Alpen Labs, a startup pioneering advancements in Bitcoin scalability through zero-knowledge technology and rollups, emerged from stealth mode on Wednesday, revealing a prior funding of $10.6 million.
Ribbit Capital, a prominent venture firm, spearheaded a seed funding round for Alpen in 2023. This capital injection facilitated the expansion of Alpen’s team comprising cryptographers and engineers, as per an official company announcement disclosed to The Block. Noteworthy backers of Alpen Labs include Castle Island Ventures, Geometry Research, Stillmark, Village Global, Robot Ventures, Axiom Capital, WillowTree Investments, along with individual investors such as John Pfeffer, Charlie Songhurst, Charles Cascarilla, Ben Davenport, Ashwin Ramachandran, Waitkit Lau, and others.
Alpen Labs’ primary objective is to address various challenges associated with the Bitcoin network, particularly in the realms of privacy, programmability, and scalability, leveraging zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). ZKPs enable the verification of data without divulging any information pertaining to the data itself. Utilizing zero-knowledge technology, Alpen seeks to streamline the execution of extensive programs on Bitcoin by breaking them down into smaller tasks, thus enhancing the scalability of the network, as outlined in a company statement.
Furthermore, Alpen Labs is actively involved in developing Bitcoin rollup infrastructure, a mechanism for consolidating multiple transactions into a single entry on the blockchain. The company plans to unveil more details about its rollup ecosystem soon, with a testnet launch scheduled for 2024.
Alpen Labs’ Co-Founder and CEO, Simanta Gautam, articulated their vision, stating, “We envision a programmable, scalable Layer 2 ecosystem on Bitcoin as the best place for on-chain finance: from payments to lending, custody, stablecoins and use cases not-yet-imagined.”
Among the objectives envisioned by Alpen Labs are BTC-collateralized stablecoins, hashrate futures tailored for miners, applications offering yield on BTC with minimal trust, and overcollateralized borrowing against BTC.
Justin Saslaw of Ribbit Capital emphasized the transformative potential of Bitcoin, remarking, “With over one trillion dollars stored in Bitcoin, we believe it has significant potential to usher in a better money future, with unprecedented global appeal.” Saslaw praised Alpen Labs for their efforts in enhancing Bitcoin’s scalability, expressivity, and privacy, which he believes will catalyze innovation and inclusivity within the financial ecosystem.
