Brendon Sedo is one of the initial contributors of the Core DAO, a Layer 1 blockchain powered by Bitcoin. ^[1]

Education

Sedo studied Entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba and graduated in 2011. During this time, he was a managing partner at Deco Windshield Repair Inc. ^[1]

Career

After graduation, Sedo co-founded Recroot, an ATS for service-based businesses in Canada. In 2012, he co-founded Joist, a software platform for trade contractors, where he served as COO until 2018. He then became the CEO and held the position until 2020, when the company was sold to EverCommerce. ^[1]

Core DAO

In August 2022, Sedo became one of the initial contributors to the Core DAO. In a “Meet the CoreDAO Contributors” video, he talked about his role in the company, starting with what he contributes: ^[2]

“I've contributed in all areas, but a lot of the focus right now is on business development. So, we're trying to grow the Core ecosystem. You'll notice a lot—I don't know when this video will post necessarily—but a lot of recent announcements with key infrastructure partners, which the contributors have brought on. Now, we're focused on more projects and dApps coming on Core...that's kind of the core focus and where I try and contribute.”

“Then also with the Core Ventures or Eco Fund, we are building out a network of partners to help great builders get access to VC funding to come build on Core, you know, folks that maybe need more than a typical grant. So that's a big focus as well on top of a variety of other things, so there's never a shortage of areas to contribute to.”

He then talked about how the team approaches various challenges in Web3 development: ^[2]

“You know, a lot of the contributors have had roles in tech, built companies, and done a few things, so first of all, the team is really skilled. There are also some folks that have been in crypto for quite some time, well over 10 years. So I think there's a lot of problems, but the contributors have a lot of experience in problem-solving and with these challenges, which is awesome. It's great to be in an environment like that, so folks kind of know and have seen these things before, so it makes that bit easier.”

“It's challenging sometimes, right? Core really knows where it's going, and that makes it a bit easier for the contributors, but it's tough sometimes to collaborate when you're in a bunch of different time zones. However, I've found that it's been smooth because the team is so collaborative and has some great tools to work together and contribute together on things. It's quite amazing when you take a step back and see that there are people all over the world contributing to this great project in different ways.”

Interviews

Chat with Halborn

In a January 2023 interview with Halborn’s VP of Marketing, Arabdha Sudhir, Sedo discussed the origins of Core DAO and his work at the company. When asked about how Core got started, he shared their origin story: ^[3]

“You know, there were two friends, one of whom, at the time (this was a couple of years ago), was an Eth Maxi, you know, with the rise of Eth and all these apps being built. And then the other was a Bitcoin Maxi who was kind of worried about Eth's move to Delegated Proof of Stake and its impact on decentralization. Long story short, this debate ended up with them creating Core basically. And what I mean by that is, basically, the chain was created with the goal of not having to compromise on any of the tenets, really taking the best things that come from Bitcoin and Ethereum within a chain.”

He then explained how they came up with the Satoshi Plus consensus mechanism: ^[3]

“So our consensus works in a way that also considers the Bitcoin mining hash rate from mining pools, and it's not an either-or scenario. Miners are already doing their thing, as are the pools. We use a trustless relator mechanism that moves the hash over to the validators, and the incentives are such that they spread the hash rate around. They'll actually earn more rewards. So everything's been thoughtfully designed to spread things around, decentralize validators, and avoid having a few parties with most of the control.”

Sedo also discussed the importance of community for Core DAO: ^[3]

“I think what most people in crypto recognize is that while there's a lot of technological innovation happening, it's essential to have a supportive community. Satoshi Plus was a significant development, but its impact is limited without a community that believes in it. That's why we prioritized community building from the beginning, even before our launch. We partnered with the Satoshi app, a mobile app used for checking prices and other crypto activities, to engage with potential supporters. As a result of this partnership, users of the app will receive a portion of our upcoming airdrop.”