Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers launches private blockchain project to incentivize entrepreneurs

KPCB Edge ^[1], a venture capital fund under Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, recently unveiled its private blockchain project Edgecoin, which is used by KPCB Edge to reward founders of startups that help Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers select investment targets.

With the official launch of this project, KPCB Edge will provide all participants with an Edgecoin web wallet containing 10 edgecoins. If entrepreneurs are optimistic about other entrepreneurs and think that KPCB should invest in these startups they are interested in, they can use edgecoin as a signal that they trust a certain individual or team.

KPCB Edge states that if the transaction is successful (the entrepreneur spends edgecoin), KPCB Edge will meet with the founders of the recommended startup within 72 hours.

The company wrote in a blog post:

“Edgecoin is a great way to record the work that startups and advisors have done to help us, so they can all participate and see the companies grow and succeed. Edgecoin also gives us a way to collect valuable data sets so we can see how our network interacts and correlate these to a range of other outcomes of interest.”

According to KPCB Edge, in addition to KPCB Edge, Freada Kapor Klein and Kapor Capital will also use the edgecoin network to recommend good startups.

The project started public testing in early 2015. Currently, every founding member of KPCB's startup company has been granted an edgecoin web wallet. The developers said that when the project matures in the future, the edgecoin web wallet will be further promoted.

The developers said they created the Edgecoin blockchain project in just one weekend, but that creating an interface and user experience would take much longer, as well as conducting legal due diligence on the service.

Edgecoin Network

Unlike many private blockchain projects, Edgecoin is a fork of Litecoin.

There are some technical differences between Edgecoin and Litecoin, the most obvious difference is the block time, Edgecoin reduces the block time from about 2.5 minutes to 1 minute, and users do not need to pay transaction fees for Edgecoin.

Edgecoin cannot be traded on the open market or between founders. Administrators have the power to add new edgecoins to the network. The company said it has pre-mined some edgecoins for KPCB to use.

The project's developers said that the founders can fully trust the Edgecoin network run by KPCB Edge, and that concerns about security are unnecessary because security is also in the interests of KPCB Edge and they will ensure that the network is not attacked.

Edgecoin is currently invitation-only, but KPCB has developed a block browser for everyone to view and verify its transaction records.

Edgecoin transactions

The KPCB team also disclosed to CoinDesk the trading issues regarding edgecoin, noting that after founders spend edgecoin to recommend founders, if KPCB does not ultimately invest in the startups they recommend, then the edgecoin they spend will not be returned.

Details of the deal will include status updates to show the process by which KPCB makes an investment.

If the founders' recommendation is successful, they themselves can profit from their investment, and the edgecoins they spent before will serve as an irrefutable record.

“If an edgecoin holder wants to prove to others that they executed an edgecoin transaction and show other related metadata (transaction information, website, etc.), we will generate a private key signature and public key for them that contains all the data of the transaction.

The private and public keys can be used to independently verify that the sender owns the address when verifying the signature.

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/kleiner-perkins-is-using-blockchain-tech-to-incentivize-its-founders/
By Pete Rizzo
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/kpcb-edgecoin)