secondary title
Iron Fish
1. Technical introduction
(white paper:https://ironfish.network/docs/whitepaper/1_introduction）
In a word, Iron Fish is a privacy protection trading platform based on Web3 technology and easy to operate. There are three selling points: everyone does not need a strong technical background, has top-level encryption methods, and can be audited by financial institutions. It aims to solve the pain points of slow cryptocurrency transactions, no privacy due to the broadcast of all details of transactions, imperfect privacy protection tools on the market, and difficult to operate. The purpose is to contribute to the eventual decentralization and globalization of cryptocurrencies.
Iron Fish does this by creating a new cryptocurrency called Iron. Users can operate nodes, mine, and trade. The specific information can only be viewed after the owner discloses the view key (refer to:https://ironfish.network/docs/onboarding/iron-fish-tutorial). The technologies used in the product include: 1. Zero-knowledge proof, constructing a private transaction that conceals the sender, receiver, and quantity, and provides effective transaction proof at the same time; 2. Workload proof, which has the advantage of being safe and has better attack vectors against hackers Understanding and effective decentralization; 3. P2P broadcast, use gossip contract to prevent congestion.
Schematic diagram of P2P broadcasting, a broadcasts to bc, c broadcasts to de, d broadcasts to fg, and so on.
Iron Fish has launched the test network (reference:https://testnet.ironfish.network/about), starting from May 10, 2022 until the mainnet launch is in the second stage, providing incentives for the four behaviors of operating nodes, sending transactions, submitting pull requests, and catching bugs. Different points can be obtained for different actions. After the mainnet is launched, IRON tokens can be shared in equal proportions with these points (note that the currently tradable iron in the market is a stable currency, which is easy to confuse). Those who get the most points for each item can get an additional Iron Fish NFT. At present, the test network is relatively active, with users operating every minute. Official Twitter calls its testnet one of the largest in the world.
2. Financing situation
2021.11.30 A round of $27.6 million. a16z led the round, Electric Capital, Sequoia, Elad Gil (https://twitter.com/eladgil），Linda Xie （https://twitter.com/ljxie），Balaji Srinivasan （https://twitter.com/balajis) and so on.
3. Company background
The company was founded during the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, based on the frequent electronic transactions and the lack of privacy protection. IronFish got its name from World War II. In the Indian encrypted information system used by the US military, Ironfish means submarine. The founder believes that Ironfish can protect the network security in the cyber world just like a submarine protects the people in war, which is quite tender.
The website design style is clear and concise but not shabby. Blue, pink, and white are the main colors. The pattern has the feeling of Robinhood, and the logo is more memorable.
The companys social media (brand twitter, CEOs personal twitter) and website are all close to the people and highly interactive. The official website will list the development stage and expected completion time on the google sheet, and carefully explain the meaning of each stage. Every small detail implements the meaning of accessibility, and is not afraid to let followers clearly understand the trend (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KoJBd3WYmjBcwX-EGfshDQ4tDHxtNo0O8KFlfZ8d0jg/edit#gid=1590284126). In addition, there are detailed instructions on how to download IronFish on the testnet and conduct currency transfer tests (the level of detail is similar to the github installation tutorial, and even the homebrew installation method is covered), and each block is clearly listed here:https://explorer.ironfish.network/explorer。
4. Team background
CEO Elena Nadolinski（https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenanadolinski/details/experience/), grew up in Russia, and studied computer science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a public university, from 2011 to 2014. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, near DC, with a strong high-tech atmosphere. Elena has worked at Airbnb, Tilt, Microsoft. It can be found on Elenas LinkedIn page that her third-year intern boss highly praised her ability to make decisions, leadership and appeal, and her non-stop learning ability. Elena is also a member of the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the financial sector. In addition, Elena in high school has wonNational Council for Women in Information Technology Award for Aspirations in ComputingThe winner of the competition was invited to the White House.
Elder 1 Derek Guenther (https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-guenther/), from 2009 to 2013, studied computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a public university, and wrote a custom stock program during college. Joined IronFish in September 2020 and worked at Uber and Microsoft. It is worth mentioning that he and Elena interned at Microsoft at the same time and place in 2012. It is speculated that he and Elena met during the internship, and it has been 10 years since then.
Elder 2 Jason Spafford (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-spafford-14892511/), from 2008 to 2010, studied computer science at the State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota, a public university. At the beginning of graduation, his main job was to write games. Joined in September 2020 and used to work at Uber.
Designer Skylar Richard (https://www.linkedin.com/in/skylar-richard-1b8999a4/), Canadian, studied philosophy at Mount Allison University in Canada from 2008 to 2012.
Software Engineer Rohan Jadvani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanjadvani/) Joined in June 2021 and worked in Citadel and Snap. From 2013 to 2017, he studied electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He often served as a teaching assistant for general computer studies. He studied in a public high school before.
