wp-plugin-hostgator domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114ol-scrapes domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/06\/08\/the-trans-queer-anarchist-crypto-founder-seed-round-a16z-andreessen-horowitz\/<\/a><\/br> Tux Pacific<\/a> isn\u2019t your average tech founder. They\u2019re a self-taught cryptographer who dropped out of college, a proud member of and advocate for the transgender community and a self-described anti-capitalist anarchist who believes in free-market principles deeply rooted in the early days of crypto, when Bitcoin reigned supreme and banks had no interest in the sector.<\/p>\n Pacific also appeared as a guest on the July 7th episode of TechCrunch\u2019s crypto podcast, Chain Reaction. You can listen below or on your podcast platform of choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n Pacific\u2019s radically different background in comparison to other entrepreneurs is precisely what informs their unique way of thinking, they told TechCrunch in an interview. Pacific founded and serves as CEO of Entropy<\/a>, a decentralized crypto custodian that says it has raised $25 million for its seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz alongside Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Variant and Inflection. Prominent angel investors from the tech community, including <\/span>Naval Ravikant, Sabrina Hahn and James Prestwich, also participated in the round, according to Entropy. This latest round follows the company\u2019s $1.95 million pre-seed raise<\/a> in January.<\/span><\/p>\n The Brooklyn, New York-based startup is aiming to disrupt the way digital assets are held through its decentralized self-custody solution, according to Pacific. Before founding Entropy last year, Pacific worked at cryptography network NuCypher while living in Berlin, Germany, where they learned advanced cryptographic techniques.<\/p>\n In the status quo, large crypto custodians like Fireblocks, Coinbase and Anchorage Digital that hold assets for crypto users are fundamentally centralized and function in a similar way to banks. In some cases, holding users\u2019 private keys in a central location has left these custodians vulnerable to hacks<\/a>, and their users can\u2019t always interact with their funds at their will.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve heard a number of stories that were always like, we\u2019ve used people like Coinbase, or we\u2019ve used like all these other custody solutions. They call them up, and they\u2019re like, hey \u2014 we need to move funds. And [the custodian responds], oh, sorry, we have to wait to get a person to do that,\u201d Pacific said. They recounted one anecdote they\u2019d heard about a fund that was poised to lose several billion dollars in an OTC transfer because their point of contact at the custodial firm was on vacation.<\/p>\n Entropy, in contrast, leverages cryptographic techniques based on multiparty computation to give users a way to deposit and use cryptocurrencies across any blockchain, at any time, Pacific explained. Using Entropy\u2019s protocol, users can implement their own rules for interacting with the funds, such as time-gated constraints \u2014 a particularly useful feature for groups like DAOs that are trying to make decisions around a collectively determined set of rules, Pacific said.<\/p>\n Pacific describes Entropy\u2019s solution as comparable to Google Authenticator in that it doesn\u2019t provide its own wallet or user-facing products \u2014 it simply handles the process of \u201csigning\u201d their data cryptographically. Other groups, including companies and DAOs, can then use Entropy to deposit user funds for safekeeping but aren\u2019t beholden to a centralized custodian\u2019s constraints.<\/p>\n Most cryptographers start with a protocol, and then envision a user experience that fits around it, Pacific said. In the case of Entropy, Pacific conceived of the idea by reversing that process \u2014 thinking about what the ideal custody experience would look like for a crypto user, and then designing the Entropy protocol to fit that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m approaching the problem so differently from a lot of other people \u2026 There are competitors who are just building wallets and just trying to fit their cryptographic protocols that they\u2019ve come up with to do this thing. [My perspective is that] all the other people who built these cryptographic protocols before me, there\u2019s nothing super novel about them. I\u2019m just going to compose it radically different than they are and just make it super user-friendly,\u201d Pacific said.<\/p>\n Pacific also attributes Entropy\u2019s edge to their own willingness to deviate from the traditional business model for custodians, wherein users pay them a fee to safekeep funds and to work toward finding a model that can generate revenue not just for the custodian but also for the protocol itself, as well as crypto users. They readily admit Entropy\u2019s team of nine people hasn\u2019t worked out the details of that model just yet, but the company\u2019s venture backers don\u2019t seem to mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started raising money, one of the biggest things I started telling people is that we don\u2019t have a business model,\u201d Pacific said. They are, as is typical of early-stage startups, focusing on building a great product before thinking through monetization, Pacific said.<\/p>\n Entropy is also going after a different audience than typical custodians might, Pacific added.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t like some enterprise blockchain like Qredo<\/a>,\u201d Pacific said of the other decentralized digital asset custodian, which, unlike Entropy, provides users with a wallet. \u201cWe\u2019re building a product that\u2019s uniquely for crypto-native people and decentralized institutions. We don\u2019t expect JPMorgan to use us,\u201d Pacific said.<\/p>\n Entropy\u2019s focus on serving individual, crypto-native users in some ways comes from Pacific\u2019s personal connection to the crypto community. While they said they have faced some pushback for being a trans founder, for the most part, they\u2019ve found crypto to be an unusually supportive environment.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, I\u2019ve never felt I\u2019ve been in a space where it\u2019s been more acceptable for people to be so different. If you go to a [crypto] conference, it\u2019s just filled with weird, weird people,\u201d Pacific said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Pacific is used to forging their own path, they said, recounting how they didn\u2019t have any role models they could relate to growing up. Today, there is still almost no research on LGBTQ+ founders<\/a> and how they\u2019re funded, though VC firm Backstage Capital estimates they receive less than 1% of venture dollars overall.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to see trans entrepreneurs would have been such a huge thing for me as a kid, especially trans people who are entrepreneurs who hold similar political values,\u201d Pacific said.<\/p>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nMeet the trans, anarchist founder who just landed $25M to reform how crypto is stored<\/br>
\n2023-01-20 22:38:50<\/br><\/p>\nSubscribe to TechCrunch\u2019s crypto newsletter \u201cChain Reaction\u201d<\/a> for news, funding updates and hot takes on the wild world of web3 \u2014 and take a listen to our companion podcast!<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n