In mid-2017, the cryptocurrency industry was booming with ICOs and Bitcoin forks, but for most people, it was completely inaccessible. Wallets were complicated and setting up masternodes or participating in staking felt like rocket science.
Geoff McCabe, a serial entrepreneur and long-time crypto holder since Bitcoin's early days, frustrated from his multiple bad experiences, saw this as a critical failure. If mass adoption was ever going to happen, crypto needed to be easy.
Geoff began by pitching his vision: a blockchain project built from the ground up with usability and ease of access in mind. Not just a new coin—but an ecosystem that removed the barriers ordinary users faced.
He assembled a team to work toward the ICO under the brand Divi Project, which consisted of Toni Lane, Michael Greenwood, Nick Saponaro, Kalani Mo'e, Tim Sanders, Heidi Krupp and many more. The goal of the project was clear: Make Crypto Easy.
The placeholder token DIVX was launched in late 2017, on Ethereum, to raise funds for building the real Divi blockchain.
See the ICO website here: web.archive.org
Geoff took the lead of the project with his unique vision and charismatic persona. Michael Greenwood took the head of development.
The first attempt at building the blockchain with the software development company AGI encountered major issues. While their implementation had all the core features that Geoff had envisioned: masternodes with five tiers, a built-in lottery block, and proof-of-stake consensus, the version they delivered was buggy, unreliable, and ultimately unusable.
This prevented the initial launch and put the entire project in jeopardy.
Unfortunately, facing the chaos, most of the early co-founders left the project, some of them even siphoning funds before exiting, nearly killing the project in its infancy.
Geoff dealt with the fallout directly, absorbing the hit and continuing forward with integrity.
Nick Saponaro, who started as a developer quickly became the right-hand man and took the role of General Manager, overseeing development and administrative tasks for the project. Over time, Nick proved to be essential, taking the lead for the mobile wallet and Divi Labs.
Enter Yuri, a developer who came on board as a savior. Working under tremendous pressure, Yuri addressed all the issues in the codebase in a record amount of time. He was crucial in the team’s ability to launch on time.
Divi Blockchain was finally started on Sept 27th 2018. The launch was a major challenge for the team. The desktop wallet has rarely bugs to address, but the team worked around the clock and quickly delivered an update, Divi was alive, and never stopped since!
During the challenges of the early launch, community members tried to help each other. TheVoice took a leading role in supporting other users and created an official, dedicated, support channel.
Under TheVoice’s leadership, his dedication and relentless assistance to new users, the Divi community became known for its unparalleled support.
WIth the help of key collaborators like OriZ, Giff, Baldy, Niegz, Kyle and others, Divi quickly earned recognition as the best support in the industry, a title echoed repeatedly by those onboarding into crypto for the first time.
Voice videos consistently offered critical help from early days to today:
It quickly became clear there was a lot to test during the launch events, Giff and TheVoice, loved to nerd out on the core and with the wallet. They helped identify bugs and improvements, and decided to group with other community members to create a special group. The Beta Bashers.
Over time, the group was officialized and grew with more members, but it always remained a very limited access group, only consisting of people highly interested in blockchain and devoted to Divi.
The Beta basher conducted many research and investigations and highlighted some critical bugs and exploits before they became problematic. Some that still remain undisclosed for security reasons to this day.
Shortly after release, Divi acquired its most valuable team member, RandomString42. Randomstring is a unique mind, math and algorithmic expert, his passion for excellent code and his ability to connect things together is unparalleled.
His dedication to the Divi project allowed him to clean the Divi blockchain code and learn critical interdependencies and logics at the core of the blockchain concept. An extreme rarity in the industry.
Getting rid of all the dead weight, and improving efficiency at every corner, RandomString identified and executed multiple potential improvements. The first in line was a One-Click deployment system - MOCCI.
The first major innovation was MOCCI - Maternode One Click Install. A patented technology, unique in the industry.
For the first time, people with no prior blockchain knowledge—even senior citizens—were setting up masternodes thanks to the project's focus on accessibility.
