{"id":"raouf-ben-har","title":"Raouf Ben-Har","content":"**Raouf Ben-Har** is a co-founder of Andalusia Labs, an applied research lab building internet-native economic infrastructure. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-3t0x8wxffg2) [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-S8zLRccGOIQwBfU3)​\n\n## Education\n\nBen-Har dropped out from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied Computer Science.\n\n## Career\n\nAfter dropping out, Ben-Har worked as a software engineer intern at various companies, including Google, TikTok, AWS, Coursera, and Goldman Sachs. In 2021, he became an associate product manager at [Coinbase](https://iq.wiki/wiki/coinbase), where he worked with [Drew Patel](https://iq.wiki/wiki/drew-patel), a childhood friend. Together, they co-founded Andalusia Labs. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-3t0x8wxffg2)​\n\n### Andalusia Labs\n\nWhile working at [Coinbase](https://iq.wiki/wiki/coinbase), Ben-Har and Patel created the stealth startup RiskHarbor, a $1.1B+ AUM autonomous risk management marketplace. In 2024, they built Karak, a $1.4B AUM shared security platform. Under Ben-Har’s leadership, Andalusia Labs raised $48 million in Series A funding from investors, including [Coinbase](https://iq.wiki/wiki/coinbase), Lightspeed, [Bain Capital](https://iq.wiki/wiki/bain-capital-ventures), Mubadala, [Pantera Capital](https://iq.wiki/wiki/pantera-capital), [Framework Ventures](https://iq.wiki/wiki/framework-ventures), and others. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-3t0x8wxffg2)​[\\[2\\]](#cite-id-wq76mpgxzq)​[\\[4\\]](#cite-id-DIF7BGLREGawqaHu)​\n\n## Interviews\n\n### Building Karak\n\nBlockworks interviewed Ben-Har and [Patel](https://iq.wiki/wiki/drew-patel) about [Karak](https://iq.wiki/wiki/karak) and its purpose in the [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) industry. He shared the main reason why they created [Karak](https://iq.wiki/wiki/karak): [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-wq76mpgxzq)​\n\n> “They were struggling to bootstrap their own economic security and suffered from highly dilutive reward mechanisms, which was unfortunate, especially for critical infrastructure like bridges, oracles and other infrastructure layers…We envisioned Karak as the key to unlocking this new era of innovation. Similar to how AWS made it easy and affordable for developers to access and build on the cloud, we wanted to make it easy and affordable for developers to access and build on any trust network.”\n\nHe also discussed how the restaking protocol can use other assets beyond [ETH](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) without risking economic security: [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-wq76mpgxzq)​\n\n> “Many assets have lower opportunity costs versus ETH, meaning the \\[VaaS] has an easier and much more viable path to sustainable yields…There are billions of untapped assets, like stTIA, ARB, and many others, with very few yield opportunities to create sustainable flywheels for VaaS building in their ecosystem. Each ecosystem is different and has its own unique protocols that will create different VaaSs designed on top of their assets. There is no one-size-fits-all for every chain.”","summary":"Raouf Ben-Har is a computer scientist, co-founder of Andalusia Labs, and creator of the RiskHarbor Protocol and Karak Protocol, with past experience at companies like Google and Coinbase.","images":[{"id":"QmWvL8vKGxTSxsMZTMCJMoY5yN95NdtahaTyoKX9Zvp9d5","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}],"categories":[{"id":"people","title":"People in crypto"}],"tags":[{"id":"Founders"},{"id":"PeopleInDeFi"}],"media":[],"metadata":[{"id":"twitter_profile","value":"https://twitter.com/raoufbenhar?lang=en"},{"id":"linkedin_profile","value":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/raoufbenhar/"},{"id":"github_profile","value":"https://github.com/raoufbenhar"},{"id":"references","value":"[{\"id\":\"3t0x8wxffg2\",\"url\":\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/raoufbenhar/\",\"description\":\"Raouf Ben-Har | LinkedIn\",\"timestamp\":1713289086492},{\"id\":\"wq76mpgxzq\",\"url\":\"https://blockworks.co/news/universal-restaking-layer-andalusia-labs\",\"description\":\"Karak wants to introduce 'universal restaking' | Blockworks\",\"timestamp\":1713289277927},{\"id\":\"S8zLRccGOIQwBfU3\",\"url\":\"https://x.com/raoufbenhar\",\"description\":\"Raouf Ben-Har X Profile\",\"timestamp\":1770915537532},{\"id\":\"DIF7BGLREGawqaHu\",\"url\":\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/andalusialabs0\",\"description\":\"Andalusia Labs LinkedIn\",\"timestamp\":1770915537532}]"},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"\"https://ipfs.everipedia.org/ipfs/QmbFhYdKXqJG2HdWvzsapPgqkcuUQoSmhSHe4XBHWUoBRx\""},{"id":"commit-message","value":"\"Updated content, ID, and category title\""},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"QmbFhYdKXqJG2HdWvzsapPgqkcuUQoSmhSHe4XBHWUoBRx"}],"events":[],"user":{"id":"0x8af7a19a26d8fbc48defb35aefb15ec8c407f889"},"author":{"id":"0xacb6c5AD52b8f605299B0d774CE97F26e3DB80c2"},"operator":{"id":"0x1E23b34d3106F0C1c74D17f2Cd0F65cdb039b138"},"language":"en","version":1,"linkedWikis":{"blockchains":[],"founders":[],"speakers":[]},"recentActivity":"{\"items\":[{\"id\":\"794134c3-4063-4484-9ca6-01722327cd77\",\"title\":\"Raouf Ben-Har\",\"description\":\"Raouf Ben-Har is a computer scientist, co-founder of Andalusia Labs, and creator of the Karak Network, with past experience at companies like Google and Coinbase.\",\"timestamp\":\"2026-02-12T17:33:58.785Z\",\"category\":\"people\",\"status\":{\"icon\":\"RiGlobalLine\",\"label\":\"Wiki Updated\",\"iconClassName\":\"text-green-500\"},\"user\":{\"name\":\"0xacb6c5AD52b8f605299B0d774CE97F26e3DB80c2\",\"address\":\"0x212Cb3F4aE6611054637f9f78F18fB628AD258bb\"},\"button\":{\"label\":\"View Summary\",\"icon\":\"RiFileTextLine\"},\"summarySections\":[{\"title\":\"Career\",\"subtitle\":\"Updated the description of Raouf Ben-Har's internship experience.\",\"variant\":\"modified\",\"changeCount\":1,\"changes\":[\"Modified the text from 'intern at various companies' to 'intern across various companies'. 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