Quick take:
- Trust Machines has announced the completion of a $150 million funding round.
- The platform wants to unlock developer apps, NFTs and DAOs on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
- The funding round was backed by Breyer Capital, Hivemind and Digital Currency Group, among others.
Although bitcoin ushered in the mass adoption of blockchain technology, its ecosystem has fallen behind Ethereum and other programmable blockchains that have capitalised on the rapid adoption of Web3 applications.
However, bitcoin veteran and Stacks founder Muneeb Ali, thinks his Web3 company Trust Machines could unlock the power of bitcoin’s blockchain ecosystem by bringing developer apps (dApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) to bitcoin.
Trust Machines is a programming layer built on the bitcoin blockchain with a mission to unlock the largest ecosystem of bitcoin apps, expanding the BTC economy.
Co-founded by Ali and his Princeton University Computer Science professor J.P. Singh, the company raised $150 million from leading blockchain venture capital firms on Thursday. The funding round was backed by Breyer Capital, Digital Currency Group, GoldenTree, Hivemind, Union Square Ventures, and others.
Trust Machines wants to bring Web3 applications to the world’s best crypto settlement layer for applications of value, creating programmatic demand for bitcoin.
Commenting on the successful funding round Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital said his company believes that bitcoin can become more than just a store of value, making it a more productive asset in the blockchain economy.
“Muneeb and JP have accomplished a great deal already by making Bitcoin programmable with use cases like lending applications and DAOs. We’re excited to support Trust Machines and their mission to help Bitcoin reach its potential,” he said.
Bitcoin ushered in the transition to Web3 more than a decade ago and just as the internet transformed communication and the Web transformed access, it transformed trust. Therefore, as we enter a new era of communications and human interactions, decentralised permissionless applications will continue to gain traction within communities.
Since last year, the previously unpopular word, the metaverse has been one of the most trending topics in the media. This immersive world is built on Web3 and utilizes NFTs, DAOs and other developer apps tokens to attract more players into the ecosystem.
Most of the metaverse gaming guilds are driven by communities that determine what happens within the ecosystem using governance tokens.
Matt Zhang, founder of Hivemind Capital Partners, a $1.5 billion crypto-focused investment firm said the bitcoin applications ecosystem is still in nascent stages despite most crypto enthusiasts joining the industry through bitcoin.
“Trust Machines represents a significant expansion of the types of utility we can imagine for Bitcoin where Bitcoin becomes a programmable L1 with web3 applications built for Bitcoin, and we are thrilled to support them,” he added.
Trust Machines wants to turn bitcoin into a more productive ecosystem rather than a passive asset.
Co-founder Ali said it is time to focus on unlocking the next level of applications and technology on bitcoin, to build on the strong foundation set by the pioneer cryptocurrency. “…enhancing the platforms for speed, scale and functionality, and making Bitcoin apps a reality for hundreds of millions of users,” he said, adding that it is why Trust Machines was launched, backed by top investors in the industry.
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