Compound, the decentralized money market protocol

Founded in mid- to late-2017, Compound was the brainchild of Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes, two former Postmates employees. Leshner and Hayes have worked together since 2007, co-founding two venture-backed companies — one of which was eventually acquired by Postmates.

According to its white paper, Compound is a “decentralized protocol which establishes money markets with algorithmically set interest rates based on supply and demand.” The project was publicly revealed in January 2017, running on the Ethereum testnet, Rinkeby.