Blockchain news in Blockchain winter
3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 338
Your fortune in your hand. Ledger hardware wallet gets big funding
Ledger builds cold (hardware) wallets for digital assets, crypto currencies mainly. Cold wallet means the private keys to access the assets are saved offline on a device (like USB-stick), not on a hot wallet that is connected to the internet. Higher level of security because less likely to be hacked. And a good design! Opinion: After FTX crash there is less trust from crypto owners in “hot” wallets on exchanges. It explains a higher demand for “cold” hardware wallets like Ledger. Ledger is the category leader. Now with $577m funding, most recently $109m. New financing for further growth of the category leader.
A good feeling to hold one’s fortune in one’s hand ;)
Worldcoin, far behind own ambitions and OpenAI CEO to save them
Worldcoin started with the mission of collecting a digital ID of every person in the world, in return everyone would receive a share of Worldcoin’s global digital currency. ID collection is is done by scanning people’s iris with a futuristic looking device, the “Orb”. Opinion: Worldcoin aimed to have reached 1bn users by 2023 (statement in Oct 2021 at the peak of the blockchain/crypto wave), in May 2023 their website shows just around 1.7m signs-ups. Far less than their own ambition and potential users are not convinced.
Worldcoin was co-founded by Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI and meant to invest $100m more (source FT on Sunday).
A paradox: a16z Crypto fund made the most investments in Q1 2023
A16Z Crypto, the sub-division of VC Andreessen Horrowitz, participated in 8 funding rounds in Q1 2023, more than any quarter before. Mainly seed and Series A rounds of Web3 infrastructure and security projects and a $120m Series B for LayerZero labs (04.04.2023). Opinion: Downturn of the crypto market let’s a16z invest at a potentially lower valuation. Pressure from a16z fund investors is another reason for the high frequency of investments in early 2023. Investors gave their money to a16z to invest it, not let it sit idle in their accounts.
This is a bet by a major VC on the comeback of Web3 and crypto — and the money has to be invested √.
