Why I am bullish on IRISnet (no tech stuff no guide no insight)
(中文按此) (Disclosure: Forbole is one of the active contributors and validators in IRISnet and Cosmos.)
In this Cosmos Validators Brief by Jesse Livermore, we have shared our journey in blockchain space, from Forbole to Cosmos to IRISnet. My view on IRISnet was highlighted:
I believe IRISnet is one of the very few blockchain teams who can tap the vast market in China.
I want to further elaborate on this. But be careful. This is nothing technical. Nothing about protocol. No “wow” insights. No detailed research. No insider information. Most of the contents are just my own guess and gut feelings. Treat my views with caution.
If you want a complete overview about IRISnet, I strongly recommend you to read this guide by Awa Sun Yin of Cryptium Lab. They are a prominent contributor and validator in Tezos, Cosmos and IRISnet:
If you want a guide for building a node, being a validator or delegator, please refer to this guide by melea. Melea too is a well-known contributor and validator in Cosmos and IRISnet:
If you want to explore the current status of IRIS Hub, which is the first regional hub to be connected to Cosmos Hub, please visit IRIS Big Dipper.
Below are my findings and point of view.
Co-founders
The two co-founders are Harriet Cao and Haifeng Xi. Harriet was graduated from Tsinghua University and Carnegie Mellon University. She had worked for IBM Research for 16 years. Haifeng was graduated from Tsinghua University and University of Maryland. He had been working in the US for 10 years (including IBM). Tsinghua is similar to Oxford in the UK or Stanford in the US. (President Xi Jingping was also graduated from Tsinghua.)
They cofounded Bianjie.AI in 2016, a year before they cofounded IRIS Foundation. Haifeng has also served as the CTO of Wancloud, the subsidiary of Wanxiang Blockchain from 2017 to 2018.
They can be summarized with these keywords: #Tsinghua #IBM #Wanxiang #AI #Blockchain
Low-profile company
Unlike most other blockchain startups in China, IRISnet don’t have much publicity. They have completed a $20M private sale in March 2018 without alerting many media or participants in crypto space. They are low-profile.
Being low-profile is one of the critical success factors of blockchain projects in China. China has clearly banned ICO. China government does not want hype. But China is also embracing blockchain technology.
Investors
So we have mentioned Wanxiang Blockchain. This is a name you don’t want to miss. It is the angel investor of IRISnet. Wanxiang is an early supporter of Ethereum of which the relationship can be traced back to as early as 2015. It has organized the annual event Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai since 2015 of which Vitalik has been a speaker in every year as the Chief Scientist of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab.
Fosun, which is the pre-A investor of IRISnet (through the group’s VC arm Fosun Tonghao Capital), may sound more unfamiliar to you. But it is a famous name in China. The group’s flagship, Fosun International (listed in Hong Kong with stock code 00656 at market cap $14.5B as of Feb 2019) is one of the largest civilian-run conglomerates in China with focus in medical sector and property development. BEAN (Blockchain Edge Analytics Network), which is one of the products of IRISnet, will be applied on healthcare data.
Relationship with Cosmos
In Sep 2017, there was an announcement of Cosmos titled “Wanxiang & Bianjie.ai Join the Cosmos Validator Program”.
In the whitepaper of IRISnet (first published in around Jan 2018), you can also see some famous names in Cosmos: Jae Kwon, Zaki Manian, Jim Yang, Adrian Brink.
In the 4th Global Blockchain Summit in Sep 2018, Cosmos was the diamond sponsor while IRISnet was the platinum sponsor.
Market
We all agree China is a vast market with 1.4B population and the second largest GDP. But a lot of international companies have found it difficult to do business in China. Another bad news to crypto projects: China has officially banned ICO, and unofficially discouraged the trading of cryptos.
But China has expressed their intention to boost the adoption of blockchain technology. There are increased discussions on blockchain topics in the province-level CPPCC in last month. We expect to see more discussions on the adoption of blockchain in the state-level Lianghui 2019, which is currently in progress.
IRISnet has positioned itself as a bridge between enterprises and blockchain space. By incorporating a service-oriented infrastructure into Cosmos, IRISnet will help enterprises and organizations in China to adopt blockchain technology.
All I want to say is, IRISnet is doing blockchain right (politically) in China.
About Forbole
Forbole is a blockchain startup incorporated in Hong Kong with establishment also in Shenzhen. We are building ForboleChain, the BPoS social chain for business community powered by Cosmos SDK and Tendermint. As the staking service provider for the Cosmos Hub and IRIS Hub, we are determined to build a strong presence for Cosmos and IRIS in China’s Greater Bay Area.
Please follow us on:
Website：http://forbole.com
GitHub：https://github.com/forbole
Telegram: https://t.me/forbole (feel free to discuss Cosmos ecosystem projects with us)
