of the box. (announcement)
- Bonsai CUDA benchmark on DGX Spark (GB10) (2026). Community benchmark for Bonsai-8B / 4B / 1.7B on GB10 (128GB unified, CUDA 13.0).
- go-gecko – Go SDK for the CoinGecko API.
- steem-web-wallet – Web wallet for the Steem blockchain.
- UnicornAutoStaker – Auto-staking bot for Hooga.
📦 Products Link to heading
- Unbound by EvalEngine – First uncensored Gemma 3n variant: E2B, E4B.
- Tatarot – AI-native tarot reading.
- Pacer Wellness App
- Weave – Plug & Play AI workflow builder (like n8n / Flowise) built during Chasm.
- AlphaOnChain
- Bull & Bear Merch
- CoinGecko Widgets · CoinGecko Mobile App
✍️ Writing Link to heading
🎤 Talks Link to heading
🏆 Hackathons Link to heading
- ETHKL 2023 – Finalist: PenguMon
- ETHGlobal Tokyo 2023 – PPSwap: Quantstamp “Most Creative Solution”, Worldcoin Honorable Mention, Polygon Pool Prize
- Utopian Hackathon 2018 – Steem Web Wallet