Tech
Taiko, Layer-2 Blockchain on Ethereum (ETH), Raises $15 Million
The fundraise was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, according to a press release. Other investors in the round included Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, and WW Ventures. The latest round brings Taiko’s total fundraising across three rounds to $37 million.
Taiko claims to provide an “Ethereum-equivalent ZK rollup,” described by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a Posts of 2022 as the Holy Grail of technological success for these expanding networks. A “wrap around” is a term for a layer 2 chain, which acts as an auxiliary network to provide faster, cheaper transactions that can then be settled on a main or “base” blockchain like Ethereum. “ZK” refers to “zero-knowledge” cryptography, a popular trend in blockchain design.
But there is a lot of competition. The website L2Beat lists 44 active layer-2 projects and another 34 “upcoming projects”, including Taiko.
Specifically, Taiko says it uses a technology known as “based” sequencing, in which a key component known as a “sequencer” is driven by the basic or layer 1 blockchainIn blockchain network architecture, a sequencer is a component of a layer 2 chain that functions like an air traffic controller, grouping transactions together so they can be finalized into a block of data.
Many of the rollups currently in operation use a centralized sequencer, which is seen as a potential single point of failure or vector for censorship.
“Among an explosion of new rollouts, Taiko stands out for its passionate community, coupled with a sequencing-based architecture, which uniquely simplifies the L2 value chain, simplifying trust assumptions and removing friction for developer adoption,” said Samuel Harrison, Founding Partner at Speed of Light Faction.