Member Since March 2023
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About
Simon Harman is the CEO and Founder of Chainflip. Harman also led the creation of the secure messaging app Session, based on the Signal protocol. He also currently serves on the board of the Oxen Foundation. An Australian native currently residing in Berlin, Germany, Harman possesses extensive experience in managing and leading mid-sized Web3 teams of up to 30 individuals. Harman’s expertise spans various areas, including protocol design, team scaling, fundraising, communications, crypto-economics, regulatory matters, and more. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the development of several notable products. Chainflip, for instance, is a cross-chain AMM that enables seamless token swaps across different ecosystems while respecting chain sovereignty. Harman's passion for cryptocurrency and democratic values drives his work. Together with a number of collaborators, he has authored protocol designs for various distributed systems. Harman has also extensively written about crypto-economics aiming to design or evolve better systems that enhance the stability and performance of cryptocurrency assets, aligning them with their intended functions.
Simon Harman
Published content
expert panel
Cross-chain operability may only be achieved when there’s not only a way, but a will to move forward. Even crypto industry outsiders are gaining clarity on the benefits of blockchain technology, which is a significant step forward for the ecosystem. However, a challenge remains: The industry still struggles with interoperability between blockchain networks. Unless different chains can safely and efficiently communicate and exchange data, the full power of blockchain — including true decentralization, new use cases, lower costs and, ultimately, further innovation — can’t be achieved. Here, 10 members of Cointelegraph Innovation Circle discuss some of the challenges still standing in the way of achieving cross-chain interoperability and how they can be overcome.
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By enabling cross-chain swaps of cryptocurrency, Cointelegraph Innovation Circle member Simon Harman is shaking up DeFi.
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Jun 9, 2023
The growth of DeFi has happened in spite of the CEXs' stranglehold, with users relying on non-custodial wallets to access even the most basic of DeFi products.
expert panel
Proper vetting of potential Web3 partners includes looking both at traditional business fundamentals and industry-specific USPs. When considering Web3 partnerships, the background and perspective of the evaluator may lead to blind spots. Traditional companies and investors may know the business fundamentals and financial metrics to examine but be unclear on industry-specific “must-haves” such as necessary tech capabilities and a committed fan base. Industry insiders, on the other hand, may be impressed by a potential partner’s community presence and the features they promote but overlook the health of the financial and advisory foundations. To ensure a profitable partnership that brings value to both parties and to end-users, it’s essential to examine both the big picture and the telling details. Below, 17 members of Cointelegraph Innovation Circle share tips for companies and individuals engaged in evaluating a potential Web3 partnership.
expert panel
A bear market may not be the best of times for a crypto startup, but it’s not an insurmountable barrier, either. Launching a startup in any industry is hard. Launching during a bear market is even harder. Launching a startup in a bear market in a relatively new industry like crypto — which many investors don’t fully understand and which has had its share of recent negative headlines — brings a whole additional slate of challenges. But as many industry pioneers have proven, it’s not impossible, as long as founders follow a few smart strategies. Many of the members of Cointelegraph Innovation Circle are startup founders themselves, and all are longtime industry veterans and market watchers. Here, 18 of them share their tested tips for crypto companies starting out during these volatile times.
Company details
Chainflip Labs
Company bio
Chainflip is a cross-chain Automated Market Maker (AMM) that was founded in 2020 by Simon Harman as an independent project within the Oxen Foundation, the creators of getsession.org. Unlike other platforms, Chainflip allows for native asset swaps without the need for wrapped tokens or specialized wallets. The project has gained support through private fundraising and is backed by various investors including Framework Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and more. The Chainflip Labs team consists of over 30 engineers, designers, quants, and analysts located in offices in Berlin, Dublin, and Melbourne. Their collective experience and conviction make them well-prepared to tackle the cross-chain sector. The motivation behind Chainflip was to develop blockchain products that offer real value and utility to end-users. The project aims to address the lack of on-chain trading facilities for major assets like BTC in the crypto spot market. By applying decentralized technology, Chainflip seeks to provide a solution in this area of the market.