Jack An, Analyst (安良方 / 分析師)

Jack is an Analyst covering AppWorks Accelerator. Before joining the team, he was a co-founder and early team member at two InsurTech startups, where he developed a passion in user experience and product development. Previous to his startup journey he worked as a commercial property underwriter at Chubb Insurance in New Zealand. Jack graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Waikato University where he studied classical piano. He loves to cook, read and is a practicing stoic.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is without a doubt one of the most revolutionary inventions of the 21st century. The “decentralization” part of DeFi refers to the core qualities of blockchain technology – censorship resistance, permissionlessness, and trustlessness. As long as one can connect to the internet, one can access to and ultimately benefit from financial goods and services. A basic need that most of us in the developed world often take for granted. 

Factors like having a stable currency that does not lose purchasing power abruptly, or having a variety of yield generating financial instruments that protect and add to our wealth – these are issues that many people in developing economies face. It is frightening to consider losing access to technologies that can secure your financial nest. And that’s why building a resilient DeFi system is extremely important. 

Apart from the underlying blockchain network that computes and supports DeFi, “stablecoins” – a digital currency whose value is pegged to a real-world currency, most commonly the US Dollar – plays an instrumental role in DeFi because it provides a consistent manner of storing and transmitting value, a necessity for all financial operations.

Nevertheless, stablecoins are not all created equal due to the fact they use different methods to peg their value to the dollar. Some stablecoins are centralized, giving control to a single authority, which can lead to censorship, manipulation, or act as a single point of failure, ultimately weakening the entire DeFi system.

This is why we are thrilled to be supporting Marius Ciubotariu, co-founder of Hubble Protocol. Marius and his colleagues are developing a decentralized stablecoin system that aims to create a fully censorship-resistant stablecoin that can stand the test of time, to securely facilitate the DeFi ecosystem in the long run.

Connecting the dots backwards

Marius started his journey in technology early. At the age of 13, devoted to making money with his mind, he began learning how to code and participated in many coding olympiads and contests in his childhood. Marius’ passion for technology continued, and by the time he turned 16, he was already taking on projects as a software developer to support himself and earned a sizable income. 

Initially, it was a straight path to becoming a software engineer after college. However, at the suggestion of his father, he decided to pursue an undergraduate in business instead. Marius’s fascination with finance and economics led him to become a sales analyst at Bloomberg in 2016. Through analyzing markets and trends, he saw the future where “software eats the world” and didn’t want to sit on the sidelines and watch this happen.

Marius made the jump within Bloomberg to begin developing the technology that runs the products Bloomberg were selling, as well as attempting to launch multiple software products outside of work. He became Bloomberg’s internal Rust champion, shipping their first-ever Rust-based infrastructure project. At the same time, Marius began studying blockchain and was intrigued with AMMs and lending products that offered real-world utilities, as well as the multidisciplinary requirements needed to establish them.

Marius recognized the importance of DeFi and the role stablecoins play in this emerging field, which is why he is taking on the difficult task of developing a censorship-resistant, permissionless, and trustless stablecoin. Looking back, his ambition and perseverance to excel and his expertise in engineering and finance creates the perfect combination for the foundation of Hubble Protocol.

Stablecoins adoption continues to soar 

When customers put up over-collateralized loans, Hubble Protocol issues “USDH” stablecoins. To do so in a decentralized manner, the platform must also include mechanisms to self-govern and rebalance loans at risk. Building a resilient infrastructure capable of timely managing loan positions in the face of crypto’s rapid price changes is no easy feat in and of itself.

However, attracting individuals to take out over-collateralized loans is also a difficult task. Hubble’s goal together with Marius’s experience is to create winning strategies as structured products that are principal-guaranteed that maximize return. Furthermore, the team is also working on tools that will eventually support under-collateralized loans in order to attract a larger market of consumers and expand the total DeFi market.

The stablecoin market has expanded dramatically, with the total value of stablecoins issued reaching around US$185 billion in April 2022, up from US$30 billion in the beginning of 2021. This bodes well for the Hubble protocol, which itself is dedicated to developing the most resilient and commonly used stablecoin.

