Mo Shaikh
Korea Blockchain Week
Mo Shaikh is an entrepreneur and investor experienced in blockchain, finance, and infrastructure within private equity and venture capital. He worked as a director of strategy at ConsenSys prior to co-founding the company Meridio and serving in the strategic partnerships division at Meta. He co-founded Aptos and is cur
Korea Blockchain Week
Mo Shaikh is an entrepreneur and investor experienced in blockchain, finance, and infrastructure within private equity and venture capital. He worked as a director of strategy at ConsenSys prior to co-founding the company Meridio and serving in the strategic partnerships division at Meta. He co-founded Aptos and is currently serving as CEO.

Shaikh's Career in Financial Innovation

Raised in an economically challenged household in Brooklyn, New York, Shaikh understands firsthand the difficulties faced by those in financially precarious situations. His ambition is to create a financial system that's accessible to all, and he believes strongly in the power of blockchain technology to make this vision a reality. As a first-generation immigrant, his journey adds depth to his commitment towards this cause.

After obtaining his bachelor's degree in psychology, economics, and accounting from Hunter College, Shaikh embarked on a professional journey as an analyst at KPMG and Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets before joining BlackRock. Drawing from his tenure at BlackRock's Alternative Assets Group, where he devised and implemented investment strategies, Shaikh broadened his proficiency into emerging asset classes, further sharpening his acumen.

Since then, he pursued an MBA at Simon Business School, where he chose to attend due to its close-knit community and its alignment with his entrepreneurial vision. Following his MBA, he has served as a consultant to sovereign wealth funds, energy and telecommunications companies in Dubai's private equity sector.

Career in blockchain industry: from ConsenSys to Meridio

Since 2017, Shaikh held the position of Director of Strategy at ConsenSys, where he was responsible for blockchain, infrastructure, growth, capital allocation, and incubation. As an early employee at ConsenSys, he established the company's Middle East office and provided advisory services to the WEF on global blockchain strategies, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). During his tenure at ConsenSys, he founded Meridio, the world's first blockchain-based real estate company that allows partial ownership through smart contracts. Meridio was established to address accessibility, transaction costs, and liquidity barriers in the real estate market, aiming to facilitate seamless transactions and create innovative ownership structures.

Building Aptos Beyond Boundaries: Mo Shaikh's Blockchain Innovation

In 2020, Shaikh joined Meta (formerly Facebook) and worked in the strategic partnership division of Novi, Meta's blockchain wallet. However, when Meta’s foray into the blockchain industry was met with many challenges, he teamed up with Avery Ching in 2021 to co-found Aptos.

Aptos is a blockchain designed with scalability, safety, reliability, and upgradeability. It offers new and novel innovations in consensus, smart contract design, system security, performance, and decentralization. Aptos stands out by deploying a Parallel Execution Engine (Block-STM), a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) Proof-of-stake(PoS) consensus mechanism. This unique feature significantly boosts transaction processing speed.

"Aptos is designed differently. We are an energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake network with transaction fees at the level of loose change for individuals, not high gas fees like other blockchains. Transactions are carried out at an astonishing pace, so remarkably swift that they can be processed in the blink of an eye."

— This Facebook Veteran Is Building A Blockchain For All By Embracing Diverse Identities | Forbes , (paraphrased and excerpt)

To elevate gaming experiences and enable seamless execution of Aptos nodes and decentralized applications (dApps) across diverse platforms, Aptos has formed strategic partnerships. These alliances include collaborations with NPIXEL, a top-tier Korean game studio, and global entities like Google Cloud, Pontem Network, and MoonPay.

"Blockchain-based technology can be complex, cumbersome, and slow. Lack of usability is one of the biggest barriers hindering widespread adoption. Through integration with MoonPay, Aptos can provide a seamless and enjoyable experience to Petra users exploring the Aptos blockchain."

— Aptos Labs and MoonPay join forces for new Petra wallet fiat on-ramp, (paraphrased and excerpt)

Aptos is striving to activate the ecosystem using its grant program. During its first phase, over $3.5 million in grants were awarded to 50 new projects. Aptos promotes a healthy developer and user community by providing funding and hands-on support to its ecosystem. These efforts will act as a foundation for the network's future growth.

Writer: Chris Park, Research Contributor at DeSpread

Reviewed by Jeehyun Ham, PR Lead at DeSpread

#Aptos #Mo Shaikh