Harmony’s Project-X Investment Thesis
Radical blockchain use cases are not possible without transformative innovations in graphics, security, infrastructure, and utilities. We are looking to invest in projects that bring blockchain use cases and these fundamental innovations into the practical world, such that they can eventually pass the social norm test. Examples include:
- More fair, interpolatable, immersive ways to enjoy a game in 3D, AR, and VR
- Platforms enabling qualified, anonymized participation of events and dialogues
- Secure, seamless payment systems for day-to-day use
- Analyzing and tracking hackers and illegal activities on blockchain
- Preserving and sharing experience in real life
Although these examples are under the categories of metaverse, identity, cybersecurity, and social NFTs, our areas of investment are not limited to those areas that are trending. We evaluate projects based on their present utility, business viability, and long-term impact.
We are looking for projects that are before series A funding stage with a maximum valuation of $25M. We are flexible in terms of investment instruments: tokens, NFTs, equity, or debts. We expect the teams behind the projects to have relevant background and expertise to their current initiatives, and have at least a minimal version of the working products with existing users. Teams will have an advantage if they are already actively involved with Harmony's social media, familiar with the culture of the community and are respected by the Harmony community.
Partner Backgrounds
🐍 Jack Chan: validators, product partners, grants
Jack Chan recently led teams to build scalable web apps on the cloud. He worked at large enterprises such as Adobe, Apple, Shutterfly and Amazon and ground-level tech startups. Jack dabbled with mining Ethereum before switching his focus to Proof-of-Stake blockchain networks, which evolved into co-founding a validator service across multiple networks, now responsible for a sizable staking delegation.
Jack is a Computer Engineering graduate from Illinois Tech, with an MBA from San Jose State University. In his free time, he enjoys improving his golf game, playing pickup basketball and a good walk.
💻 Aaron Li: security, smart contract, wallet
Aaron built Qokka (crypto sentiment and analytics startup), 1wallet (a keyless smart wallet based on OTP), and is the technical mind behind multiple ambitious crypto projects where he oversees technical development and solves "impossible" problems. Previously, Aaron worked as a research engineer at Google AI and Scaled Inference, and is a recipient of Best Paper Award from ACM SIGKDD 2014 for his research in AI. Aaron has a research MSc in Language Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, and a BSc with first class honors at Australian National University with quadruple majors in Computer Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Statistics. Aaron lived and studied in Beijing (China), New Zealand, Australia, Pittsburgh (USA), before moving to San Francisco Bay Area in California. He was attracted by the genius of Bitcoin in its early days, built several GPU mining clusters and intermittently dabbled in crypto since then. In his free time, he enjoys exploring innovations across law, AI, and crypto.
Exhibit A
jack: 0x0Fd03AF380F9395078697F09c8e52E3C0BB5ca83
aaron: 0x18A5Af69DfC02dc950f7534Ae97A180F34B75d7a
li 1: 0x51B89211F93c2efcf6D5B836a78DBA265e6F5e93 (metamask mobile)
li 2: 0x7Df8F9aaC79f137355f52DFBa047fcA04F8Dc51e (metamask brave)
multisig: 0x85E16513A51C7ed24AFE0bAf441167788ED0EC3b
one1shsk2ya9r3ldyjh7pwh5gyt80z8dpmpm8qrxcg
tests
jack send, aaron sign:
https://explorer.harmony.one/tx/0xdbb81b7d2803687f5f8ced78e9b0143bb230e178f51a836c5b3095144b66d562
aaron send, jack sign:
https://explorer.harmony.one/tx/0xcebef708163a3c4afb3db9ef785f70898fc65c3494735f53c4229053d6c9a0a7
$20k