ConsenSys: A Blockchain War Horse
If you aren’t familiar with ConsenSys, you really should be. They are quickly assembling an arsenal of blockchain initiatives that are pushing the blockchain agenda forward at full tilt. While this agenda may be largely focused around Ethereum, it’s an agenda that is squarely aimed at advancing the pace of blockchain innovation and adoption worldwide.
To tell the story of ConsenSys we really need to start with its founder and core driver, Joseph Lubin.
Joseph Lubin
“In November 2013, Vitalik Buterin wrote the first version of the Ethereum White Paper. On January 1, 2014, I spoke with Vitalik about it and received a copy…That was my Ethereal moment.” — Joseph Lubin
Joseph Lubin is a Canadian entrepreneur whose early trajectory took him through traditional centralized financial markets before he became convinced that decentralization was the path forward. When the Bitcoin paper was released he was awakened to the possibilities of blockchain, but it’s when he got his hands on Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum whitepaper that his current direction really took hold.
According to CoinDesk, when Ethereum mined its genesis block Joseph had already started ConsenSys and was moving forward with plans to build a vast empire. Alongside founding ConsenSys he helped launch Ethereum itself, reportedly becoming one of the top buyers in the Ethereum crowdsale.
Forbes pegs his crypto net worth at between $1 Billion and $5 Billion. Either way, he’s got enough in his war chest to fund the decentralized dream he is building with ConsenSys.
What is ConsenSys?
While ConsenSys may have started out with a focus on expanding the Ethereum platform and providing consulting services to other organizations, it has evolved into something much larger and more potent.
Since it’s founding in 2014 ConsenSys has grown to some 700 employees (773 according to LinkedIn), and now has a presence across a number of continents, with employees in dozens of countries. To say they are growing at an accelerated rate is an incredible understatement.
One of the more interesting aspects of Consensys may be the relatively flat organizational structure that organizes it. Much akin to the decentralized technology that it is working on, ConsenSys itself has little traditional org structure, instead implementing an employee structure in what they call the ConsenSys Mesh.
A Multi-divisional Hub and Spoke Business Model
While the employee structure may be fairly flat, the business itself is intelligently structured. Along with it’s rapid employee and geographic growth ConsenSys has built out a number of divisions under which it organizes its activity, and is now supporting dozens of spoke companies through investment and assistance.
Organizationally ConsenSys has the following structure:
- Consensys Labs: Their venture studio supporting spoke companies with human capital and guidance
- ConsenSys Academy: Their educational institution providing global blockchain and Ethereum training
- ConsenSys Solutions: Their consulting arm to help organizations build, test and deploy blockchain solutions
- ConsenSys Capital: A ventures arm providing investment in startups focused on decentralized systems.
- ConsenSys Ethereal: Their cultural nexus focused on events and connecting like minds in the decentralized community
Their spoke companies, numbering at over 60 now, include a broad array of Ethereum focused startups spanning a wide array of verticals. The most well known may be MetaMask, however many of the spoke companies are beginning to make a mark.
From a process perspective it appears that ConsenSys Capital (Ventures) invests in startups they find interesting, and ConsenSys Labs then provides organizational support and structure to both help spoke companies succeed as well as keep them accountable.
Spoke companies are broken down into several categories including Platforms & Applications, Services, Infrastructure, Developer Tools and Core Components. A great overview of their spoke companies and their categories can be found in a recent Medium Article.
I did my own intake of all the spoke companies listed on their website to see which specific verticals they play in:
To say they are playing in a number of verticals is putting it lightly. While I understand that some of these verticals have been opportunistic for ConsenSys, it does seem like they are intentionally trying to cover a broad spectrum of industry verticals in an intelligent fashion (especially considering there is not a great deal of company overlap between these verticals).
ConsenSys Capital is really just getting started, and thus we should expect the list of categories and verticals to continue is significant pattern of growth.
Why You Should Be Paying Attention
From all apparent signs ConsenSys is the largest organized body with a 100% focus on blockchain, decentralized technologies and Ethereum.
ConsenSys has systematically assembled a large body of talent and companies that are 100% focused on the Ethereum blockchain. While you might be tempted to scoff at their large focus on Ethereum, remember that Ethereum is the #2 cryptocurrency platform by market cap, and I would argue the #1 platform to actually build real Layer 2 Blockchain applications on.
If you need more evidence of the significance of Ethereum, see one of ConsenSys’ own articles discussing how Ethereum has 30 times the number of developers than the next blockchain.
While the market at large is a bloodbath of cryptocurrency failures, ICO scams and blockchain app failures, ConsenSys is a war horse slowly trotting through the carnage with its sights laser focused on the future that Blockchain promises, and Lubin won’t stop until it’s realized.
Whether it will be through capital investment, human capital, education, consulting or evangelism, ConsenSys will continue to have a large impact on the decentralized ecosystem and become (if it isn’t already) one of the mainstays of the Blockchain revolution we are living through.
–
All opinions (and artwork) are my own. If you’d like chew the fat about blockchain or ledger, or wax poetic about technology in general, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
