VCs Investing in Handshake

| Publish date: 08/03/2018
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Released on Thursday, August 2, Handshake is set to change the entire landscape of how domain names are authenticated and certified. This project is backed by some of the biggest venture capitalists as well as many of the top names in Blockchain development.

Led by the creator of Bitcoin’s Lightening Network, Joseph Poon, the CEO of Purse, Andrew Lee, the founder of PIA (Private Internet Access) Andrew Lee and the CTO of Purse, Christopher Jeffrey, the project has already raised $10.2 million in funding.

This effort is also being supported by 67 other individual and firms, with funds coming in from Founders Fund, A16z, Sequoia Capital, PolyChain Capital, Greylock Partners and Draper Associates.

What is Handshake?

Handshake is not a company or a venture of any kind. It is a protocol, which aims to be completely decentralized and a democratic certificate authority and naming system. While it will offer itself as an alternative to current certificate authorities, it does not want to replace today’s DNS (Domain Name System).

This new project will use a decentralized trust anchor as a basis of proof of domain ownership.

The way this new protocol will work is on its new token – the Handshake Coin (HNS). Participants will be able to update, transfer and even register new domain names using the Handshake Coin.

Philanthropy in Cryptocurrency

The Handshake Project has pledged to donate its initial funding to open source developers (FOSS projects), university departments and other deserving candidate.

The investors pooled in their funds and bought 7.5% of the protocol, which was valued at $136 million. This valuation is of the protocol and its tokens and not of any entity behind this protocol.

So, while 7.5% of the tokens will be kept aside for the Principles (the creators of this project do not wish to be known as the Founders), the remaining 85% of the tokens, worth $115 million, at the launch of the project. The idea, according to Poon, is to raise as little as possible so that the majority of the tokens can be given as “gifts to the community”.

Handshake is planning to give away $250 worth of its Handshake tokens to users of the protocol’s partners, such as GitHub, Freenode and the P2P Foundation. In fact, developers with already existing accounts on these platforms could receive as much $750 worth of HNS tokens.

Other recipients of the project’s largesse are non-profits like the Tor Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, etc. Additionally, domains controlled by the Handshake protocol will be given to those who can show cryptographic proof of ownership.

According to the project leaders, the goal is to recreate the web – without shaking up its stakeholders in the process.

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