Advisors

A quick note on advisors: I believe that advisors are arguably the least important people as far as it relates to the likelihood of a project becoming success. This does not mean they are not important, but it’s my own personal opinion that you should not make a decision about whether to invest in a blockchain project based around its advisors.

In some circumstances, advisors are used almost entirely to provide initial credibility to a project on paper and to build hype, but it’s unclear to me the exact advantages they bring, especially over the long-term. Furthermore, projects that were less than credible often outright paid individuals to serve as advisors, solely for marketing purposes. There have even been instances in which advisors were mentioned as working with projects when that wasn’t the case at all.

That all being said, having a strong team of advisors can indeed provide credibility, relationships, and expertise to a project. I believe they can provide unique insight based on experience, and also connect the team to important people.

Again, this is all my personal perspective, and others likely may disagree with me. It’s ultimately up to you to decide how much value you think an advisory team can bring, on a case-by-case basis.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the personalities who have agreed to advise the ICON project.

Don Tapscott — Dan is the most well-known among the ICON investors. He is a business thought-leader and consultant with worldwide recognition and the author of multiple books (he has authored or co-authored 16) about business and emerging technologies. Having read some of his work before (long before blockchain even existed), he truly does bring unique insight and thought, and his credibility doesn’t come from shrewd branding and marketing, but true knowledge. In addition, despite his older age, he has a firm understanding of blockchain and it’s possible impact on the world, and wrote the book “The Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World.”

In addition, his commitment to ICON is genuine. Here he is giving a lecture on Blockchain technology last year (and I encourage you to watch the entire presentation if you have an hour to spare):

“Everyday I have two e-mails from someone who wants me to be an advisor to their company in this space, or to be part of their ICO. And I say no to all of them. I just have a handful of companies, and two of them are based in Korea, or have a big Korean play. One of them is ICON, which is an extraordinary company that is doing very well here.”

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To learn more about Tapscott, be sure to visit his website.

Paul Veradittakit

Veradittakit is a Partner at Pantera Capital — debatably one of the most significant crypto “hedge funds” to date: “As the first U.S. Bitcoin investment firm, Pantera Capital is the leading blockchain investment firm and one of the largest institutional owners of cryptocurrencies. Our mission is to act as the catalyst for widespread blockchain adoption and innovation.”

According to Veradittakit’s bio, “As a partner at Pantera, Paul focuses on the firm’s venture capital and hedge fund investments. Since joining in 2014, he has helped launch Pantera Venture Fund II and the firm’s currency funds, executing over sixty investments. Paul also sits on the board of OpenToken and BitOasis, is a mentor at The House Fund, Boost VC, and Alchemist, and is an advisor to Orchid, Origin, and Icon. Paul’s prior experience includes working as an associate at Strive Capital, where he focused on investments in the mobile space, including an early stage investment in App Annie. He also performed partnerships and growth for Urban Spoils, a daily-deal aggregation startup, and worked with LECG and Hatch Consulting. Paul graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.”

If you’ve been following ICON for a while, you know that Pantera is famously bullish on ICON, pointing out that it is their largest holding. That means that Veradittakit is an advisor who has put his money where his mouth is and has invested directly in the project.

Jehan Chu

Chu was an early investor in Bitcoin, and in 2016, started a cryptocurrency investment firm, Kenetic Capital. According to a Medium article:

“After a robust launch in 2016, Kenetic Capital has grown from being a mere cryptocurrency fund, to one of the most powerful blockchain firms in Asia. The organization today offers a gamut of services that range from capital market solutions and token sale advisory to community building and application development. And for a firm that’s only a couple of years old, Kenetic has a remarkably well-positioned portfolio, with early investments in top-tier projects like Bluzelle, Caspian, ICON, Quantstamp, and Decentraland. Along the way, they’ve also assembled a star-studded team with a wealth of experience in trading, project advisory, tech development, and more. Much of their success stems from Chu’s insistence on only funding projects that offer strong fundamentals and have highly viable real-world applications.”

Chu’s blockchain experience is extensive. According to his bio on the ICON website, “He founded the Ethereum HK community (2014), co-Founded the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong (2014) and founded the Hyperledger HK community (2016). He was a partner with the KMA on the Blockchain: Surge event, and a Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) Council Member. Jehan is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and a Masters degree candidate at Hong Kong University (2017).” (Chu has since completed his Master’s Degree, according to his LinkedIn.)

Like Veradittakit, Chu also has skin in the ICON game, through his company’s investment in the project.

Jason Best

Best is a co-founder and partner of Crowdfund Capital Advisors — a unique business built around providing consulting for companies, non-profits, or projects who plan on utilizing crowdfunding. With a number of potential legal complications and roadblocks that come with crowdfunding, the company undoubtedly serves an important niche.

Based on his background and experience, I’d speculate that Best’s primary role was to guide the ICON Foundation through it’s successful ICO process. If that’s the case, his role with the team today is likely reduced — but that’s perfectly ok. For more information on Best, be sure to check out his official biography.

Yiseul Cho

Cho is almost certainly the most technically skilled advisor for ICON. According to her biography:

“Acclaimed data scientist and blockchain expert Yiseul Cho has a decade (and counting) of experiences across academia, business leadership, entrepreneurship and technology. She holds a double Master’s in Energy Market & Strategy and Information Synthesis from École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris and Massachusetts Institute of Technology respectively. An ex-Facebooker, Yiseul joined HSBC HQ for its first ever Blockchain team as blockchain engineer in 2016 and led the Blockchain analytics team. She won the 1st place in Consensus hackathon in 2016 with drone blockchain protocol (the 1st picks of Consensys, Deloitte, Microsoft) and is an ex-founding partner of Blockchain Partners Korea (currently HASHED).”

In 2017, she founded Perceptra. According to their website, “Perceptra is building effective go-to-market channels for blockchain projects. We conduct market research in Korea market, identify effective use cases, build core channels to users, and help projects grow.”

Simon Seojoon Kim

Simon’s primary role these days is serving as CEO of Hashed, which was formerly called “ Blockchain Partners Korea. According to their website, “Hashed is a global, early stage venture fund focused on backing founders who are pioneering the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Hashed is based in Seoul and San Francisco.” The company, which grew $600,000 to $250 million, is also an investor in ICON.

Eddy Travia

Travis is the CEO & Founder of Coinsilium. According to their website, “Coinsilium is a venture builder, investor and advisor, supporting early-stage blockchain technology companies and the digital token economy. As the first global blockchain accelerator to IPO in 2015, Coinsilium has harnessed its experience and wide-ranging network to advise leading blockchain-based projects around the world.”

According to his official bio, “Eddy has been living and working in China/Hong Kong for the past ten years where he has managed private equity investment funds focusing on Greater China. Previously, he was the Director of Admissions of a technology MBA (Theseus MBA) in Sophia Antipolis (France) now part of EDHEC business school. Eddy completed the Stanford Financial Engineering program for finance executives in Hong Kong. He has extensive experience in private equity, deal structuring, due diligence supervision and advising foreign funds and angel investors investing in emerging markets.”

Ismail Malik

According to his bio on the ICON website Malik, “has over 20 years experience in Technology related startups and entrepreneurship covering Asset Management, Cryptocurrencies, Mobile Payments in the City of London and Emerging Markets working with leading firms such as Vodafone, Cellnet and News International. He was the founder of the world’s first Blockchain Lab and first ‘DLT’ company within Level 39 in Canary Wharf (world’s largest Fintech accelerator).”