Scroll, an Ethereum scaling undertaking that makes use of zk-rollup expertise, has raised $30 million in a Collection A funding spherical because it plans to launch a testnet.
Sharing the information completely with The Block on Thursday, Scroll mentioned Polychain Capital led the funding, with Bain Capital Crypto, Robotic Ventures, Geometry DAO and others collaborating.
A number of angel buyers, together with the Ethereum Basis’s Ying Tong and Carlos Aria, and members of the Ethereum neighborhood, together with Anthony Sassal, Ryan Adams and Santiago Santos, additionally joined the spherical.
Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng declined to touch upon whether or not the funding was raised by way of an fairness spherical or a easy settlement for future tokens (SAFT) sale.
Testnet plans
With recent capital in hand, Scroll plans to extend its crew measurement and launch a testnet.
The present headcount of Scroll is 20 and the undertaking is seeking to rent a number of folks throughout completely different features, together with engineering and operations, mentioned Peng. She mentioned the testnet is scheduled to launch within the second half of this yr.
Scroll was based early final yr by Peng, Ye Zhang and Haichen Shen. It goals to scale Ethereum utilizing zk-rollups, a Layer 2 expertise that bundles Ethereum transactions off the primary chain to assist a bigger variety of transactions at a decrease price.
StarkWare and Matter Labs could be seen as Scroll’s closest opponents — each use the zk-rollup scaling method.
When requested what Scroll’s distinctive benefit over StarkWare is, Peng mentioned, “we’re constructing a zkEVM answer versus StarkWare’s zkVM.”
“Meaning builders within the Scroll ecosystem will get pleasure from an ‘EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine] equal’ expertise; any dapp that runs on zk Layer 1 could be deployed on Scroll,” she mentioned.
As for Matter Labs’ zkSync community, it additionally has EVM compatibility like Scroll, however Scroll is extra developer-friendly, in accordance with Peng.
She mentioned, with Scroll, Solidity builders can copy a sensible contract byte code from Ethereum and deploy it on Scroll with out making any adjustments to it. “We’re EVM equal or native EVM by the Ethereum Basis’s definition,” she mentioned.
Particular particulars of Scroll’s expertise will probably be introduced within the subsequent few months, mentioned Peng.
The Collection A spherical brings Scroll’s whole funding thus far to round $33 million. The undertaking has beforehand raised about $3 million from angel buyers, Peng mentioned.
Scroll’s fundraising is the newest for an Ethereum scaling undertaking amid persevering with investor curiosity within the crypto sector. Final month, Optimism, an Ethereum scaling undertaking that makes use of a distinct method often known as optimistic rollups, raised $150 million in Collection B funding at a $1.65 billion valuation.
Immutable, an Ethereum scaling undertaking targeted on NFTs, additionally raised $200 million in Collection C funding at a $2.5 billion valuation final month. In February, Ethereum scaling undertaking Polygon raised $450 million in a token sale, and in November, Matter Labs raised $50 million in a Collection B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
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