Golem Execs Depart to Pursue 'Riskier' Research With New Non-Profit

Executives from multimillion-dollar startup Golem Factory are launching a new non-profit initiative called the Golem Foundation to pursue more ambitious research and development opportunities.

As stated in a June 28 blog post by Julian Zawistowski, CEO of the Golem Factory, the aim of the Foundation is to “strive for new – perhaps innovative and experimental, and at the same time riskier – approaches to the value proposition for Golem and for the Golem Network Token (GNT).”

Both Zawistowski and his counterpart Andrzej Regulski, who was COO of the company, will be resigning from their positions and handing over the reins to company CTO Piotr Janiuk and lead software engineer Aleksandra Skrzypczak.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Skrzypczak explained:

“After several years working together, we came to the realization that in order to keep the research and development of the Golem Network stable and focused, while not relegating the thirst that any technologist has for constant innovation, spinning off a new entity within Golem’s ecosystem is the best way to boost the efforts."

All four of these individuals were early founders of the Golem Factory, which was established in 2016. At the time, the startup raised 820,000 ETH – around $240 million, according to current metrics – to build a distributed computation network atop the ethereum blockchain.

Often described as “Airbnb for computers,” the Golem project is essentially an alternative to current cloud computing networks where any user can buy or rent out unused computational resources.

Golem went live on ethereum mainnet early last year with a product beta release dubbed Brass Golem. Now the team at Golem Factory is looking ahead to the next beta release, Clay Golem, in the fall. Additionally, developers are also building "Golem Unlimited" which will support the creation of subnetworks on Golem run by data-center-like setups in order to expand network reach.

As the team at Golem Factory continues to pursue this technical roadmap for the Golem project, the Golem Foundation, headed by Zawistowski and Regulski, is expected to operate independently and pursue different team objectives.

“In the beginning, we want to start with thorough research of alternative approaches that contribute to the long-term vision behind Golem and create novel and out-of-the-box solutions useful for Golem and GNT," Zawistowski told CoinDesk. "Exploring these options requires a limited period of time working in a semi-stealth mode."

Pending announcements

For now, there are no firm details about the areas of focus for research and development from the Golem Foundation team.

However, Skrzypczak did affirm that "privacy-related tools are an important part of Foundation plans," which will be shared with the broader community in due time.

Additionally, it remains to be seen what other individuals either from the Golem Factory or outside of the company will join Zawistowski and Regulski in pursuing more ambitious research and development strategies at the Foundation.

"The new structure of the Golem Factory will be announced shortly – we are taking our time on this, because our core focus now is delivering our next [Golem] version with two new use-cases ... in the upcoming weeks," said Golem Factory's head of communications, María Paula Fernandez, in a message to CoinDesk.

However, in terms of funding for the Foundation, Zawistowski makes clear in his blog post that “the Foundation has been endowed with a portion of the original capital raised in Golem’s crowdfunding.”

To this, over $40 million in ETH and GNT were transferred Friday from the multi-signature account of the Golem Factory to the Foundation.

“From now on, our liabilities towards the community will be fulfilled in parallel by Golem Factory and Golem Foundation,” noted Zawistowski.

Golem team photo courtesy of Golem Factory