The funding obtained from this round will support Polyhedra Network’s ongoing expansion initiatives, which involve strengthening the network’s team and exploring opportunities for broader international presence.
In its latest announcement earlier today, March 14, Polyhedra Network, the Web3 infrastructure platform responsible for building zero-knowledge interoperability protocol zkBridge, announced securing $20 million in funding at a valuation of a staggering $1 billion.
Polychain Capital led the funding round along with participation from Animoca Brands, Mapleblock Capital, Emirates Consortium, UoB Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and others. This is the fifth successful funding round conducted by Polyhedra Network during the last two years.
The proceeds from this funding round will help Polyhedra Network in its ongoing expansion efforts. This includes bolstering the network’s team and exploring opportunities for broader international reach. The Web3 infrastructure provider plans to expand its team from 50 people now, to around 80 people by the year-end.
Such expansion initiatives will solidify Polyhedra Network’s position as a leading authority in zero-knowledge technology and advance the global adoption of trust-minimized interoperability. Speaking on the development, Eric Vreeland, Chief Strategy Officer of Polyhedra Network, said:
“Blockchains were not architected in a way to efficiently process large amounts of computation and information. With the advancements we’ve made in the zero-knowledge proof space, we are no longer beholden to the speed and cost constraints that are slowing adoption. We continue to push the envelope in terms of what is possible, for example, proving the entire Ethereum consensus in under 8 seconds. With our ZK technology, developers no longer have to choose between performance and ease-of-use.”
More Details about Polyhedra Network
As said, the Polyhedra Network developed the zero-knowledge blockchain interoperability protocol zkBridge enabling cross-chain transactions. In comparison to existing proofs, Polyhedra’s zero-knowledge proofs are significantly faster in proof generation and proof verification.
Within a year of its launch, zkBridge has facilitated over 20 million cross-chain transactions while generating over 40 million zero-knowledge proofs. Users can compare zkBridge with the blockchain interoperability protocol Wormhole, which garnered a valuation of $2.5 billion in November during its $225 million funding round.
However, Wormhole has not yet integrated zero-knowledge proofs into its interoperability protocol. Earlier this year, Wormhole revealed intentions to incorporate zero-knowledge proofs and teamed up with chipmaker AMD to facilitate this integration.
Alongside zkBridge, Polyhedra has created zkLightClient technology, incorporated into the LayerZero protocol. This integration enables application developers to utilize zero-knowledge proofs for securing their cross-chain messages transmitted through the protocol. Additionally, Polyhedra recently unveiled a Bitcoin messaging protocol aimed at enhancing the interoperability between the Bitcoin network and other Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.
Furthermore, Polyhedra has introduced a proof-of-reserve system leveraging zero-knowledge technology. This system enables users to authenticate their cryptocurrency holdings on centralized exchanges.
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