Ledger Acquisition Company
MANAGEMENT & BOARD
Executive Officers
Peter Vessenes, 45
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Director
An early adopter and champion of Bitcoin, he began mining Bitcoin in 2010 and is one of the industry’s pioneers. In 2011, he co-founded CoinLab, the first venture-backed Bitcoin company, as well as the first company to deliver 65nm Bitcoin mining chips at scale. By August 2013, Alydian, a portfolio company of CoinLab, commenced delivery of 1 TH mining rigs with 65nm Bitcoin mining chips, among the first globally to do so at scale. Helping to connect the burgeoning crypto community and advance Bitcoin’s development, he co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation in 2012, where he served as its first executive director and chairman and sought to provide an international government interface for cryptocurrency matters. This contributed to the establishment of chapters in countries at the forefront of cryptocurrency development including Canada, Israel and Australia. During this time, Mr. Vessenes also established deep relationships with industry-leading legal experts, including hiring Mr. Patrick Murck, who has extensive experience in digital assets, as General Counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, who served in that capacity from 2012 to 2014 before going on to the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University as an affiliate. Mr. Vessenes has provided digital currency consulting services for private and public software companies as well as having meetings with security and law-related entities, including FinCEN of the US Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI. He serves as the chief cryptographer for the Deluge Network, a system that allows investors to directly participate in Ethereum-based initial coin offerings (ICOs) using Bitcoin, and Metronome, a project which aims to create a “politics-free digital currency” to exist across multiple blockchains. He holds a fundamental patent for deanonymizing Bitcoin transactions. Mr. Vessenes is an expert in smart contract functionality. He was among the first to publicly identify and publish an article on specific security vulnerabilities in the Ethereum Network’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), a community-funded, decentralized organization that ultimately lost its value in 2016 as a result of a “re-entrance attack” that Mr. Vessenes originally pointed out. In 2016, Mr. Vessenes launched New Alchemy, providing blockchain technology, strategy, and capital solution advisory work to some of the world’s most innovative companies, generating more than US$2 billion of created value over two years. In August 2017, Mr. Vessenes filed a provisional patent application on data attestation and/or verification method, apparatus and system, which enables secure transactions across different blockchains (referred to in the industry as “Cross Chain Merkle proofs”) and assigned it to Alchemy Limited LLC, before a paper on Plasma, a competing technology, was first published. Starting in 2018, the cross-chain technology described in his patent application has been deployed in next-generation blockchain networks such as Deluge, Metronome and Aion, a multi-tier block chain system focused on issues of privacy, scalability and interoperability with existing blockchain networks. Mr. Vessenes is also the inventor of a patent on systems and methods for secure storage of encrypted data on a distributed computing platform and assigned it to Alchemy Limited LLC. This patent and other work by Mr. Vessenes contributed in 2019 to New Alchemy releasing the RELQD real estate blockchain and a new scalable decentralized blockchain architecture (along with development tools to implement applications built on it) that is used by businesses throughout the blockchain ecosystem and often considered the “Version 5 Blockchain Technology” stack. In 2020, Mr. Vessenes co-founded Noteworthy, a premier designer of physical banknotes that represent various denominations of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, with Larry Felix, former Director of the US Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Through his venture capital firm, Capital6 Eagle, and his family office, Mr. Vessenes continues to invent, incubate, and invest in highly disruptive startups. He serves as a senior advisor to many portfolio companies including XX Network, LedgerX, Strix Leviathan, Decentralized Pictures, Heir Apparent, and others. He also serves as a senior advisor for the DeFi ecosystem Vesper. Mr. Vessenes has spent years at the forefront of the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape and developed deep expertise navigating the blockchain regulatory environment. We believe that his discussions about Bitcoin beginning in 2013 with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and FinCEN marked the first time an outside expert briefed these organizations within the US Treasury Department. Information he presented to the US Senate’s General Accounting Office was included the first Senate hearing on Bitcoin in 2013 and he continued to engage in discussions regarding tracking illicit payments using Bitcoin with the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security through 2016. To this day, the technology patented by Mr. Vessenes for tracking transactions within blockchains remains the basis of tools used throughout the industry. He graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a focus on cryptography.
