Hypersphere：We’re looking for Web3 technologies like storage, computation, and privacy built on Polkadot
Hypersphere Ventures, a Web3.0 venture capital fund, has officially become a partner of the Substrate Entrepreneurship Camp, supporting the Polkadot Ecological startup team in China. Hypersphere has invested the excellent Polkadot eco-projects such as Acala and Moonbeam.
PolkaWorld interviewed Jack Platts, the partner of Hypersphere/former Director of Cooperation of the Web3 Foundation, about the Hypersphere’s investment strategy and advice for Web3.0 entrepreneurs.
1. How did you come up with the idea of Hypersphere and start the journey?
Rob and I started Hypersphere with a two-pronged thesis:
- We believe Polkadot projects hold much more promise than the market appreciates today.
- Because we’ve built and launched the Polkadot project, Hypersphere is the most well-positioned investor to help teams launch successfully and gain adoption in the Polkadot ecosystem.
We started Hypersphere in late 2019, and we now have enough data to say that so far our thesis (a large market opportunity + our unique ability to be value-ad) is being born out.
2. What is Hypersphere’s investment strategy? Happy to know what projects have you already invested in?
Hypersphere invests in projects that are innovating and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. So far, we’ve been focused on parachains (infrastructure) more than the application layer because of where Polkadot’s development stands today. We like projects going after big markets and who have the ability to execute. A good example is Acala. Acala is positioning itself as the DeFi-hub for all of Polkadot and they’re doing a great job executing their roadmap thus far. Another example is Moonbeam, which is basically Ethereum but built on Polkadot.
3. Will Hypersphere contribute to the building of Polkadot ecosystem? And how?
Our goal is for Hypersphere to be the most participatory and value-ad investor in the Polkadot ecosystem. Hypersphere participates deeply in the networks and communities it invests in, from running nodes, participating in governance, providing liquidity, and building tooling.
4. What do you think of the Chinese blockchain market?
I think the Chinese blockchain market is one of the healthiest and most welcoming ecosystems for blockchain technology in the world.
5. What is Hypersphere focus on recently?
Hypersphere is focused on finding the most ambitious and capable entrepreneurs in the world. DeFi is having its moment today because it’s really easy to track blockchain-native assets, but we expect in the next 2–4 years there to be a renaissance of Web3 technologies like storage, computation, and privacy built on Polkadot. We’re looking for entrepreneurs building Filecoin (storage), ZCash (privacy), Stellar (payments) all on Polkadot.
6. I remember the first time I knew the word IPO（Now is called PLO） was through your Twitter. Will Hypersphere participate in the auction? From your perspective, what might PLO bring to the market?
Hypersphere is advising many projects on their PLO strategy and if it makes sense from an economic perspective we will certainly consider participating in a meaningful way a parachain auction. Part of me also wants to participate because it is history!
Parachain Lease Offerings is a new mechanism to attain high security and interoperability for your blockchain. I’m not sure how the market will react to the first PLOs, but if they’re popular and well run I expect a positive reaction from the community. I hope there are PLO-watching parties and dashboards to track the auctions so we can all follow along at home — that would be cool!
7. “Kusama is just like ETH 2.0” I remember you posted on Twitter. Why did you think so? Do you still think so now?
This was more of a troll to get people thinking. Because Polkadot’s architecture is not dissimilar to that of ETH 2.0s, and Kusama and Polkadot will have similar codebases, it stands to reason that Kusama is like ETH 2.0 but was launched in 2019! I think the community has figured this out now, though :)
8.What do you think is the most important factor to start a successful Web3.0 project?
I recently gave a talk on this at CSCon, ChainSafe’s event. Founders that have a vision and an initial product to put out in the world to begin iterating towards that vision. Project founders in Web 3.0 are different than previous Internet start-ups. In Web 3.0, you have to be willing to step away as the leader and let the community govern and decide how the project evolves. This is a set of personality traits that is quite different than say, Steve Jobs, who was famously possessive of every detail of the Apple product suite and community events. If you’re building a decentralized platform, this Bazaar (vs. the Cathedral) approach has to permeate everything you do: from distributing the token fairly and equitably to all stakeholders, coding & launching in an open and transparent way and supporting other actors in your ecosystem via events, grants, and other initiatives.
9. Thank you Hypersphere for supporting the Substrate Startup Camp. Do you have any suggestions for developers and development teams that applied for the camp？
Yes! Please work collaboratively with other teams and people in the Polkadot ecosystem. We are still so early that it makes the most sense from an efficiency and growth perspective to combine research, communities, and technologies so we can be stronger over the long term!
About PolkaWorld
PolkaWorld is Polkadot’s Chinese community. We have gathered more than 30,000 Polkadot fans. It is the world’s largest Polka Chinese community and the only community that has received the Web3 Foundation Grant.PolkaWorld is committed to popularizing Polkadot technical knowledge, training Substrate developers, and supporting Polkadot ecological entrepreneurs, thereby promoting the development of China’s Web3.0 ecology.
Learn more about：
PolkaWorld Interview Program（https://polkaworld.medium.com/polkaworld-interview-program-94d3be53ea94）, aiming to help Polkadot community projects to be better heard in China.
Substrate Entrepreneur Camp（https://polkaworld.group/en/substratecamp/）, which is to help the birth and growth of Polkadot’s eco innovative products.
