Crypto spot exchange Gemini, has launched a new Web3 research and design studio known as Superlunar, the newest initiative will concentrate on Web3 ecosystem design and security issues.
Gemini Trust Company, LLC has created Superlunar, LLC as a separate entity. Beth Kurteson, a member of Gemini’s founding team, will lead SuperLunar as CEO, Noah Perlman, Gemini’s chief operating officer, told Decrypt via email. “We are ecstatic for her to lead this exciting new firm on a quest to develop solutions and tackle real-world Web3 problems like NFTs, tokenization, the metaverse, and more.”
The 14-person Superlunar team will concentrate on Web3 ecosystem design and security issues. Contributing to open-source projects is one way to do this, and sponsoring an external developer or team is another.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t attempt to make a return on those challenges for which we believe we have solutions,” Superlunar’s chief technical officer, Rich Smith, said.
“We’re really well-positioned to lean into some of the community funding side and the relationships that we have there, and offer not only financial support to Bitcoin core devs and the crypto open-source community but also technology and open-source software,” he says.
Superlunar will not be focused on just one blockchain, unlike the Gemini opportunity fund, which was designed primarily to encourage Bitcoin developers.
One of the Superlunar researchers, for example, is a member of the W3C authentication committee. Another contributed to EIP-2981, which established a standard for royalty payments for Ethereum-based NFTs.
“And that was something that was fully platforming dependant prior to that standard.” Every [NFT] marketplace had to build its own loyalty scheme, which made sense in the Web2 era, according to Pete Baker, vice president of design at Gemini. “But there needs to be a standard with [Web3] if royalties are going to be the thing that gives long-term value to creators and artists.”