Ying Wu, 62
Director
He has received awards such as being named one of the 50 Stars of Asia by Business Week in 1998, credited for averting the financial crisis in Asia as well as named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Persons in China’s economy by China Central Television in 2003. Mr. Wu manages six VC/PE funds each with over US$2 billion assets under management. He has invested in companies that have completed initial public offerings including BesTV (SH.600637; one of the largest IPTV service providers in China), QTone Education Group (SZ.300359; the largest technology provider for Chinese basic education), Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics (SH.603118; a manufacturer of broadband communication terminals), and Leon Technology Co (SZ.300603; a security software and telecom solution provider). He also led the US$500 million acquisition of Beijing TrustMeDu Sci-Tech Co., Ltd, Guangdong Changshi Communications Co., Ltd. and Sinowel by ZJBC Information Technology Co., Ltd (SZ.000889), and the US$400 million acquisition of UMFintech by HyUnion Holding (SZ.002537). Mr. Wu is also the co-founder of StarCom Network Systems, Inc., which was acquired by UTStarcom Inc. (NASDAQ: UTSI), a global telecommunication infrastructure provider that went public in 2000, under its prior name Unitech Telecom, Inc. in 1995. Thereafter, Mr. Wu served as the Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of the Board of UTStarcom Inc. and as the Chairman and CEO of UTStarcom China Co., Ltd. (“UTStarcom China”), a subsidiary of UTStarcom Inc., for twelve years. He is currently Chairman of ZJBC Information Technology Co., Ltd (SZ.000889; an information technology service provider), a board member of HyUnion Holding (SZ.002537; a manufacturer of electrical and auto parts), and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Huayi Brothers (SZ.300027; a multinational entertainment conglomerate). Mr. Wu currently serves as a global board member of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Chairman of the Board of TNC China. He also serves as a founding board member of the Future Forum in China and Chairman of E-China Alliances. He is a senior consultant on the internet industry for the Shenzhen City government in China. On July 6, 2018, Mr. Wu, as an independent non-executive director of Zall Smart Commerce Group Limited (2098.HK) (“Zall Smart”), was among the directors of Zall Smart who were publicly criticized by The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Hong Kong Stock Exchange”) for, among others, failing to timely disclose the share charge by a controlling shareholder despite the CFO’s failure to inform them of the need to disclose. According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Zall Smart and its directors were forthright, cooperative, and helpful in providing information and documents to the listing department during the course of the investigation, and Zall Smart has since taken a suite of remedial measures under its board’s guidance. On September 30, 2020, Hebei branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (“Hebei CSRC”) issued a warning letter that ZJBC Information Technology Co., Ltd (“ZJBC”) failed to timely disclose (i) the material losses relating to a construction project of digital centers and technology services (the “Material Losses”) and (ii) the termination of a land transfer agreement with a related party (the “Related Party Transaction”). Hebei CSRC asserted that Mr. Wu as ZJBC’s chairman of the board and ZJBC’s secretary of the board were primarily responsible for such non-compliance. On May 12, 2021, Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a regulatory letter, claiming that ZJBC violated certain listing rules due to its failure to timely disclose the Material Losses and the Related Party Transaction, and ZJBC, its directors, supervisors and senior management should make prompt rectifications to address such incident. According to ZJBC’s announcement dated October 16, 2020, ZJBC is committed to implement remedial measures to enhance disclosure compliance. Mr. Wu holds a Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) degree awarded by New Jersey Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Beijing University of Technology.
Mattan Lurie, 43
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Mattan Lurie is a private equity investor with 15 years of experience in the technology and healthcare sectors, bringing capabilities in company and industry analysis and due diligence. Previously, he was a senior investment director at Fosun, where he conducted cross-border strategic investments. Prior to that, he was an early investment team member at Hony Capital, one of China’s leading PE firms with US$13 billion assets under management. He also spent time in investment banking and private equity at Citigroup and CLSA. He has accumulated 7 years of experience in the blockchain sector and was previously a senior advisor to one of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchanges, OK Coin (and its affiliate OKEx). He holds a Bachelor’s degree of Architecture with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an Alumni Leadership Scholar, and an MBA degree from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.
Board of Directors
Erhfei Liu, 62
Independent Director
Mr. Erhfei Liu serves as independent director for Qingling Motors Co. Ltd (HKEX: 1122), Jiangxi Copper Company Limited (HKEX: 358), Frontage Holdings Corporation (HKEX: 1521) and 21Vianet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNET). Mr. Liu has served as CEO of Asia Investment Fund (AIF), a Chinese private equity investment fund, since 2018, and as co-founder and director of Cindat Capital Management Limited (“Cindat”), an international investment manager with US$2.5 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2019, from 2013 to 2017. Mr. Liu has remained in his position as a director at Cindat, but no longer participates in the day to day operations since 2018. From 1999 to 2012, Mr. Liu served as Chairman of Merrill Lynch China initially and Country Executive of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In addition to his various investment banking responsibilities, he was also in charge of the firm’s private equity business in Greater China from 2006 to 2010. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Liu worked variously as head of Asia or China for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney and Indosuez.
Dr. Weijia Wang, 63
Independent Director
She is the founding and managing partner of AimTop Ventures based in Palo Alto, California. AimTop Ventures focuses on investing in early-stage tech startups in the healthcare and mobility industries. He has 30 years of high-tech and entrepreneurial experience in both Silicon Valley and China and holds 12 U.S. patents in mobile internet and wearable computing. He worked at Pacific Bell as a technical staff responsible for the first fiber-to-home trials in the US. He was also a mobile network architect at Cellular Data Inc., where he designed and developed network architecture for the first mobile data network in the US, as well as served as a senior research staff at Interval Research, where he pioneered wearable computing technologies. Dr. Wang co-founded GWcom (known as Mtone Wireless Corporation since its change of name in November 2003) in 1994 where he developed hand-held mobile internet devices together with the mobile network infrastructure (mobile base stations and data switches), designed and deployed mobile stock-trading networks, and deployed commercial data mobile data networks in many metropolitan areas. He is a founding and life member of Chinese Entrepreneurs Forum, a private entrepreneur organizations in China. He is also a co-founder and executive board member of e-China, an industrial organizations consisting of Chinese Internet and IT companies. Dr. Wang is also a founding member of the Society of Ecology and Entrepreneurs, one of China’s largest environmental groups. Dr. Wang holds a Bachelor’s and M.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology in China, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Dr. Wang is the author of Dark Knowledge a recent best-selling book in China on artificial intelligence.
Jeremy Giffon, 26
Independent Director
He is a general partner of Tiny Capital, a private equity firm based in Victoria, Canada that focuses on internet and technology businesses. He has been with Tiny Capital in various capacities since 2015, during which time Tiny has founded eleven companies, acquired a majority stake in thirty companies and made forty-four minority investments. Its businesses employ over 500 people globally and comprise over US$1 billion of combined enterprise value. Mr. Giffon was on the founding team of MediaCore in 2011, a cloud-based educational video platform company named one of the fifty most innovative companies in 2013 by Fast Company magazine. While there he orchestrated its acquisition by Workday, an on demand financial and human capital management software vendor in 2015.