Ethereum cofounder Joe Lubin joins board of crypto exchange ErisX | Handshake is attempting to make the Internet more open
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The Big Block
Handshake came out of stealth mode last August. The project, which intends to replace various levels of the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, was founded by Joseph Poon (co-creator of the Lightning Network & Plasma), Andrew Lee (co-founder & CEO of Purse), Andrew Lee (co-founder & CEO of Private Internet Access), Boyma Fahnbulleh (Bcoin developer), and Christopher Jeffery (CTO of Purse).
Sidestepping the ICO route popularized by Ethereum, Handshake raised private funding from a slew of investors including A16Z Crypto, Polychain Capital, and Founders Fund. These investors purchased 7.5% of the initial coin supply of HNS, Handshake’s native token, for $10.2M, valuing the protocol at $136M.
Curiously, after its fundraising, Handshake pledged to donate 100% of its raised funds to non-profits and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects. The project has already begun to make good on this commitment, donating funds to the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, and other non-profits. Handshake laid out the reason for donating in its whitepaper:
“The free and open source community is the principal coin owner of the project upon launch. These coins are distributed without any expectation of work. As free and open source software is the principle of giving away code without any direct financial return in exchange, similarly Handshake is about giving away financial value without any expectation of code in exchange.”
The idea behind Handshake is to replace some deeply centralized layers of the DNS hierarchy, removing the need for the trusted entities currently gatekeeping those layers. To understand the scale of what Handshake is trying to achieve we first have to understand how the domain name system works.
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Around The Block
Ethereum cofounder Joe Lubin joins board of crypto exchange ErisX
A Chicago-based crypto exchange backed by Wall Street’s fastest traders has brought on one of the most powerful men in crypto as a board member.
Joe Lubin, who leads ConsenSys, the firm aimed at building out projects to support the Ethereum ecosystem, has been named to ErisX’s board of directors, the firm announced. Cris Conde, a financial technology investor, has also joined the firm as an adviser.
“We are pleased to welcome Joseph and Chris to the ErisX Board,“ said CEO Tom Chippas, a former head of quantitative execution at Citigroup. “As two leaders in the digital asset space, ErisX will benefit from the unique perspectives they offer and the enthusiasm they bring to the space. — More
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