DeFi Surpasses $1 Billion USD
Total value locked in DeFi (decentralized finance) platforms surpassed $1 billion USD just a few days ago, a new record, amid a broader crypto rally, and as savers rushed to earn high deposit rates via Maker’s “Dai Savings Rate” and similar platforms. This includes many projects KR1 has been actively using (Maker, Compound or Uniswap) or invested in (Nexus Mutual, Melon Protocol, Augur, Connext).
DeFi is certainly a major driver of Ethereum activity and a prime area for investment going forward in 2020.
KR1 Gibraltar Session
We had a few sessions and investment meetings in Gibraltar in late January and met with several partners including Turicum Bank, the legal firm Isolas, and Nick Cowan from GSX/GBX. The GSX/GBX groups in shifting in focus and has interesting news with regards to pushing into the Security Token space.
KR1 Portfolio Updates
Dfinity
Dfinity demo-ed a test app at Davos called Linkedup, a cheeky ‘open-source version of LinkedIn’. Unlike LinkedIn, LinkedUp is not owned or controlled by a corporate entity. It took 1.5 engineers just a few days to build, which is remarkably quick. This LinkedUp is supposed to be just a demonstration on how powerful and easy it’ll be to build on Dfinity’s upcoming ‘Internet Computer’, after they released early versions of the ‘Dfinity Canister SDK’ and their own language ‘Motoko’.
Cosmos
We loved this description of the need for Cosmos, even in an successful Ethereum ecosystem, posted in January in the buildup of the upcoming ETHDenver hackathon, one of Ethereum’s largest and most successful hackathons to date. Read the full post here, the Cosmos team is hosting a workshop at the hackathon.
“Ethereum is moving towards a sharded Blockchain architecture, which is a bit like a Local Area Network (LAN) of Blockchains. Everyone loves a good LAN party but sometimes you need to access remote systems. In terms of traditional computers this activity manifests as “The Internet” which utilizes TCP/IP as a communication protocol between remote machines. On a network of Blockchains you need IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) which manifestes as “The Interchain”. IBC enables a massive variety of networks to co-exist, each with their own features and purpose, communicating with a trustless protocol. Ethereum is obviously a massive part of this Interchain and aspects of its architecture will show up in many different places in many different ways.”
There was another great update from Zaki, one of the leaders of the Cosmos team, on all things Cosmos and IBC on Ryan Selkis’ Unqualified Opinions Podcast, give it a listen below if you like.
KR1 in the Media
Coindesk
KR1 was featured in a Coindesk article on the upcoming launches of new inter-blockchain communication (IBC) layers with a quote from Keld:
Keld van Schreven, a co-founder of crypto investment firm KR1, argued IBC yields an effect that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“Without IBC we will just have a limited horizon of possibility,” he said.
Van Schreven sees the shift to IBC as a sort of enlightenment moment for the technology, even taking it so far as to suggest that it might “reduce the tribalism” that plagues the crypto ecosystem.
But it’s one thing to propose interoperability and another thing to actually get it built. It also introduces a new level of complexity.
Bloomberg
George was featured in a Bloomberg article on Bitcoin price.
Forbes
Another quote by Keld in a Forbes article on Bitcoin:
“If there is any doubt in bitcoin’s hash rate and effect on price just look back at historical records,” said Keld van Schreven, cofounder and managing director at crypto and blockchain investment firm KR1.
“Price always follows increased hash rate. Hash rate is the bitcoin fundamental price driver. That’s just the bitcoin price rule. This beautiful hash rate increase plus the upcoming halvening in May is the bull market flag.”
KR1 is Europe’s leading digital asset investment company supporting early-stage decentralised and open-source blockchain projects. Founded in 2016, KR1 has been a notable first investor in many key projects that will power the new wave of decentralised platforms, digital assets and protocols.
In the spirit of the open and decentralised movement, investors or institutions can buy KR1 shares to gain exposure to crypto markets through the London-based NEX public stock exchange (KR1:NEX).
Follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates.
