SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 821: Crypto: $17m Raised to Speed Up Mining Blocks Using New "Validators"
Oct 23, 2017
17:48
Jae Kwon. After graduating from Cornell in 2005 with a BS degree in Computer Science, he worked as a developer at Alexa and Yelp and has co-founded iDonethis, a productivity service. He since worked on open-source projects including a CoffeeScript compiler and interpreter written in Javascript, an end-to-end encrypted email system called Scramble.io, and a cryptocurrency exchange. He invented and refined The Tendermint Consensus Algorithm with the aim of liberating the blockchain from the costs and drawbacks of proof-of-work mining. His mission is to make the technology more accessible in order to accelerate the adoption of decentralized ledger technology.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – Snow Crash
- What CEO do you follow? – N/A
- Favorite online tool? — GitHub and Chat
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Find the problem and solve it"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:37 – Nathan introduces Jae to the show
- 02:46 – Bitcoin is something that you want to be small and accessible
- 03:10 – Blockchain is not owned by any entity but is still secure
- 03:24 – Tendermint is one of the engines that enable the creation of blockchain
- 04:05 – Tendermint's partner in Europe is Ponton
- 04:46 – Tendermint was initially self-funded by Jae
- 05:03 – Jae saw the need to build Tendermint
- 05:08 – People were struggling with bitcoin fork
- 05:51 – Proof of work is how bitcoin secures itself, which is like a lottery system
- 06:40 – The transaction fee for block reward in bitcoin is much smaller
- 07:55 – Proof of work in the blockchain has its drawbacks
- 08:30 – The validators are the users of Tendermint—they validate the block and sign off and vote on what the next block should be
- 09:20 – Jae's opinion on Dash's masternode
- 09:50 – Cosmos is the internet of blockchain
- 10:18 – Jae has all in his money in Tendermint
- 10:31 – Team size is 20
- 10:40 – Tendermint was funded through a fundraiser
- 11:00 – "We avoid the term ICO because we don't want to be associated with a security offering"
- 11:13 – Tendermint released their own token and they'll create the cosmos hub
- 11:30 – The tokens will allow you to vote on the blockchain
- 12:10 – Tendermint had a cap of $17M
- 12:32 – They were accepting bitcoin and ether in exchange of an atom
- 13:00 – Part of the liquidation went to the Cosmos software and development
- 14:00 – Out of the $17M, less than $3M has been liquidated so far
- 15:47 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- The block reward in the blockchain allows people to not just earn tokens, but contribute as well.
- Keep your liquidation conservative and focus on the development of your product.
- If you see a problem and you think you can create the solution, DO IT.
Resources Mentioned:
- Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
- The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
- GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
- Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
- Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
- Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
- Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives