KR1, a blockchain/crypto-asset investment company, today announced their latest moves, and informed it has contributed a total of CHF 150,000 into the Nym Protocol project (Nym) for a yet-to-be-determined number of discounted tokens. Nym uses mix networks (mixnets) to create privacy at the lowest layer in the internet infrastructure stack, often referred to as the networking layer.
Nym is an open-source, decentralized and incentivized network that will allow developers to build apps that provide users with strong guarantees against metadata leakage, at the level of network traffic, authentication and payments.
While there may be privacy-based cryptocurrencies or messaging systems in existence today, given that those rest on top of an easily trackable networking layer, important metadata is being leaked and can be analyzed to fully track the global data flow. Inspired by Bitcoin’s incentive design, Nym’s breakthrough incentivized Proof-of-Stake system rewards nodes for mixing traffic rather than solving arbitrary Merkle puzzles.
Nym: Privacy Based
Nym was founded by highly regarded privacy, mixnet and blockchain researchers, who have a history of innovation in the early internet and well-respected publications in privacy and mixnet academia including Harry Halpin, Claudia Diaz, and Ania Piotrowska. Another co-founder is Dave Hrycyszyn, who previously co-founded Chainspace and briefly joined the Facebook Blockchain team after Chainspace was acquired by Facebook earlier this year. The Nym project started out in the Binance Labs Incubation program and features some previous work of the EU-funded, Panoramix project.
Harry Halpin commented “It’s great to have the support of KR1, as one of the first blockchain investment companies in the world, their network and expertise has already proven very useful. They’ve also backed many projects close to our hearts including Grin, Chainspace, and Polkadot. We’re proud to have Nym take a place in their portfolio and with our London office opening soon, we look forward to being able to spend more time with KR1, Binance Labs, 1kx and all our other supporters.”
Add-on Investment: Nexus Mutual
The KR1 team also announced an additional investment into Nexus Mutual (NXM) after the product launched, having initially taken part in the seed round announced in April 2018. The company invested a further USD 73,823 in Nexus Mutual at a price of USD 2.53 per NXM token for an additional 29,182.9 NXM tokens.
KR1 received 110,776 NXM for its seed round participation at a price of USD 2.28 per NXM token in April last year, as well as bonus tokens amounting to 5,836.6 NXM tokens for being an Etherisc (DIP) investor, given the synergies of both projects in the insurance space. KR1 now holds a total of 145,795.5 NXM tokens.
Nexus Mutual uses Ethereum to recreate the mutual insurance company model on a large scale. The platform will bring together people from all over the world to share risk together without the need for an insurance company.
The first product is cover for smart contracts, adding an extra layer of assurance, an extremely important element in the blockchain stack and incentivizing smart contract security auditors to stake their reputations against prominently used smart contracts. Nexus Mutual is run entirely by its members with all member decisions being recorded and enforced by smart contracts.
Since launch Nexus Mutual has written over USD 750,000 worth of cover and has grown its capital pool to more than 9,000 ETH.
Alice.si
Lastly, KR1 announced it has made an investment of GBP 70,128 into Alice Si Ltd. (Alice) for 1,522,493 ordinary shares, representing 1.33% of the share capital of Alice. Alice is a social funding and impact management platform built on Ethereum that is fixing the broken social funding model with blockchain technology.
Millions of dollars in social funding are wasted every year through diffuse and ineffective allocation, which has made people lose trust in the system resulting in a stagnant social funding environment. Some smaller but effective social projects often struggle to scale because they do not have enough visibility.
By making the performance of each project publicly available, Alice is making it easier for funders (philanthropic organizations, impact investors, small donors) to identify and help scale social projects that actually work. Using smart contracts built on Ethereum, Alice provides social impact projects with the possibility to gain funding with a system that releases tranches of capital only once the project’s aims and targets have independently verified as complete while at the same time initiating new markets for social impact investing.
“In line with our investment strategy to grow our portfolio and build shareholder value, we are very encouraged by how blockchain technology is developing as we continue to see powerful decentralized platforms and applications come to market, the ones mentioned above being prime examples. All have very dedicated teams with strong expertise in their respective fields. Privacy is a key aspect of our lives, especially as we continue the move towards an ever more digital future and social impact projects have never been more important as we tackle climate change and inequality around the world. It’s a testament to the power of blockchain technology that these vital areas of our lives can potentially be so greatly enhanced by this technology. We look forward to being alongside all projects as they deliver their visions.”
– George McDonaugh, Chief Executive Officer, KR1
