ICO Boom Draws Out Silicon Valley’s Finest

There is a new technology in town, that town being Silicon Valley, as execs who made their fame and fortune under the tutelage of companies like Google and Yahoo are now branching out to join ICOs.

One such exec is a former Google and Yahoo player, Bernardo Hernandez who is throwing his lot in with REAL (Real Estate Asset Ledger).

Hernandez, a former head of Flickr at Yahoo and former Director of Product Management at Google, as well as Managing Director at Zagat, is not the first Silicon mogul to make the move to Blockchain technology. Vinny Lingham, previously the founder and CEO of Gyft & Yola, has seen success with Civic.

‘Liquidity enhanced venture capital’

Hernandez saw close up how ICOs could function when one of his protegees, Jorge Izquierdo, who was the technical lead at another ICO, Aragon, succeeded as a company that facilitated the running of other companies along the Ethereum network.

As such, Hernandez has now joined REAL, an ICO that looks to combine the power of crowdfunding with real estate investment, meaning that users can invest in real estate, across the globe, by buying into a fraction of a property along the Ethereum network.

“Watching the progress of Jorge and Aragon has been a true eye-opener,” Hernandez said. “Being a Venture Capitalist, I see the enormous benefits of ICOs for the ecosystem.”

“As others have said: ICOs are like ‘Liquidity enhanced venture capital’ fully democratized. Investors from all over the world can participate in companies from all over the world with ease,” he continued and clarified:

“Tradable tokens in secondary markets means there is no need to wait until the company is sold or distributes dividends. There is also a decentralization effect because there is capital more widely available beyond Silicon Valley, London or NYC.”

What’s the REAL deal?

Hernandez’s own project, REAL, where he sits as Co-Founder & Director, seems to tick all the boxes that these Silicon Valley types are looking for. Not only are they revolutionizing start ups, they are disruptive technology on a new level.

“I believe we are in the beginning of an incredible transformation where through Blockchain and Ethereum technologies we are going to disrupt all existing Real Estate marketplaces and make tradable assets fully liquid in a way that we have never seen before,” Hernandez added.

Following in the mold of other ICOs Hernandez and REAL will be trying to entice real estate investors to break away from the traditional model of investing in property. Benefits for big investors, those spending over 100 ETH, will be given a chance to participate in a pre-sale.

However, it is the fact that any person, even with a fraction on one ETH, can have a say in property investment that excites Hernandez:

“To think that on 31 Aug., people with as little as a 220th of one Ethereum, as that is our rate, can be involved in property investment is amazing. The notion of crowdfunding allows this, but the technology of Blockchain makes it happen.”