An early investor in Twitter wants to see a blockchain alternative to the microblogging service.
Naval Ravikant, the co-founder of AngelList, would like to see a Twitter-look-alike with no central authority to oversee and/or monetize content, and to incentivize its creation, he plans to fund a blockchain prize Blockstack announced this morning.
While details about the prize remain sparse, Ravikant told CoinDesk:
“I am indeed helping the Blockstack team and will be donating a small prize for a decentralized microblogging service.”
Blockstack’s competition is modeled off the prestigious XPRIZE which was established in 1995 by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis and Google director Ray Kurzweil to reward innovators who tackle some of the world’s largest problems.
The prizes, which require builders use Blockstack’s suite of tools for creating decentralized apps, are part of a large push by the company — in which Ravikant is also an investor — to connect developers to capital.
Also today, the New York-based startup launched the Blockstack Signature Fund, a $25 million venture capital fund backed by Lux Capital, OpenOcean, RisingTide Capital, Compound and VersionOne.
Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Blockstack.
Image of Naval Ravikant via CoinDesk press images
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https://www.coindesk.com/investor-naval-ravikant-wants-disrupt-twitter-blockchain-xprize/
