Legendary billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has reportedly purchased 1 million ANT tokens, which are presently worth an estimated $825,000, in order to join the governance structure of the Aragon blockchain platform.
Aragon is an open-source initiative for managing decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs. As noted in a press release published on February 19, with his purchase of 1 million ANT tokens, Draper now controls approximately 2.5% of the platform’s token supply.
In statements shared with Coindesk, Luis Cuende, executive director at Aragon Associate, noted that Draper’s decision to acquire the large amount of tokens was influenced by “the recent launch of Aragon Court and the realization that Aragon can be to governance what Bitcoin is to money.”
Cuende confirmed that Draper will also be taking a seat on Aragon’s advisory board.
Launched in February 2017, the Aragon blockchain platform allows DAOs to manage their cap tables, vesting, payments, voting, bylaws, fundraising, and identity solutions.
Aragon’s official blog post states that the organization has helped create more than 1,000 DAOs with around $8 million worth of assets under management.
On February 10, 2020, Aragon Court, a digital judicial protocol to settle disputes for DAOs, was officially launched. The court hires human jurors to look into various conflicts and gives them rewards and penalties to encourage them to make good judgements. Each ecosystem member who holds over 1,000 ANT tokens, a growing list which now includes experienced investor and business magnate Draper, can take part in the Aragon Court.
Over 1,000,000 ANT have now been staked during the pre-activation phase, the company revealed. A trial of Ethereum Classic (ETC) developer Yaz Khoury has taken place on the Aragon platform.
As mentioned on Aragon’s website, Aragon One is a Switzerland-based firm established by the developers of the Aragon project. The initiative builds the open-source software tools and community needed for the project to succeed.
The firm is financed mainly via grants given by the Aragon Association, a non-profit steward of the Aragon project.