Fighting the good fight

The Hubble protocol team is focused on building a DeFi platform the right way the first time, given the early stages of DeFi and the constant regulatory challenges. It is essential to maintain an open and censorship-resistant DeFi ecosystem to ensure that access to financial products remains a basic human right. As supporters of the Hubble protocol team, we are excited about what they are building and are looking forward to being part of their journey.

We look for strong founders who are using innovative technologies like DeFi to address real-world problems. We’re thrilled to work with Marius and his team at Hubble Protocol as they continue to spread the fundamental value of DeFi and blockchain to all around the world.

If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with web3 and AI / IoT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.

Editor’s note: Congratulations to Parcel on another great milestone. As the virtual real estate economy grows, Parcel aims to be the leading one-stop-shop for landowners and creators in the metaverse. AppWorks is excited to be a part of the journey. The press release from Parcel is below:

Parcel, an NFT marketplace for virtual real estate, has raised $4 million in a seed round led by Framework Ventures, a venture capital firm known for its early entry into Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi). Additional participants in the round include Fifth Wall, Blizzard Fund (Avalanche), AVIV Group (Axel Springer), AppWorks, Great Oaks, and Serafund; as well as an impressive roster of angel investors including Aaron Wong (SoftBank), Sebastien Borget (The Sandbox), and Santiago Santos.

By aggregating digital land listings and architectural services for virtual landowners, sellers, and builders, Parcel is the first comprehensive marketplace tailored exclusively for the virtual real estate economy. Parcel launched in July 2021 amidst a virtual real estate market that generated more than $500 million in sales in the 2021 calendar year and has already surpassed $1 billion in sales during the first half of 2022. The platform aggregates real estate listings across several of the largest virtual worlds on the Ethereum blockchain, including The Sandbox, Decentraland, Voxels, Somnium Space, Mona, and NFT Worlds. Multi-chain support on Avalanche and Polygon is planned for later this year.

Parcel’s marketplace offers interactive, data-rich visual maps to help users more seamlessly navigate the virtual real estate ecosystem. Parcel also provides real-time price appraisals for open listings and utilizes a proprietary gas-efficient smart contract to facilitate sales, enabling users to buy and list land for half the cost of gas fees found on existing NFT marketplaces. For a limited time, Parcel is reimbursing gas costs for wallets that list land on its marketplace.

“The ongoing growth of the digital land ecosystem presents endless opportunities for creators and investors,” said Noah Gaynor, Co-Founder and CEO of Parcel. “However, to build a truly successful metaverse economy, users need a marketplace solution that not only encourages the sale and transaction of digital land, but the development of valuable projects and businesses across virtual worlds as well. By aggregating resources for all metaverse stakeholders – from prospective landowners and sellers to virtual world service providers and architects – Parcel provides the full suite of services needed to build a thriving metaverse.”

To encourage the development of diverse projects and services across virtual worlds, Parcel is developing a comprehensive creative directory known as Creatorverse. Through Creatorverse, landowners will be able to easily discover and employ virtual architects and service providers by browsing their portfolio of digital work. Parcel also offers Learn, an educational platform that helps seamlessly onboard new users and advance knowledge for the Web3 community.

“Though the metaverse land market has grown rapidly over the last year, the market is still quite fragmented between various virtual worlds,” said Michael Anderson, Co-Founder of Framework Ventures. “We believe Parcel is uniquely positioned to unify the virtual real estate ecosystem and lead the development of an open and thriving metaverse. We’re very proud to work alongside their team as they become the leading marketplace for the virtual real estate economy.”

The funds from the round will be utilized to continue developing Parcel’s feature set for the Creatorverse and expanding marketplace listings to virtual worlds beyond the Ethereum ecosystem.

