Alexander Elhorst’s journey into becoming a Web3 founder was anything but straightforward. He entertained engineering related studies – not hardcore he stresses – before traveling to Rotterdam in his native Netherlands to study public administration in the Erasmus University. After college, he joined the Dutch aviation company, KLM, working variously as a flight steward, architect and Scrum Master.
Two years later, he then moved to Finland where he discovered the discombobulating impact of daylight extremes veering from almost 24 hours of light in mid-summer to punishing darkness in winter. He had moved into Agile and Process related positions and also bumped into two of the founders of the company he would eventually work for – Rome Blockchain Labs (RBL).
“Around this time, I began advising the founders of RBL on organizational and operational issues. I had amassed a lot of experience in developing business processes. This consultancy began as a weekly meeting until I was persuaded to join them permanently – the timing was good as I was doing deep dives into blockchain and wanted to learn more and so I joined as COO.”
Rome Blockchain Labs was established to build blockchain projects. Its leadership is dispersed around the globe, including Finland, Europe and the US. Some of the projects undertaken by RBL have been trading strategies, product aggregators and lending platforms. They are also working on a product aggregator to bring together products in a trusted environment.
Elhorst is lead contributor on the Sceptre project, named for a royal staff. Sceptre is a liquid staking platform originally launching on Flare but which will be ported to multiple networks over time. Elhorst explains that most networks have a proof of stake consensus model to validate every transaction on the network. Validation nodes ensure that the transactions are true. To run a validation node, you need to hold sufficient FLR, so people stake FLR to the node and in return receive rewards.
The only issue is that assets staked to a node are locked up and the holder cannot access them. Elhorst explains that liquid staking works by giving the stalker a coupon for the asset staked which can be used elsewhere. The liquid staked token (sFLR) increases in value compared to the staked token (FLR), this increase is directly related to the rewards the Sceptre receives for staking minus any platform fee. Moreover, it can be used on other protocols for borrowing for example. Once you decide you want your original stake back, you bring the liquid staked token (sFLR) back to the protocol (Sceptre) and undo the stake. Finally, you are returned your original stake, plus rewards and minus a protocol fee.
“We work with security partners to make sure the protocol (Sceptre) is safe and running as it should be. We intend to create reporting so that users can see transparently the tokens that come in and where they are staked. It is possible to do this independently but we want to make it easier, hence the planned reports.”
“Even though Flare is still relatively young, the presence of their monthly FlareDrops is really positive, creating an extra layer of rewards. The Flare network has great potential and we are happy to be working with them.”
Sceptre launched on June 6th 2024.
“It’s important to us that liquidity is not locked when tokens are staked – and there are a lot of proof-of-stake networks out there. We’re in the business of unlocking liquidity in those networks.”
For more information, please visit sceptre.fi
