The genesis file of IOV
In September 2017, while Karim and I surfed the waves of Long Beach, in New York, we were convinced of the relevance of our vision. Like the powerful waves that led us to the shores, we anticipated the major revolution led by the blockchains that would soon influence our daily lives.
A few years earlier…
Karim and I have always had the passion and the curiosity to invent, thanks to our life experience with software development. Through technology, we developed financial systems for state agencies, as well as mobile applications praised by the international press. Additionally, we assisted nonprofits raise money by using the power of images. So when we discovered Ethereum, we wanted to understand everything, to know everything. It could offer, now that it was now possible to execute smart contracts on the blockchain: Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Our interest in the technology was so great that we sought to meet with the founder himself, Vitalik Buterin. And few months later, in June 2016, we found ourselves at Vitalik Buterin’s dinner table in Singapore.
Devcon II Shanghai — First meeting with Tendermint / Cosmos
Fueled by our passion, we decided to attend Devcon II. Devcon II was able to bring together more than 1000 passionate people about blockchain technology. The technical presentations gave everyone the hope of bringing this upcoming technology to as many people as possible. With so many enthusiastic people gathered together, it follows that many beautiful meetings took place. Among these meetings, there was our meeting with Jae Kwon, who shared with us the vision of Tendermint / Cosmos. Tendermint proposed to divide the blockchain architecture into two parts: the consensus and the application layer. Shortly thereafter, we registered to their Slack channel.
First Prize Cosmos Hackathon
At their Slack, we also heard about the Cosmos Hackathon. The idea of participating in the Hackathon came naturally. So we decided to build an international team and participate on for the experience of working closely with like-minded individuals. Winning first prize was unexpected but answered the question we were all asking. Is creating a blockchain project possible for us? The answer was a strong yes. Prior to the event, it was all about passion and curiosity. Having won the first place of the Hackathon, it was now revealed to us that creating a real project was possible, just like Karim and I had already been doing for the past 15 years.
Multiverse
Onward from July 2017, it was clear that we wanted to continue our Blockchain project. From a technical point of view, we found the Multiverse project interesting. The idea was to make a Heroku for blockchains. Still, we had a feeling that something was missing. It seemed clear to us that the project was not geared enough towards the end-user, but we did not know exactly what to change.
Devcon III Cancun — The Birth of IOV
At the invitation of the Cosmos team, we went to Devcon III to listen, learn and discuss with other Blockchain enthusiasts.
Very quickly, we felt a gap in the seminar between the immense potential that the blockchain can bring to humanity and the lack of awareness presented by the actors of this revolution.
This is a common side effect that results from working so much on a certain subject, we end up forgetting the reason why we do what we do. It was becoming evident to us that the end user was being forgotten in this technology. With all these complicated concepts, how would my friends who have limited technical skills be able to use this technology some day? And what was the purpose of this technology? The goal was to trade values.
Bitcoin had created the first well known exchange of values. Ethereum had allowed the creation of even more values, via the myriad Initial Coin Offerings, followed by Cosmos, which is designing an ecosystem of blockchains.
We would like to put the end-users at the center of our project. Without them the Internet of Values has no meaning. And at the end of the day, this is all about reclaiming the people’s freedom to exchange values.
Meeting Isabella
After joining the Cosmos Slack, we started talking to Isabella Dell. At the time, Isabella was the Chief System Architect of the LISK Network, and when we met with her several times during the year 2017, there was always an alignment of our visions. Yes, blockchains would change the world. No, the technology was not ready for an inexperienced audience. So when we learned of her departure from LISK, we instinctively offered her to continue our conversation in Barcelona.
From Barcelona to IOV
There are moments in life where the planets line up as if by magic. The moments we lived in Barcelona are some of those. Since the first dinner the three of us had together, Isabella, Karim and I had an organic connection. Even if nothing was visible that night, we all knew there would be a “before” and an “after that meeting”. Quickly, our personal destiny gave space to the goal of bringing to billions of people on Earth a concrete solution to exchange values without an intermediary. To allow values to be exchanged on the Internet just as freely as information is.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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