About Parcel

Parcel is on a mission to empower people with the tools they need to find their home in the metaverse. Born out of an industry that was scattered and lacked transparency, Parcel developed the first comprehensive marketplace tailored exclusively for virtual real estate. By aggregating digital land listings and fostering connection between landowners and creators, Parcel offers the full suite of services needed to build a thriving metaverse community and economy. To learn more, visit https://parcel.so and join the community on Twitter @ParcelNFT.

If you’re a founder working on web3 / DAO, AI / IoT, or Southeast Asia, you’ve come to the right place! Applications for AppWorks Accelerator

Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to join Flow Ecosystem Fund to provide developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support. The press release from Flow is below:

・a16z, AppWorks, Coatue, Greenfield One, Liberty City Ventures, Union Square Ventures and other global firms to support Flow developers through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support.

・Largest joint ecosystem fund to fuel next-generation of applications.

Flow, the Web3 platform powering next-generation games, apps and digital assets including NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, announced a new $725 million Ecosystem Fund designed to hypercharge innovation and growth across the Flow community.

The largest joint commitment made towards any blockchain ecosystem, the Ecosystem Fund participants will provide existing and future developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support.

Participants include industry-leading firms that have backed several of the most successful Web3 companies, such as a16z, AppWorks, Cadenza Ventures, Coatue, Coinfund, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Dispersion Capital, Fabric Ventures, Greenfield One, HashKey, L1 Digital, Mirana Ventures, OP Crypto, SkyVision Capital, Spartan Group, Union Square Ventures, and Dapper Ventures.

“We are thrilled to see such a strong vote of confidence in the Flow ecosystem from some of the world’s leading investors in Web3 through their commitment to this Fund,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. “With their active participation and support, the Ecosystem Fund has the opportunity to become a real game-changer for the 7500+ strong and fast-growing developer community in the Flow ecosystem.”

With a focus on enabling more distributed and equitable Web3 opportunities to developers around the globe, participants will focus on providing support for gaming, infrastructure, decentralized finance, content and creators. The resources are expected to be used by developers for product development, product scaling, team expansion, user acquisition and general operating expenses.

“The Ecosystem Fund is an opportunity to power the next generation of developers across the global Flow community,” said Dan Rose, Chairman of Coatue Ventures. “Coatue has already backed multiple companies building in the Flow ecosystem including Dapper Labs, Crypthulu and Faze Technologies, and we are excited to play an active role in enabling more Web3 opportunities.”

In addition to financial support, the developers in the Flow ecosystem will be able to leverage expertise via informational events, office hours, accelerators & incubators, subsidized office space and similar initiatives. For example, investors will provide Flow teams office space in cities such as Berlin (Greenfield One) and Asia (for AppWorks Accelerator program), and Liberty City Ventures will be providing two scholarships for college students to work on Flow-related projects. As a Venture Partner for Bybit and BitDAO, Mirana Ventures will also help catalyze strategic collaboration opportunities for Flow projects.

“As web3 accelerates and sophisticated app developers search for the best platforms, Flow is perhaps the best decentralized blockchain built for the scale, security, and ease of use most modern startups need to succeed.” said David Pakman, Managing Partner at CoinFund. “The Flow Ecosystem Fund will be a huge accelerator of innovation and growth on the platform and we at CoinFund are excited to work with this talented community to help drive innovation and growth.”

Originally developed by Dapper Labs to create more efficient, secure and scalable proof-of-stake blockchain experiences, Flow is an open-source, developer-friendly and energy efficient blockchain built for consumer applications. With global partners including the NBA, NFL, UFC and Dr. Seuss; unicorn developers such as Animoca and PlayCo; and emerging projects such as Genies, Fancraze and Cryptoys, Flow has seen daily transactions triple since September 2021 as it has grown into the leading blockchain for non–fungible token (NFT) sales by number of NFT transactions. 

