Israeli Startup Chain Reaction Raises $70 Million To Build Blockchain Silicon – Blockchain Bitcoin News

Chain Reaction, a Tel Aviv-based blockchain startup, announced that it has raised $70 million as part of its Series C funding round. The goal of the company is to expand the engineering staff to accelerate the production of the blockchain-focused silicon and collaborate in the development of its cryptographic-focused chips.

Chain reaction raises $70 million in Series C funding round

Chain Reaction, a startup focused 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 VC firm co-founded by crypto influencer Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano – saw the participation of Hanaco Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, KCK Capital, Exor, Atreides Management, and Blue Run Ventures.

With this capital influx, the company expects to increase the number of engineers to accelerate the development of its blockchain silicon products, expected to reach 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 Q1 2023.

According to reports from Reuters, Electrum will be a highly efficient ASIC chip designed for bitcoin mining, a field dominated by companies such as Bitmain. The fabled startup enlisted the services of TSMC, one of the largest foundries in Taiwan, to mass-produce the chips.

Although the company did not disclose its valuation, Techcrunch estimates it to 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 trampoline to develop more advanced silicon, designed to tackle cryptographic problems.

The more advanced chips will be centered around a technique called homomorphic encryption, which could reportedly allow them to perform operations on encrypted data without decrypting it in the first place.

This could have several applications in cryptography, enabling more efficient and private operation without having to expose clean information when working with data.

The company is optimistic about having a solution for this cryptographic problem, even with today’s limited processing capabilities. Chain Reaction co-founder and CEO Alon Webman stated:

We believe our solution will make homomorphic encryption viable. We have a unique architecture, and we also understand the limitations of computing and memory among processors today. We have the solution needed to make it possible.

Chain Reaction expects to launch this chip sometime in late 2024.

What do you think of Chain Reaction and its blockchain-based silicon? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price spike occurred during December 2017. He has a computer engineering background, lives in Venezuela and is influenced by the cryptocurrency boom on a social level, offering a different point of view on crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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