Technology Summary
Overview
Nillion is the first fully decentralized, trustless, and permissionless multi-party computing network that can fundamentally change how blockchains, governments, consumers, and institutions store, authenticate, and interact with data. Blockchain technology has many shortcomings, one of which Nillion aims to solve through their novel mathematical breakthrough called Nil message compute (NMC).
These node networks serve as a secure, decentralized, private, chain agnostic processing layer looking to enhance existing blockchains and solve the blockchain trilemma, while simultaneously serving as a public utility provider for web2 and web3-based entities.
Simultaneous with the conceptualization of the blockchain, a sibling technology called Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) was developed. SMPC is a cryptographic protocol that distributes an algorithm across multiple parties where no individual party can see the other parties’ data, thus creating an Information-Theoretic Security (ITS) cryptosystem. ITS is the highest level of data security possible, and is unbreakable, even with the use of quantum computers. Despite these advancements, SMPC has not been mass adopted due to its performance constraints. A single transaction can take multiple hours, or even days, to finalize.
Nillion solves the performance problem of SMPC with the creation of NMC. Nillion is not a traditional blockchain or a traditional SMPC protocol. With NMC, Nillion allows for fast (near client server speed), scalable, interoperable (chain agnostic), private, secure (ITS), and permissionless decentralized information storage and computation.
Tokenomics
$NIL – Utility Token
Blockchain: Ethereum
Nillion’s native token is the NIL token. NIL tokens will be used to:
- Access the network and use various Nillion Services
- Align economic incentives and node cooperation through staking
- Incentivize nodes to maintain high performance and uptime
- Governance
Team
- Dr Miguel de Vega (Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer); PhD in machine learning. Has successfully filed over 30 global patents, and co-founded 4 startups.
- Andrew Masanto (Chief Strategy Officer); Chief marketing officer for two of the top cryptocurrencies (Hedera Hashgraph and Reserve).
- Alex Page (CEO); Hedera Hashgraph SPV General Partner. Founded Flag First Capital & Co-founded two other companies: Weekday Warriors and Sports food nutrition and worked for Goldman Sachs in the special situation group.
- Rob Leslie (Co-Founder and President); Founded Sedicii in 2013, co-founded Kyckr in 2007 and was part of the original management team at Dell.
- Conrad Whelan (Founding Chief Technical Officer); Founding partner at Spirit River Atlas, board member at PK Sound and Executive at Hodgee Films Inc. Prior to that he was an advisor for Neurocast and also the founding engineer of Uber.
- Andrew Yeoh (Founding Chief Marketing Officer); SPV general partner for
Hedera Hashgraph (7.5 years). Eperience as an investment banking analyst for Rothschild and UBS. - Mark McDermott (Head of Operations and Ecosystem); Innovation for Nike, founder and CEO of GoShow, product manager for Ralph
Lauren, and Senior product planner for Mr. Price apparel.
Notable Backers
$20M (Seed): Hashkey, GSR, AU21 Capital, Big Brain Holdings, etc.
Full Report
Download the full report here.
CATEGORY
Desktop Browser / Mobile (IOS & Android)
BLOCKCHAIN SUPPORTED
Chain Agnostic
USE CASES
- Authentication service
- Storage and computation of data
- Multichain wallets
- Sidechain for blockchains (scaling and adding security)
- DAO tools
- Private smart contracts
- Soulbound tokens
- Digitization of bank guarantees
SOCIAL STATS
CURRENT PHASE
Seed Round
Opinions
RESEARCHER OPINION #1
Farzan | Research Analyst (non VC perspective)
Nillion’s veteran team and innovative technology strategically positions them to be one of the next leading blockchain protocols. Of great interest is how this key technological advancement will impact future web2 adoption and expansion of use cases, especially with corporate web2 security and encryption. Despite minor concerns, Nillion’s NMC (Nil Message Compute) has the potential to revolutionize not only the cryptocurrency space but the entire blockchain landscape.
RESEARCHER OPINION #2
Jesse | Sr. Research Analyst (non-VC perspective)
One of the most compelling projects reviewed to date. Nillion solves a three-decade-old problem, fundamentally changing how security, speed, and computations are viewed from a blockchain perspective. The applications for this technology are immense and very applicable in terms of mainstream adoption. However, thus far, everything is theoretical, and there is no evidence of a working proof of concept. Other considerations: the marketing and outreach are severely lacking, absence of tokenomics data, and the absence of information on node architecture. Government regulation of this technology is another primary concern, as it impacts government security and access to data.