Two years ago, I was the third person to join a Bitcoin focussed stealth startup called Trust Machines. It’s been an exciting ride. We went heads down to build core Bitcoin infrastructure from the peak of the last bull market, through the depths of the FTX collapse.
Now that Bitcoin L2s are maturing and institutional interest is back, I’m shifting focus to something new with Zest Protocol. At Zest Protocol, we’re on a mission to redefine Bitcoin lending using the infrastructure we helped develop at Trust Machines. How we got here 👇
Building on Bitcoin at Trust Machines
In hindsight, joining Trust Machines in 2021 feels like a big asymmetric bet that paid off. While the market was pumping the latest EVM-compatible L1 blockchain or aping into the most elaborate NFT ponzi schemes, I came across a small group of people who had spent their entire professional lives on building on Bitcoin. Muneeb had just launched a Stacks (a Bitcoin L2) and teamed up with his Princeton mentor JP Singh to do something very ambitious: found what should become the leading Bitcoin company, Trust Machines.
While in stealth mode, Muneeb and JP had brought on Chris who had been in the same YC batch as Muneeb to lead Bitcoin social application development and Gina who had been Muneeb’s Chief of Staff since the early days. They were still looking for a ‘DeFi guy’ to help shape their vision for Bitcoin Decentralised Finance. Having spent most of the past year generating yield on my BTC on various blockchains, this felt like the right challenge to take on.
We hit the ground running to build out Trust Machines. We hired a world class blockchain engineering team and announced a $150m Seed round in early 2022, the largest for a Bitcoin focussed company to date. Within a few months, we had some initial designs for Bitcoin DeFi protocols on testnet using the limited tooling available at the time (DLCs, trustless atomic swaps, everything was on the menu). However one thing became clear quickly, we needed a better Bitcoin L2 for Bitcoin DeFi to really take off.
The Stacks Nakamoto upgrade
When it comes to Bitcoin programming layers, the Stacks L2 was and is the most advanced option. It only made sense that we would focus on extending its capabilities. Together with the Stacks core entities we made the first designs for a programmable Bitcoin on the Stacks L2, now called sBTC. Shortly thereafter these designs came together as part of a larger proposal for a hard fork to the Stacks L2: the Nakamoto upgrade. After the early product direction for the Nakamoto upgrade was set, we helped Stacks entities bring some important integrations across the line with staking providers and custodians while at the same time refocusing towards building that Bitcoin lending protocol.
Now that the Nakamoto upgrade to the Stacks L2 is only months away, the time has come to fully focus on Zest Protocol. Luckily I’m not alone. Two great friends Emil and Fernando made the leap with me as cofounders - they were first two engineers I helped hire at Trust Machines and are infinitely smarter than me.
Reflections
I’ve learnt an insane amount during these two years at Trust Machines. It feels like I’ll have mentors and peers for life.
Muneeb is an incredible founder who taught me a lot about focus. I thought I was quite good at focus. I built a profitable company before with Deedmob after all. Muneeb is in another universe though. It takes something special to clear your calendar week in, week out to run at a singular goal - especially after founding a $1bn crypto protocol before. I hope to take this with me in the next chapter with Zest Protocol.
JP always surprised me with his openness to new ideas, even when they come at inconvenient times. I wouldn’t have expected for a Princeton Professor with 19 year tenure who knows everyone in cryptography on a first name basis to take seriously the recommendations of a twenty-something with no professional training in the field. I hope I can be like that in 30 years.
Gina and Rena pushed me to operate on a much higher level. Again, I thought I was good at this since I had been COO at the previous company I built. Their speed and precision is something else though.
Chris and Mark had been leading product in Silicon Valley since I was still in primary school and taught me some very interesting frameworks that I’ll be making my own.
And then there were Dan of course - showing me how to make something big and be a great storyteller (and not to forget teaching me all about guns in Texas).
Trust Machines grew to 40 people during the time I was there. I didn’t mention everyone, but it’s a special place with a big future ahead.
Or as one observer put it:
The future
We’re now fully focussed on redefining Bitcoin lending with Zest Protocol. Some big announcements are coming. Follow the progress on X (here) or on Linkedin (here).