Pioneering Blockchain Infrastructure

Last summer, we posted about our emerging thesis for new proof-of-stake blockchains in Notation + Blockchain Mining 2.0. As we were becoming increasingly active on these networks, we wrote:

We believe that as blockchains evolve into the era of Mining 2.0 (generalized mining), it will become increasingly important for investors, builders and other stakeholders to actually participate in these new networks, and we’re excited to do just that.

In the time since, we’ve seen a flurry of new blockchains and consensus mechanisms announced and launched (Livepeer, Tezos, and Cosmos to name a few), and we expect to see more in 2019. All of these new blockchains reward participants for their relative contributions, both small (staking) and large (running dedicated infrastructure). But the latter tends to be difficult for most participants, both from a technical perspective, and also from an administrative perspective, particularly for large investors and early contributors and team members. We believe actively participating on blockchain networks should be EASY — and in fact the easier we collectively make it, the more decentralized and fair these networks become.

This is why we’re so excited to officially announce our investment in Bison Trails, alongside Initialized and Accomplice as leads, as well as a fantastic group of blockchain investors, funds, and angels. Joe and Aaron are special founders — we were fortunate to work with them on their last startup (Grand St.), which they co-founded and ultimately sold to Etsy — and we couldn’t be more excited to be going down the rabbit hole with them for a second time. They’ve brought many of their band members back together too, having assembled a deeply technical team here in NYC over the past few months. In their launch post, they describe their mission in simple, but powerful terms:

Bison Trails wants to enable a future where blockchain participation is easy, more transparent, and truly decentralized. The infrastructure that we’re building today will pave the way for an entire generation of new decentralized companies, services, and participants to access blockchain economies and networks.

We believe in the Bison Trails mission, vision, and product, in large part because they’re solving some of the core problems we’ve faced at Notation as we began to embark on Mining 2.0 projects a year ago. And in the weeks and months to come, as Bison Trails begins to onboard their first customers, we’ll be transitioning our own infrastructure to that of Bison Trails’, which will save us time, money, and make us more efficient participants in the blockchain communities we’re most excited about. If you’re currently running infrastructure on blockchain networks, and are interested in being an early Bison Trails customer, drop us a line. We think you’ll be as excited as we are 🙂

• Nick + Alex (nick@notationcapital.com / alex@notationcapital.com)

Bison Trails was originally published in Notation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.