Chain Reaction, a Tel Aviv-based blockchain startup, announced that it has raised $70 million as part of its Series C funding round. The company’s goal is to expand its engineering staff to accelerate production of its blockchain-focused silicon and collaborate on the development of its crypto-focused chips.
Chain Reaction raises $70 million in Series C funding round
Chain Reaction, a startup that focuses on building blockchain-based silicon, announced that it has raised $70 million as part of its Series C funding round. The round, which was led by Morgan Creek Digital, part of Morgan Creek Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by crypto-influencer Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, featured participation from Hanaco Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, KCK Capital, Exor, Atreides Management, and Blue Run Ventures.
With this capital inflow, the company expects to increase its engineering staff to accelerate the development of its silicon blockchain products, which are expected to hit the market later this year. According to Alon Webman, co-founder and CEO of Chain Reaction, mass production of the first batch of chips, called “Electrum”, will begin in the first quarter of 2023.
According reports from Reuters, Electrum will be a highly efficient system SO C chip designed for bitcoin mining, a field dominated by companies like Bitmain. The factory-free startup enlisted the services of TSMC, one of Taiwan’s largest foundries, to mass-produce the chips.
While the company did not disclose its valuation, Techcrunch Dear All it would be around $500 million, having raised $115 million since its founding.
Blockchain Chips and Homomorphic Encryption
Chain Reaction aims to use its first batch of blockchain chips as a springboard to develop more advanced silicon designed to address cryptographic problems.
The most advanced chips would focus on a technique called homomorphic encryption, which would supposedly allow them to perform operations on encrypted data without first decrypting it.
This could have various applications in the field of cryptography, allowing for more efficient and private operations without having to put simple information out in the open when working with data.
The company is optimistic about having a solution to this cryptographic problem, even with today’s limited processing capabilities. Chain Reaction co-founder and CEO Alon Webman stated:
We believe that our solution will make homomorphic encryption viable. We have a unique architecture, and we also understand the compute and memory limitations among today’s processors. We have the necessary solution to make it possible.
Chain Reaction expects to release this chip sometime in late 2024.
What do you think about Chain Reaction and its silicon based blockchain? Tell us in the comment section below.
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