Taiwan’s blockchain applications: How Turing Space plans to turn the TrustTech landscape

On Nov. 10, Colin Cheng (鄭旭高), President of Taipei Digital Asset Association, told TCN that he was invited to talk at a featured Fireside Chat on Technology and Innovation-driven Economy at the Global Gross National Happiness Forum held in Bhutan, where he shared his experience in blockchain, crypto, and digitalization.

He further shared with TCN his observation of some of Bhutan's blockchain applications: Hydro power for crypto mining, an Identity card on blockchain, and more. So, how are Taiwanese businesses doing in blockchain applications?  

Turing Space: Who's Hu

In 2025, the CEO and CTO of Taiwan’s blockchain and “TrustTech” (Decentralized Identifier and Verifiable Credential) company, Turing Space, Jeff Hu Yao-chieh (胡耀傑) and Hang Meng-tse (杭孟澤), respectively, became the only Taiwanese citizens to be awarded the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia this year. Their company, Turing Space, says its clientele spans institutions such as the Taipei City Government, National Taiwan University (NTU), and even the World Health Organization (WHO), per Forbes.

Jeff Hu, a Hsinchu native and a serial entrepreneur, displayed an entrepreneurial bent early on, launching ventures while still a student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He later earned a master's degree in FinTech within the IEOR program at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2020, he founded Turing Space, marking his third entrepreneurial attempt. The company leverages Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to authenticate and issue digital certificates, using an immutable structure designed to prevent forgery and tampering at the source.

The company states that it has offices in the US, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan and that its products are now used across more than 400 government agencies and academic institutions from different parts of the world.

TCN observed that Hu, who also serves as a government advisory committee member at the Executive Yuan, the highest executive branch in Taiwan, actively took part in discussions at the Nationwide Exchange of Government Youth Advisors held in Kaohsiung in November 2025. He told TCN at the event that he indeed travels to European countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland for business from time to time.


According to Turing Space's introduction video, its technology could be applied to a wide range of critical documents, from academic and professional certificates to medical records, real-estate contracts, and even carbon-credit attestations.

In an interview he had within a year of establishing Turing Space, Jeff Hu told Central News Agency that the pain point he observed was when he applied to 18 graduate programs overseas, he noticed how onerous and arduous the process of securing paper-based certificates proved to be.

He further stated that each document required multiple layers of verification, and in some cases, he would have had to fly back to Taiwan in person, a logistical burden that could easily cost him a significant amount of money. Recognizing that blockchain's inherent resistance to forgery and alteration could remedy these inefficiencies, Hu identified a new commercial opportunity in the emerging digital-identity market.

His idea of starting Turing Space began with the thought that digital diplomas, product-traceability records, and authentication reports could all be anchored on a blockchain to guarantee their provenance. Turing Space aims to enable credentials and records to be verified swiftly while ensuring anti-counterfeiting integrity and long-term preservation.

On a government official website, the Executive Yuan's records show that Jeff Hu initiated a proposal as an advisory committee member: To promote digitalization, he recommended the government expand the functionality of digital credential wallets and open up APIs for digital verification of driver's licenses and graduation certificates, so that enterprises and academic institutions can legally access authorized information.

CTO Hang Meng-tse shared with Cheers Magazine that Turing Space is unique in that it openly allows employees to wear different hats and do freelancing work at the same time. He stated that it is a policy that resonates with Gen Z employees.


Another case: OwlTing Group

However, blockchain technology, although often lauded as revolutionary, is not without its caveats. Thomas Puschmann, Director of Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab, who spoke at Taiwan Weeks' FinTech Taipei event held in late October by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), told TCN that different risks concerning crypto assets and applications remain.

For example, he continued, market liquidity risk due to fewer market participants and a more fragmented market structure, high price volatility risk, and operational risk due to insufficient governance, among other risks, are all real concerns when it comes to crypto.

Taiwanese blockchain companies, including ones that have previously been praised as stars, have faced significant drawbacks on the global stage as well. OwlTing Group, a Taipei-based blockchain technology company, made its debut on the Nasdaq Global Market on Oct. 16. According to Yahoo, it became the first Asian FinTech firm to list directly on the exchange, a milestone that drew considerable attention at the time.

The firm has secured Money Transmitter Licenses (MLTs) across 40 US states, per Yahoo News, along with payments licenses in the EU and Japan. With these credentials, it was touted by NTU Department of Biomechatronics Engineering, where founder Darren Wang Chun-kai (王俊凱) studied, that its stablecoin-payment architecture has earned recognition from three major regulatory regimes, granting it the legal footing needed for cross-border operations.

OwlTing's shares, priced at a reference point of US$10 for its direct listing, opened at US$68 and briefly surged to US$90. Yet by the following week, the stock had tumbled below US$10 to US$8.15 on Oct. 22 in particular, erasing over 90 percent of its value, per Business Today.

Business Today noted that in a social media post, Darren Wang emphasized that a direct listing lacks the stabilizing presence of underwriters, leaving the share price entirely to market forces. Such volatility, he said, reflects trading dynamics rather than the company's fundamentals. Business Today similarly stated that OwlTing's long-term prospects in US capital markets will hinge on its financial statements; only through its underlying performance can investors discern whether the firm is positioned for a steady and enduring trajectory.

In sum, while blockchain holds promise to many, regarding its innovation in transparency and autonomy, its path forward is strewn with pragmatic challenges. These drawbacks do not negate its utility, but they do temper the enthusiasm, serving as a reminder that the technology is still maturing. Taiwanese blockchain companies, if they do want to thrive in the highly competitive global market, still have much work to do down the road.