Beyond Protocol

About Beyond Protocol

Beyond Protocol operates as a distributed ledger technology project, conceptualized in Silicon Valley in January 2018. The company was co-founded by CEO Jonathan Manzi, a serial entrepreneur who attended Stanford University; Denis Benic; and Gurvinder Ahluwalia, who previously held the role of CTO for IBM's Blockchain, IoT, and Cloud divisions. Manzi's entrepreneurial journey began in high school with an ad-tech company, a venture that reportedly made him a millionaire by age 16. His experience also includes co-founding ink, a technology firm focused on the digital print industry, and a foundational project developing a security solution for HP, which laid the groundwork for Beyond Protocol.

The firm is developing a decentralized security layer and smart contract platform tailored for the Internet of Things (IoT). The core of its business is to provide a secure and interoperable framework for devices to communicate and transact. This addresses two critical vulnerabilities in the expanding IoT market: security and lack of interoperability. By combining blockchain with hardware signatures, the protocol aims to create a verifiable and tamper-proof record of device identities and communications. This allows developers, using the company's Software Development Kit (SDK), to build decentralized applications (DApps) on top of various combinations of IoT devices. The business model is centered on providing tools for creators and chip manufacturers to build applications on microcontrollers and IoT sensors. This enables secure machine-to-machine (M2M) value transfers and payments, using both cryptocurrency and fiat gateways.

The protocol functions as a layer-one blockchain that employs a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Users can stake the native token, $BP, to participate in block validation, contribute to the network's security, and vote on the protocol's governance, earning rewards in the process. After its initial research and development phase, the first versions of the technology were shared with partners in early 2019. The company has received investment from firms including Hexxion, Luminescence Capital, and Mana Ventures. In September 2022, Beyond Protocol secured a $12.5 million investment commitment from GEM Digital, a digital asset investment firm, to support its public launch and ecosystem development.