Nucleo is a blockchain company based in Santa Monica, California. They are the first company to offer a private, non-custodial auditable multi-signature wallet, where users can trade, earn, and diversify their assets. Nucleo provides the privacy infrastructure required for organizations to go on chain. The platform will offer users privacy while maintaining audibility and the benefits of web3.
For security, it is important to store tokens in a way that eliminates the risk associated with a single vulnerable point that can compromise the entire wallet. A MultiSig wallet uses more than one private key to authorize crypto transactions. Two or more signatures are needed before transactions can be executed.
The risks of public transparency have been holding back the adoption of blockchain systems into a traditional business setting. Traditional businesses often rely on privacy to maintain their competitive advantages, but on-chain organizations risk this advantage by having all their information publicly available. Organizations that are on chain must publicly disclose operational costs, revenue, and other metrics, which can lead to risks such as price undercutting. An example is the ConstitutionDAO loss. It was a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) created to purchase a copy of the US Constitution; it was outbid at $43 million although the group had raised $47 million. This loss may have been avoided if there had been the infrastructure in place to ensure the privacy of its total funds and bid.
The solution is to build private infrastructure for organizations to put their assets on chain. This could allow web3 organizations to transact with traditional businesses that require privacy in their deals. Nucleo creates a platform that will offer privacy and the benefits of web3.
The platform will use a combination of zero knowledge cryptography and multi-signature to allow organizations the benefit of web3 systems for capital allocation and management. Zero knowledge is a cryptographic protocol created for parties to communicate without revealing private key information.
The global blockchain market is also huge, with an estimated worth of $7.18 billion in 2022 that will grow to 163.83 billion by 2029 with CARG of 56.3%. The DAO industry is already significant, with DAOs holding up to $10 Million and having thousands of members.
The team at Nucleo includes CEO Matthew Wyatt, CTO Lucas Newman, Product Designer Veda Sun, and Software Engineer Jonathan Gonzalez. The seed round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and 6th Man Ventures and saw participation from investors such as Aleo, Espresso Systems, and Aztec Network. The company is currently hiring for full-stack and security engineer roles.
Nucleo intends to develop new capabilities with the proceeds from their seed round, including private Defi for organizations, multi-chain privacy, and innovations needed across the entire tech stack to provide greater flexibility and expressivity for using private multi-sigs. They will use the funds to expand their team and integrate their multi-sig infrastructure with existing tools like Gnosis and Juicebox.
As an investor, it is recommended to make an introduction to the founders to get more information, assuming the pitch deck is good due to it raising seed capital. It is also recommended to wait to see the business model in practice, assess the metrics and market response and traction, and determine if the business fits the criteria for investment before continuing due diligence.