To learn more about Flow and the Flow Ecosystem Fund: www.flow.com/ecosystemsupport

About Flow

Flow is the blockchain designed to be the foundation of Web3 and the open metaverse, supporting consumer-scale decentralized applications, NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and more. Powered by Cadence, an original programming language built specifically for digital assets, Flow empowers developers to innovate and push the limits that will bring the next billion to Web3. Created by a team that has consistently delivered industry-leading consumer-scale Web3 experiences including CryptoKitties, Dapper, and NBA Top Shot, Flow is an open, decentralized platform with a thriving ecosystem of creators from top brands, development studios, venture-backed startups, crypto leaders, and more.

For more information: www.flow.com

【If you’re a founder working on web3 / DAO, AI / IoT, or Southeast Asia, you’ve come to the right place! Applications for AppWorks Accelerator.】

Jack An, Analyst (安良方 / 分析師)

Jack is an Analyst covering AppWorks Accelerator. Before joining the team, he was a co-founder and early team member at two InsurTech startups, where he developed a passion in user experience and product development. Previous to his startup journey he worked as a commercial property underwriter at Chubb Insurance in New Zealand. Jack graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Waikato University where he studied classical piano. He loves to cook, read and is a practicing stoic.

The world of digital ownership is being transformed by the emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These unique digital assets have opened up new possibilities for creators and collectors across a wide range of industries, but arguably none more so than the music business.

The music industry has a long history of conflict over asset ownership and the transfer of value produced by selling or playing the song. This should come as no surprise given the value chain’s fragmentation and opacity that was built over the years to distribute music worldwide. However, as the industry gradually consolidates and is consumed by its digital self, there is an opportunity to establish a transparent ownership and value distribution pipeline through the use of blockchain and NFTs. Ultimately, this makes it easier for artists and creatives to receive proper attribution and incentivization for their work.

That’s why we are excited to back Cardin Campbell, the founder and CEO of Trac, recognizing the potential of Trac to shape the future of the music industry and create new opportunities for musicians to monetize art and control their careers.

From musician to founder

Cardin experienced the hardships that musicians face personally as an aspiring musical talent in his youth. Music, as the major product and the center of the artistry, would generally only earn a tiny royalty distribution, making a sustainable career difficult. With no transparency into the royalties system, musicians must rely on touring and merchandise sales to fund their art, which for many is an additional responsibility that often prevents exceptional musicians from being able to make music full time.

Cardin was urged to follow a career in software engineering instead, owing to his secondary interests in programming and product development. Hebuilt his career in the valley and held multiple senior engineering roles across Intel, Nike, Expedia, and Peloton. Through all of this, Cardin never lost his love for music, and when his own son decided to pursue a career as a professional musician, he decided it was time to bring what he had learned in tech and roll up his sleeves to build Trac – a digital platform that takes care of everything else that is not related to creating music, so artists can focus more of their time on their craft.

“Sign yourself, be your own label”

Trac enables musicians to publish their music on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and others, as well as sketch, order, and sell products, and analyze their streaming/listener data to better understand their fans. Labels or agents are traditionally hired to address these vexing duties. However, with Trac, musicians of all levels now can easily access such tools and execute time-consuming work effortlessly.

Cardin and his team are also constructing the pipelines required to assist artists in exploring NFTs. Due to the ease of which NFTs can be tracked and confirmed on blockchain networks, it can readily determine who owns a specific NFT and distribute royalties accordingly. This has the potential to establish a highly transparent and equitable royalty payment system, benefiting musicians who provide the core product but struggle to earn their fair share due to various intermediaries in the current system.

Giving power back to the musicians

Trac is still in its early stages, but the potential for what it can do for musicians around the world is enormously exciting. Trac has the potential to make a huge influence on the music business by assisting musicians in taking charge of their own careers and monetizing their talent. And as more musicians use NFTs and other digital ownership technologies, the possibilities for Trac are truly boundless. We are thrilled to be a part of this adventure and look forward to seeing where Trac leads the industry in the future.

At AppWorks, we look for great founders who are building on new technologies such as web3 to innovate and solve real world problems. We’re honored to have the privilege to partner with Cardin and his team at Trac as they continue to break new ground at the forefront of helping musicians across the globe take control of their career.

[If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with web3 and AI / IoT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.]