Staking protocol developer EigenLabs has raised $50 million in a Sequence A spherical led by Blockchain Capital. The funding comes as EigenLabs prepares to launch the preliminary model of its EigenLayer protocol in phases all year long. The scale of the spherical is notable throughout a protracted crypto winter that has seen traders focusing extra on smaller, early-stage rounds.
Seattle-based EigenLabs was based in 2021 to deal with the difficulty that it’s tough to enhance blockchain infrastructure with out launching a brand new blockchain and the so-called belief community that gives safety for the chain.
In September Ethereum shifted from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus technique, which changed crypto miners with validators, or “stakers,” who lock up tokens throughout the community to assist maintain it safe in alternate for monetary reward. EigenLayer permits customers to “restake” tokens which might be locked as much as validate Ethereum so these tokens might be reused to assist safe different protocols.
“One of many central bottlenecks to innovation in at this time’s crypto ecosystem is the requirement for initiatives to bootstrap belief, or cryptoeconomic safety,” stated EigenLabs founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan within the press launch. “We began engaged on EigenLayer within the hopes of making a brand new mannequin during which builders can simply devour belief, as a substitute of needing to construct belief, and design highly effective programs of assurances that make the crypto ecosystem safer and extra helpful.” .
Kannan is an affiliate professor on the College of Washington and runs the UW Blockchain Lab. The EigenLayer group has deep expertise with tech firms, together with Amazon Net Companies, Meta Platforms (the previous Fb) and Microsoft.
Different backers within the spherical included Electrical Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Companions, andCoinbase Ventures, amongst others. EigenLabs final raised funds in August with a $14.5 million seed spherical led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures.
Edited by Stephen Alpher.