Additionally, all membership information can be found here:https://ironfish.network/careers。
On the whole, the temperament of Ironfish members gives me the impression ofAn excellent engineer who is down-to-earth, pragmatic and self-driven, Vivid and friendly characters can be seen just from the website. Excellent work background, in addition to Google, Microsoft, Uber, Snap, Citadel listed above, others also have work experience in Deloitte, Coinbase and other companies. Why jump out of these places and do Ironfish? I think Ironfish can attract talent because of the friendly working atmosphere and the meaning of the business they do. However, success is also Xiao He, and failure is Xiao He. The teams excellent but single technical background also means that the teams compound background is weak and there are no talents in business planning. But having said that, I don’t have a business background, but many details that are more business-oriented, such as brand marketing and financing, can directly hit the pain points. The intuition of the leadership team and the ability to grasp the big and let go of the small are remarkable.
secondary title
Espresso
1. Technical introduction
Espresso positions itself as a low-cost, high-throughput, scalable EVM-compatible web3 application privacy system. Espresso released its own Ethereum configurable asset privacy CAPE, by creating new Ethereum assets, wrapping existing tokens, and giving them privacy attributes (https://www.espressosys.com/blog/introducing-espresso-systems）。
In order to expand throughput, the technologies used by Espresso include Layer1, Proof of stake, and ZK-Rollup mechanism. Among them, the ZK-Rollup mechanism aggregates a large number of transactions into a single transaction, generates a concise zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARK) to prove its validity, and then sends it to the consensus system.
Currently, the technical problem Espresso has is that zero-knowledge proofs can prove validity without revealing information, but it does not guarantee the availability of the data needed to establish future transactions. The solution given by the team is to closely combine the ZK-Rollup extension mechanism with the equity proof consensus protocol, and make Rollup independent of the underlying consensus protocol.
Espresso is an application that can run on any EVM blockchain and will eventually run natively on Espresso. On June 16, 2022, the CAPE wallet has been launched on the Goerli Testnet. For the relevant operation process, you can refer to this evaluation video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVnebTbzdJg, you can also refer to the steps introduced on the official website:https://docs.cape.tech/espresso-systems/cape-user-guide/welcome。
2. Financing situation
March 7, 2022, $32 million funding round. Greylock and Electric Capital led the round, followed by Sequoia Capital, Blockchain Capital, Slow Ventures, Polychain Capital, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Paxos, and Terraform Labs (Lunas parent company).
3. Company background
The company was founded in 2020. The emoji ☕️ representing the visual effect of coffee, the color of the colorful prism. Espresso did not carefully design the appearance of the official website and the brand story conveyed. The official website design is a bit simple. Perhaps, this is also a means for them to retain their personal privacy as a privacy enterprise.
4. Team background
CEO Ben Fisch（https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-fisch-2b20055b/), studied at the University of Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2013, studying mathematics + informatics double major. From 2019 to now, he is a doctoral candidate at Stanford. Founded Espresso in 2020.
COO Charles Lu（https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleslu1/), Stanford undergraduate, computer artificial intelligence major, Stanford artificial intelligence master, Stanford cryptography Ph.D. (leaved the project team because of espresso), worked in Binance Lab in 2018, and founded Espresso in 2020.
Chief Strategy Officer Jill Gunter (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillrgunter/details/experience/) harvard undergraduate, major in classics, graduated with cum laude honors. Master of Oxford University, mainly researching cryptocurrency capital management and control. From 2011 to 2015, he worked as a trader at Goldman Sachs, and then worked as a consultant in the direction of cryptocurrency/capital control. Since 2019, he has been a partner of the investment institution Slow Ventures, and joined the Espresso team after investing in Espresso in 2021.
Chief Scientific Officer Benedikt Bünz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/buenz/), 2011-2014 undergraduate at the University of Zurich, 2014-2016 Stanford Informatics master, 2016-2022 PhD student at Stanford.
The main co-creation members Ben, Charles, and Benedikt are studying in the same group, and the tutor is Dan Boneh (https://profiles.stanford.edu/dan-boneh). Relatively active in interviews and podcasts.
It is worth noting that the new recruitment information released by the team is all remote positions, and may not have an offline company address. The Lianchuang team was sued by Temujin Labs in November 2020, claiming that it stole studio data for use by the new company in July 2020 (https://www.scribd.com/document/542254924/Temujin-Labs-Inc-vs-Translucence-Research-Inc-Ben-Fisch-Benedikt-Bunz-Charles-Lu-et-al-Complaint; Media reports:https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/163004/blockchain-company-temujin-labs-sues-former-execs-naked-greed), but after that, investment companies still entered the market to invest, and whether the prosecution is serious or not remains to be discussed.
The overall feeling of this team is that it is result-driven and elite. If the Iron Fish team is the Silicon Valley coder of the Xie Er type in The Big Bang Theory who pays attention to technology, the Espresso team is the type of Captain Nates father in Gossip Girl, with a strong sense of elitism. In addition to technology, it also focuses on research on packaging and ways to market the company, which may be related to the teams compound background. The experience of the strategy officer can enable him to provide the company with strategic support in this regard from the perspective of the buyer.
However, being able to package itself doesnt mean that Espressos technical content is not high. The author believes that Espresso has indeed made achievements in terms of privacy. The product has been launched and has been tested to prove its practicality. The packaging of the founding team also provides good opportunities for subsequent further financing and the exit of early investment companies.
horizontal comparison
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about Us
JZL Capital is a professional organization registered overseas, focusing on blockchain ecological research and investment. The founder has rich experience in the industry. He has served as the CEO and executive director of many overseas listed companies, and has led and participated in eToros global investment.
The team members are from top universities such as University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Nanyang Technological University, and have served Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, Ernst Young, KPMG, HNA Group , Bank of America and other well-known international companies.
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Note: JZL Capital currently has a Cosmos ecological theme fund. The opinions in this article may have a high degree of interest correlation with the company. This report should not be used as investment advice.
