It has solutions to address blockchain transactions and solutions for data exchange around artificial intelligence training and usage.
It has also built and posted four libraries to carry out that work on GitHub and claims that 3,000 developers are using these.
Zama’s technology is the key to build multiplayer, privacy-preserving applications,” said Kyle Samani, managing partner of Multicoin Capital, in a statement.
That still doesn’t represent useful speeds for most of the world’s transactions, but given that blockchain transactions themselves are typically slow-moving, that presented an opportunity to offer Zama’s solutions to crypto developers.
In the meantime, companies like Zama are continuing to work on algorithms and techniques to compress the work involved to carry out homomorphic encryption on existing infrastructure.
Ever since Hong Kong legalized cryptocurrency trading last June, blockchain projects from the West have been paying more attention to the Asian financial hub.
Aptos, the a16z-backed blockchain network developed by a group of former Meta employees, is one of them.
Started by some of the original creators of Meta’s abandoned crypto payment project Diem, Aptos is set to host a DeFi event in Hong Kong this April.
When asked when users in Hong Kong will get access to Aptos-based DeFi services, the founder said he cannot speculate on regulation.
“I do think Hong Kong regulators are moving things in the right direction and forward and providing clarity for entrepreneurs to build.
It’s hard to keep track of crypto’s technical development, but one thing hasn’t changed much: blockchain applications are notoriously hard to build.
This stems in part from their decentralized nature, resulting in a lack of uniform standards across different infrastructure pieces.
Initia, founded by a group of developers in their late 20s, is trying to bring more interoperability to multi-chain networks and simplify the process of creating app-specific blockchains, or app chains.
In layman’s speak, Initia is abstracting away app chains’ technical complexity, aiming to make them more friendly to both end users and app developers.
They paused the project after the FTX implosion and eventually changed tack to work on blockchain infrastructure.
Crypto fund Asymmetric Financial is creating its Bitcoin DeFi Venture Fund I to focus on investing in the blockchain’s nascent space with a target raise of $21 million.
The fund will be spearheaded by general partner Dan Held, former director of growth at Kraken and long-time Bitcoiner.
Many Bitcoin-focused VCs ignore DeFi because it’s speculative, and broader crypto VCs see it as a “dead boomer rock,” he added.
Much of this activity has centered on the Ethereum blockchain, but Held believes Bitcoin’s blockchain has tons of future potential as an ecosystem.
“It will be a Bitcoin DeFi renaissance.”“Bitcoin is worth more than every other crypto asset combined,” Held added.
According to PitchBook data, VC investments in crypto companies are down by 68% in 2023 compared to 2022.
But that’s a small number compared to 2022, the year during which crypto companies raised $30 billion.
French crypto startup Kiln just closed a $17 million funding round in December 2023.
As a reminder, staking consists in locking crypto assets in a blockchain to secure a blockchain and its transactions.
Several proof-of-stake blockchains let its users stake crypto assets, such as Polygon, Solana and Avalanche.
The company also announced today it’s expanding its AR collectible tickets to cinema partners in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Korea, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Each Fandime gets a unique Blockchain-based ID and is minted on Avalanche’s blockchain network and stored in a user’s Really account.
Users can redeem Fandime for digital rewards, movie-related AR content, exclusive opportunities, “AR trophies and wearable face filters,” the company explained.
If we combine those two things today, which Really is doing, we believe we are ahead of the game,” Really AR founder and CEO James Andrew Felts told TechCrunch.
In the long term, Really plans to create original AR content and branch out to other areas besides the entertainment industry, Felts revealed to us.
Telegram and Line, two of the world’s most popular messengers with hundreds of millions of monthly users, have both been integrating crypto features in recent months.
Backed by all three divisions of Sequoia — Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Capital China (now called HongShan), Singapore-based EthSign aims to provide a web3 equivalent of DocuSign with the promise of an additional layer of transparency and trustworthiness.
EthSign is deployed on the respective blockchain network that runs on Telegram and Line, TON and Finschia.
EthSign has already rolled out on Telegram as a mini app, which can notify users of a list of pending documents to approve.
Already live on Line as a web app, EthSign has signed a memorandum of understanding with Finschia for further integration in the coming months.
Digital asset risk infrastructure-focused Andalusia Labs, formerly known as RiskHarbor, has raised $48 million in a Series A round at a valuation “north of $1 billion,” the company exclusively shared with TechCrunch.
Alongside the fresh capital raise, Andalusia Labs opened its global headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
The $48 million will also be used to grow its product development and expand the team, said Raouf Ben-Har, co-founder of Andalusia Labs.
All aim to provide digital asset support to institutions, developers and consumers through their respective niches.
“Developers, developers, developers,” said co-founder Drew Patel.
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