Block.one

Block.one is a company that develops open source blockchain-powered software. Its first project was EOS.
== Background ==
Block.one was founded in 2017 in the Cayman Islands. HBO TV show host John Oliver poked fun at the company in a special episode on cryptocurrency, calling Block.one "a software startup that doesn't plan to sell any software." By late May 2018, Block.one's ICO had raised a total of $4.1 billion. 
On September 30, 2019, without admitting or denying the allegations, Block.one settled charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had failed to register its securities properly with the agency by paying a fine of $24 million. Hoping to avoid U.S. jurisdiction the company's ICO had raised money globally. Some U.S. investors however did manage to invest in the ICO giving rise to the charges.
Until mid-2018 Brock Pierce, the former child star turned cryptocurrency entrepreneur, was heavily involved in the promotion of the company's products. He left the company in a "mutual agreement." 
=== Talent turnover ===
In September 2018, several members of the original EOS development team from Block.one - David Moss, Thomas Cox, Brian Abramson, and Corey J. Lederer - announced they had left the company. They said they had begun working on a new startup called "StrongBlock." David Moss, the CEO of the new startup, said on Twitter that "EOS will be a 787 and StrongBlock will be a custom 787 factory." This tweet was accompanied by a picture of two Boeing 787 airplanes inside a hangar. One of the employees said the purpose of StrongBlock (as well as the implied reason the group originally left Block.one) is to address "a need in the blockchain marketplace that Block.one was not going to address," although the employee did not disclose any detailed information about how StrongBlock planned to address this need.
Larimer quit Block.one as of December 31, 2020. Larimer said in a January 10 blog post on the Voice, "I will continue on my mission to create free market, voluntary solutions for securing life, liberty, property, and justice for all." Larimer added he was leaning toward building more privacy-focused software products.
== Overview ==
Block.one has stated that their goal is to release software that others can use to make their own blockchains to "make the world a better place." 
The company does not claim to be the primary governing body of EOS. According to the current EOS constitution, however, Block.one technically holds a minority voting right because it is in possession of 10 percent of the EOS initial digital token allocation that resulted from the creation of the EOS blockchain's genesis block. However, because of the way this token-based voting structure works, Block.one theoretically has the power to select which individual block producers can verify transactions on the EOS network.
Block.one originally intended for EOS to be governed entirely through smart contracts and arbitrators within the EOS community and not through direct intervention from Block.one. However, when hacking attacks resulted in seven users' accounts being frozen, Block.one's CTO Daniel Larimer began making statements on behalf of Block.one; among these was Larimer's suggestion to completely rewrite the EOS constitution in order to provide an effective game plan for governing the EOS community in the event of "extraordinary events" such as these.
=== Voice.com ===
Block.one announced on March 26, 2020 that it had invested $150 million in a start-up social medium platform called Voice.com. $100 million of the investment was cash and $50 million was in the form of intellectual property. The platform pays content creators with fees collected from other users. 
=== Bullish Global ===
With additional support from outside investors like Michael Novogratz and Peter Thiel, the company announced the formation of a new subsidiary called Bullish Global with a capitalization of $10 billion. Its cryptocurrency trading platform, named Bullish, is being designed to operate on a blockchain so that it will provide many of the benefits of decentralized finance, like privacy and audit ability, along with a central limit order book. According to the May 11, 2021 announcement by Block.one, Bullish Global is to launch later that year. 
On July 9, Block.one announced that Bullish would merge with Far Peak, a special purpose acquisition company, to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Far Peak CEO, is Thomas Farley, former president of the New York Stock Exchange. Farley will head the new company and Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer will be chairman. 
== Key People ==
* Brendan Blumer, Founder and CEO 
* Dan Larimer, CTO
== References ==
Category:Cryptocurrency
Category:Cayman Islands
Category:Blockchain
Category:Altcoin
Category:Cryptocurrency
Category:CryptoMarketsWiki