Blockstream

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## Basics

* Location: Montreal, founded in 2014.
* The company is focused on developing bitcoin applications specifically sidechains with its Liquid, as well as other applications. Blockstream has raised $76M to date from investors including Khosla Horizons Ventures and Mosaic Ventures.
* “Creating ways to handle bitcoin micropayments and a technology called sidechan that offers firms more flexibility handling bitcoin transfers. Working with Intercontinental Exchange.”
* Blockstream is one of the largest contributors of funding for Bitcoin Core.

## Projects

* Liquid sidechain; On October 12, 2015, Blockstream announced the release of its Liquid sidechain which could allow for the transfer of assets between the sidechain and the main blockchain
* Elements Project; Blockstream released an open source codebase and testing environment for its sidechains product to public under open source license.The Elements Project is a community effort to create and test new extensions to the Bitcoin protocol, whose early contributions include Confidential Transactions by Gregory Maxwell, and Segregated Witness by Pieter Wuille.
* Blockstream has released source code for the smart contracts on blockchain language Simplicity; Simplicity has been built to be compatible with Blockstream’s Elements platform, Elements is an open source, sidechain-capable blockchain platform
* Is open sourcing its Proof-of-Reserve tool for increased transparency; most proof-of-reserve operations require substantial transactions that put exchanges at high security risks; Blockstream's innovative tool uses common sense and UTXO values to prove the extent of reserves; however, revealing UTXO values themselves is not a safe method, a problem Blockstream is currently working to rectify
* From the Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #69 (23-10-2019):

"*Blockstream Green Tor support: Version 3.2.4 of the Blockstream Green Wallet adds built-in Tor support for both iOS and Android. While Tor was supported in previous Android versions, it required a separate application whereas both Android and iOS versions are now bundled with Tor support."*

* Mining Operations. From CoinDesk (28-1-2021):

*"In 2019, Blockstream launched Blockstream Pool and announced it had been previously mining for a select few high-profile clients like Fidelity. Blockstream said it bought $25 million worth of mining machines from MicroBT. The machines are to be deployed through Blockstream's facilities in Canada and the U.S."*

## Team, etc.

* Employees: 50
* List of devs can be found here.
* Allen, Christopher; co-author of IETF Transport Layer Security
* Back, Adam, president & co-founder (Was part of Hong Kong consensus)

* Corallo, Matt; co-founder, Bitcoin Core dev, Nick: BlueMatt
* Chris Decker; engineer (20-2-2020)
* Friedenbach, Mark; co-founder
* Fowler, Alexander; co-founder
* Hall, Francesca; co-founder
* Hill, Austin; co-founder. Entrepreneur, Investor, Cancer Researcher, Poker Strategist
* Hoffman, Reid; board member, is a LinkedIn founder
* Martindate, Eric
* Maxwell, Gregory; co-founder, chief tech officer. Resigned in 1-2018.
* Mow, Samson; CSO
* Poelstra, andrew
* Blockstream hired Rusty Russell, a well-known developer famous for his work on Linux kernel, to develop an implementation of the Bitcoin Lightning Network
* Silbert, Barry; through Digital Currency Group
* Svenson, Erik; co-founder
* Blockchain Capital, investor
* Strateman, Patrick; core tech engineer
* Timon, Jorge; Core Tech Engineer, Nick: jtimon
* Wilkins, Jonathan; co-founder
* Wuille, Pieter, Dr.; Co-founder blockstream, Nick: Sipa, Bitcoin Core developer, put forth the SegWit proposal and is the primary author of libsecp256k1, a library for efficient elliptic curve cryptography for use in Bitcoin.
* Fields, Cory; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: cfields
* Willen, Glenn; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: gwillen
* Sanders, Gregory; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: instagibbs
* Todd, Peter; BTC core dev/blockstream employee
* Strateman Patrick; BTC core dev/blockstream employee, Nick: phantomcircuit
* Togami, Warren; BTC core dev/blockstream employee

### Old employees

* Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn quit the Bitcoin project over a dispute involving a failed block size increase, which Hearn claimed was being opposed by Maxwell of Blockstream.
* Ben Gorlick and Johnny Dilley quited Blockstream to join with a startup called Crowd Machine (cloud computing) where they no serve as the CTO and Chief of system architecture, respectively.

## Partnerships, investors, etc.

* Hyperledger, Member of the initiative
* Investors include: AME Cloud Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, Blockchain Capital LLC, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, Reid Hoffman (Total funding: 77.5 mil)
* (Former) sponsor of Coin Center (as of 6-2019 not on the website anymore)
* Member of Bitcoin Associated Switzerland
* Raisied $210M and acquired mining chip Manufacturer Spondoolies (24-8-2021).