IVCA Feature: New Member Profile of Decasonic
In this second month and throughout 2026, new member participants in the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA) will keep it expanding. These new members also will give the current membership new opportunities for networking … in addition to optimizing support and partnerships … which leads to guidance and new ideas for Venture Capital, Private Equity and the support industries.
The latest new member is the firm of the Decasonic, which is “the Venture and digital assets fund building blockchain and AI innovation.”
The following is a Q&A profile with Decasonic, which explores the firm’s background and their expectations for interacting with the IVCA.
New Member: Decasonic
Representative: Rizza Torres, Marketing Manager
IVCA: What is a brief history of and background of Decasonic?
Decasonic: Decasonic is an early-stage venture and digital assets firm focused on mainstream adoption of AI, Web3 and blockchain innovations. Founded by Paul Hsu, who serves as the firm’s sole general partner, Decasonic is structured to be enhancement capital for founders.The firm is product first, thesis driven, and designed to partner closely with builders through periods of technological and market inflection.
Paul’s background spans multiple technology shifts, including the early internet, social gaming, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. These experiences shaped the foundation of Decasonic’s investment approach … identifying non-consensus opportunities, underwriting durable product-market fit, and supporting compounding systems from the earliest stages.
IVCA: Why did the firm decide to join the Illinois Venture Capital Association?
Decasonic: Decasonic is proud to be based in Chicago. We believe global leadership starts local. Chicago offers a distinct mix of determination, innovation, and institutional excellence, which we believe will be central to building the next generation of technology platforms.
Paul has also joined other Chicago based civic organizations including the Economic Club of Chicago and the World Business Chicago. These collaborations align with our mission to drive technology value creation with broad and inclusive impact.
As part of IVCA, we look forward to learning from, collaborating with, and contributing to the broader venture and private equity ecosystem. Our team brings a forward view of where markets are heading, particularly in AI and blockchain, and we are excited to share our insights while strengthening ties across capital and innovation in Illinois.
IVCA: Your firm focuses on building blockchain and AI innovation, which are two technologies that are front and center in the current tech conversation. What are the industries that are most interested in AI, and what innovations are emerging because of that interest?
Decasonic: AI adoption is reshaping workflows across nearly every industry, particularly where automation, speed, and reasoning drive competitive advantage. These advances are creating leverage at scale by improving productivity, enabling personalization, and accelerating decision cycles across organizations.
At Decasonic, we focus on the convergence of AI and Web3, where intelligent systems interact with decentralized networks to unlock new forms of economic coordination. This includes autonomous AI agents that transact on chain, peer-to-peer AI networks, and tokenized AI infrastructure.
To lead in this space, we have developed and filed a provisional patent for our internal AI operating system, the Reinforcement Learning Expert Network (RLEN). RLEN enables structured collaboration between humans and AI agents to evaluate non-consensus, high-context decisions and investment risk. It reflects our belief that AI is a compounding force that strengthens conviction, accelerates conviction, and scales insight when embedded deeply into how organizations operate.
IVCA: The term blockchain has been around for several years now, associated mostly with cryptocurrency. What other uses of blockchain have emerged in recent years, how is it currently being applied to crypto, and what innovations have emerged from the new uses of blockchain?
Decasonic: Beyond cryptocurrency, blockchain now powers decentralized identity, tokenized money and financial assets, blockchain-based gaming, programmable loyalty systems, and infrastructure for AI coordination. These systems offer economic alignment, transparency, and ownership at scale, primed for mainstream adoption.
We are particularly focused on dual equity and token structures, where blockchain-native incentives reinforce business value. As blockchain technologies mature, we expect them to underpin global networks where AI agents transact, verify, and earn autonomously. These innovations are not only technical but also represent new market categories for founders and investors.
IVCA: Your firm offers ‘Perspectives’ on the various subset issues regarding blockchain and AI. As most of us have now been exposed to the definition of AI, what questions do you get the most from these Perspectives, especially with businesses or investors who are new or not sure about the tech?
Decasonic: The most common question is how to discern durability from hype. AI and blockchain are complex domains, and many investors ask how to evaluate real utility and long-term market relevance. At Decasonic, we address this through a structured framework that assesses Narrative, Product Market Fit, and Execution.
We also field frequent questions on governance, token mechanics, and regulatory clarity. We respond with data-informed insights and use our operating background to simplify how these technologies create user value. Founders and investors alike benefit when we translate deep technical knowledge into actionable perspectives.
IVCA: Right now there is a renaissance in tech research and development on AI and its possible uses, with new applications emerging seemingly every day. How do investors learn to distinguish how these applications can be viable for use in our lives and businesses, as to make them valuable as investments?
Decasonic: Decasonic is a team of investor-operators, with a ratio of 25 agent teammates per human team-member. Our agent teammates augment the core functions of a venture fund, with agents across investment, data, operations, and marketing. Those agents are accessed through our internal Decasonic AI OS, with the goal of human-AI collaboration with an emphasis on augmenting human-capabilities vs replacement. To invest in AI at a world-class level, investors have to build and experiment with the full capabilities offered by AI.
We focus on AI innovations that deliver real-leverage, where AI is embedded into the core of a product and operating model. Viable investments are those where AI drives distribution, improves capital efficiency, or creates an entirely new category. We seek those signals early and work closely with founders to validate them.
IVCA: What does Decasonic hope to achieve in their interaction with the VC/PE community within the IVCA?
Decasonic: We want to both contribute and collaborate. Our goal is to support the Illinois venture ecosystem with expertise at the frontier of Web3 and AI, while also learning from peers with deep experience in scaling capital-efficient businesses.
We are always looking to build alongside others who share a commitment to long-term value creation. Whether through co-investing, exchanging ideas, or helping founders access strategic resources, we see IVCA as a valuable forum to drive innovation forward.
For the website of Decasonic, click here.