The video showcasing masternodes being deployed by average users became a milestone in crypto adoption. It proved Geoff’s thesis: crypto didn’t need to be complicated.
*Main exchange for Divi hacked, consequences
In January 2019, Divi faced a major setback when Cryptopia, its main exchange, was hacked, losing over $16 million in crypto, including DIVI and DIVX tokens. Thousands of Divi holders saw their wallets frozen, shaking confidence and tanking liquidity as trading halted.
Nick Saponaro and Geoff McCabe rallied the community, pushing self-custody through the Smart Wallet and MOCCI, while TheVoice and Beta Bashers like OriZ offered critical support, guiding users through recovery steps.
The hack’s fallout lingered as Cryptopia entered liquidation in May 2019, leaving Divi holders waiting for relief. The team fought back, with Yuri fixing code vulnerabilities and Nick securing a KuCoin listing in 2021 to boost visibility. Community AMAs and tutorials, like TheVoice’s “DIVX to DIVI Redemption,” kept spirits high, turning the crisis into a call for decentralized tools and stronger user control.
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To continue simplifying crypto and reach a wider audience, the decision was taken to build a world class wallet, easy and usable for everyone offering one click masternodes like the desktop wallet but with the ease of access of a light wallet. And of course a completely trustless wallet.
In this effort, Divi’s image was refined – new logo, better presentation, and improved website to boot.
Divi Labs was officially formed, a private company with a mandate to build the DiviWallet, a multi-currency mobile wallet.
Nick took the lead of Divi Labs, and in less than a year led the development of the mobile wallet and Divi’s ecosystem. The Mobile wallet was released at the height of the 2021 market peak, offering a storage solution for Divi, Bitcoin, ETH and Litecoin.
It was then updated a few months later to support buy and sell features for 300+ coins as well as the launch of a new Divi tech, The Staking Vaults.
In late 2021, Divi signed a high-profile sponsorship deal with LaLiga, the largest football league in the world by audience reach. This was led by Renuke (Head of Media & Partnerships at Divi Labs at the time), and was a huge win for Divi beating competition from well established crypto behemoths such as Coinbase, Crypto.com, Binance and the like.
The partnership brought significant exposure & credibility, especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, positioning Divi as an official wallet partner.
This also presented Divi with huge opportunities ranging from wallet white labelling to ticketing to merchandising to NFTs and so much more. However, due to lack of product progress, innovation blockages and lack of funding, we were never truly able to utilise the power of this partnership with LaLiga.
In 2022, Joshua Caleb, Divi’s Chief Innovation Officer and head of Dekryption Labs, brought a bold new chapter to the project. Frustrated by DeFi’s complexity on Ethereum, he pioneered eDivi, an ERC-20 version of DIVI that allows people to dive into yield farming and swaps without losing simplicity.
His vision made crypto’s $90 trillion potential accessible, allowing newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts to earn passive income effortlessly by bridging Divi’s blockchain with Ethereum’s vast ecosystem.
eDivi enabled users to convert native DIVI to eDivi via bridges like ChangeNow and join DeFi with low fees. DiviDefi, launched at dividefi.com, turned this into reality with a user-friendly decentralized exchange for eDivi-ETH pools and cross-chain staking. By 2023, community posts buzzed about 35% higher staking participation, as people earned DeFi yields and Divi rewards without tech expertise.
Difficulties competing and delivering a stable product facing chronic funding limitations
During this period, Niegz, a former finance professional and long-time Divi community member, started helping Divi Labs management. His work, initially focused on establishing proper data analysis for the project, ended up ranging from support to high level management of the project. His obsession for operational efficiency enabled a cost reduction of over 80%, offering Divi Labs more time to accomplish its goals.
In a genius moment, RandomString discovered how to make blockchain talk to each other without intermediaries, the grail all the industry has been missing to keep growing.
