[GIBRALTAR, PRAGUE, 2nd of October 2019] — Rockaway Blockchain acquires a stake in Vega, a project working on development of technologies suitable for decentralized trading of derivatives, in a seed round of $5M. Rockaway Blockchain focuses on investments in finance, as that is where it sees traction and added value of these new technologies.

Apart from Rockaway Blockchain, the global group of strategic supporters includes Pantera Capital, Xpring (Ripple), Hashed, NGC Ventures, gumi Cryptos Capital, KR1, Eden Block, Focus Labs, Greenfield One, Monday Capital and RSK Ecosystem Fund.

“Trading of crypto derivatives reaches daily volumes of $5.6bn. In comparison to derivatives created on top of traditional assets whose daily volume goes up to $1.5tn, crypto derivatives show a significant growth potential“ says Viktor Fischer, Partner at Rockaway Blockchain.

Vega has an ambitious goal — to develop and implement a protocol for decentralized trading of derivatives which is both safe and non-custodial.

Vega is a solution created with the aim of avoiding problems in the areas of scaling and performance which have been associated with the traditional blockchain technology used for cryptocurrencies like Ethereum or Bitcoin

Other key innovations include:

• a fully automatized system of trading, which significantly lowers OPEX compared to traditional platforms
• a protocol, which rewards market creators in a fair way by means of transaction fees paid by other market participants
• a bespoke sidechain optimized for trading, allowing for up to 10 to 100x faster realization of transactions than similar traditional blockchain protocols
• a framework for creation and editing of products that give every market participant the freedom to create their own financial instruments and markets

Thanks to their vast experience in the fields of trading, market infrastructure, cryptography, the blockchain technology, software development and business development, Vega team is uniquely positioned to accelerate the growth of decentralized trading ecosystem.

Barney Mannerings, founder and shareholder in Vega Holdings Limited, adds:

“We support the right to cooperation and free markets. Privileged institutions and middlemen have been keeping the financial system rigid and rigged to their own advantage for too long. Market participants don’t have to tolerate unethical rent seeking, monitoring and control from the side of the privileged institutions. It’s neither necessary nor unavoidable.“

Vega is currently focused on finishing and testing 1st version of the basic protocol. Its team also launches initiatives focused on the community with the aim of engaging developers, traders and ecosystem partners.

ABOUT ROCKAWAY BLOCKCHAIN

Rockaway Blockchain is a division of Rockaway Capital, focused on investing in outstanding blockchain companies globally. We apply traditional VC approach to value-based investing, while ignoring hype or speculation. As such, we run financial valuation models prior to investing. We invest globally, and often co-invest with other crypto funds, such as Multicoin Capital, Polychain, A16Zcrypto, Pantera Capital, Fenbushi and others. After investment, we help with European outreach, adoption building and corporate business development. Current portfolio consists of 8 companies: Agoric, Aergo, Oasis Labs, Origo Network, QuarkChain, BlockCloud, TOP Network a Solana.

ABOUT VEGA

Vega is building tools that guarantee the freedom to trade and make capital markets available to everyone. This vision will be realized through a protocol for creating and trading derivatives on a fully decentralized network. Traders can use the Vega protocol pseudonymously and be rewarded by other participants for creating new products and providing liquidity. Follow along on Twitter to see the latest updates, including news and details about the concepts underpinning Vega.