The Consensys ecosystem that emerged around Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities in the past few years is going to be getting a makeover – over at Coindesk, we see current reports of an equity program based on a term sheet from J.P. Morgan that could lead one of two Consensys entities created by past circumstance toward going public.
“Now that we have streamlined and restructured the management and operations at Mesh and done an extensive review of our strategy for Mesh equity, we are currently employed with external lawyers and accountants to operationalize the Mesh equity plan as soon as possible,” states a ConsenSys document dated March 8 of this year, quoted in a story breaking today by Ian Allison at Coindesk that suggests Consensys is “back in growth mode.”
Allison reports that J.P. Morgan has raised $50 million and intends to put in $20 million itself as an investment into what’s called “Consensys Mesh” (formerly Consensys AG), – the arm of Consensys that has become the clearinghouse for research and development projects.
“In 2020, ConsenSys split into two companies,” Allison explains. “ConsenSys AG (rebranded as ConsenSys Mesh) became a home for all the firm’s investments, incubated projects, ongoing software work, R&D and accelerator activities.”
What is Consensys Mesh?
“Mesh of quasi independent, loosely coupled orgs,” said head honcho Joe Lubin famously in 2015, describing Consensys as a whole. “Everyone owns a piece of everyone else’s project. Everyone is a stakeholder and rooting or working to help those around them succeed. The Mesh keeps growing to encompass much of humanity.”
Consensys designers have taken this concept and applied it to an incubator with over 40 projects in its quiver. That’s Consensys Mesh in a nutshell, and now this collection of initiatives may get substantial corporate backing.
In past years, Consensys had to shrink as trading interest in cryptocurrency waned. Famously, the company cut its staff in half – but that was before renewed interest in things like non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance pushed coin prices higher. Keep an eye on this promising manifestation of Ethereum capabilities.
