Here's what we know about Block.one, which created the world's 5th largest cryptocurrency in just a year

Commonwealth Bank surprised the market this morning with the announcement that CFO Rob Jesudason is resigning, effective immediately.

It appears to be awkward timing for the bank, given that Jesudason made the cut in late-March after new CEO Matt Comyn took an axe to the executive team.

And Jesudason’s next destination is also intriguing. He’s moving back to his previous base of Hong Kong to be the chief operating officer for blockchain outfit Block.one.

“Blockchain will have a transformative impact on most industries in the coming years and will redefine operating models by streamlining businesses, while also reducing cost and risk,” Jesudason said.

“Block.one’s technological innovation enables fast, low-cost, and scalable blockchain performance and is laying the groundwork for mass adoption of these new technologies.”

In light of today’s developments, we took a closer look at the company which has just lured the man who was paid $2.3 million in 2017 as CFO of Australia’s biggest bank.

Here’s what we know about Block.one:

The history

Block.one was established in 2017 following the release of a white paper for the EOS.IS blockchain platform, which is scheduled to launch in June 2018.
On 26 June 2017, the company launched an initial coin offering (ICO) for EOS tokens distributed on the Ethereum blockchain. A total of 1 billion EOS tokens were made available.
The ICO is unique in that it’s being carried out over the course of one year, with a select number of tokens issued each day until July 2, 2018.
Block.one says it has raised more than $1 billion from the ICO so far. The ESO token has a current market value of more than $12 billion.

The people

Founder and CEO Brendan Blumer has been working in blockchain since 2014. His first project, Gamecliff, was a platform to trade virtual assets within online video games. In 2005 at the age of 18, he sold the company and moved to Hong Kong.
Block.one’s Chief Technical Officer is Daniel Larimer, who’s also the co-founder other crypto-companies including Bitshares and Steemit, a blog and social network where users are rewarded with Steem crypto tokens for posting and discovering content.

The software

The EOS.IS software platform utilises a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) algorithm. Block.one claims that DPOS technology allows for a much faster transaction approval process on the EOS.IS blockchain than competing technologies such as bitcoin.
Block.one says the EOS.IS platform will have zero transaction fees, with the capacity to process millions of transactions per second.

The company

The Block.one entity is registered in the Cayman Islands, a jurisdiction that’s often considered to be a tax haven for international businesses. Companies registered in the Cayman Islands pay no corporations tax.
The company has around 200 staff worldwide, with offices in Hong Kong, California, and Virginia, USA.

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