However, funding this ambitious path was a hurdle, as developing direct Layer1 connections demanded costly research, testing, and infrastructure. The Divi Foundation was already stretched by the 2024 bear market and struggled to secure resources, which led to delays.
RandomString unleashed another breakthrough for Divi in 2023: Staking Vaults, a game-changer that made earning crypto rewards easier than ever for everyone. Unlike traditional staking, which required devices to stay online, Staking Vaults let people lock their DIVI in secure, trustless wallets and earn passive rewards without constant upkeep.
He introduced Cold Vaults, a standout feature allowing users to store their DIVI offline in ultra-secure setups, protecting funds from hacks like Cryptopia’s while still earning staking rewards. RandomString also brought us Subscriptions, a novel feature that lets people automate recurring payments in DIVI, like splitting bills with friends or paying for services.
The impact was electric. Staking Vaults and Subscriptions boosted Divi’s adoption, with staking participation spiking 35% by mid-2024, per community reports. TheVoice and Beta Bashers tested these features relentlessly, ensuring they were bug-free and user-friendly.
In August 2023, Divi 3.0 was launched—an upgrade that improved performance, stability, and extensibility. But the most important development was under the surface: the groundwork for side chains was being laid.
This marked a major architectural shift. Divi could now support separate blockchains for apps, payment systems, or industry-specific use cases—all anchored to the main Divi chain. It allowed the ecosystem to scale horizontally without compromising performance.
Though this was a major step forward in usability, it also brought new complexities and governance challenges between Divi Labs (a for-profit entity) and the nonprofit Divi Foundation which held stewardship of the blockchain.
While it created brand awareness, the deal had limitations in terms of adoption conversion. Mobile wallets are extremely expensive to build and maintain, demanding constant updates for iOS and Android to fix bugs, ensure compatibility, and pass strict app store security checks. Regular audits to protect against hacks drained resources. Nevertheless, it validated Divi's image as a serious player with global ambition.
*Mobile wallet are extremely expensive to build and maintain.
Divi completed its journey to become a fully decentralized project. This led to the early development of the Divi DAO, with key contributions from long-time community advocate Voice, who pushed for governance mechanisms that put power into the hands of token holders.
Geoff remains at the head, but a DAO was established Divi directions are now decided by the community and ecosystem actors.
In 2024, Divi’s team faced a tough truth: their groundbreaking multi-layered masternodes were faltering. They were plagued by crashes, off-chain complexity, and little practical use, straying from Divi’s goal of effortless crypto for all. Newcomers struggled with setup issues, and even seasoned enthusiasts saw diminishing returns, pushing the team to rethink a core feature to keep the platform rock-solid.
Joshua Caleb and RandomString led the charge to retire masternodes, shifting focus to side chains and staking vaults for smoother, more reliable earning. Niegz’s cost-saving strategies supported this leaner approach, ensuring value for users.
*Limitations in funding to develop this path.
*Voice, Rob, Niegz and RandomString secure a deal with an undisclosed partner to bring their revolutionary tech to the masses
*Working with Partner
*Building a strong network
*Rob doing all major crypto events
In 2024, Divi’s side chain ambitions faced funding shortages. Limited resources challenged the Divi Foundation, slowing progress for newcomers and enthusiasts eager to build dApps effortlessly.
TheVoice, Rob, Niegz, and RandomString secured a game-changing deal with an undisclosed partner to fund side chain development, aiming to bring revolutionary tech to billions.
The team integrated staking vaults with side chain liquidity pools, simplifying cross-chain earning. This collaboration ensured users could stake and innovate without technical barriers.
Rob championed outreach at crypto events like Consensus 2024 and Blockchain Expo 2025, building a robust network.
Divi’s journey wasn’t a straight line. It faced betrayal, technical failure, shifting leadership, and complex tradeoffs. But it stayed true to its core mission: make crypto accessible to everyone.
Behind it stands a mix of visionaries, builders, community warriors, and problem-solvers — people like Geoff, Nick, Yuri, Random, Voice, Rob, Niegz, and many others — who stayed through the challenges and built something real.
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