P0x Labs—which is growing the Manta Community—raised $25 million in a Sequence A funding spherical right now, coinciding with the launch of a brand new Layer 2 testnet.
The group behind Manta Community says the ZK know-how has a chance to handle scalability challenges on the Ethereum community – to not point out privateness considerations – however a lot of the know-how being developed is separate from these used to trace blockchain exercise. run essentially the most.
“That is actually thrilling for us as a result of this spherical that we raised was an fairness spherical,” defined Kenny Lee, Principal Contributor at Manta Community. decrypt, “They’re now not simply investing within the token, however within the group as nicely.”
At EthCC in Paris, it was introduced that Manta Community has now launched a testnet of its Layer 2 community for ZK functions in a “low cost gasoline price atmosphere”. Often known as Manta Pacific, it’s set to enrich Layer 1 referred to as Manta Atlantic, which additionally focuses on on-chain privateness compliance.
Zero-knowledge proofs permit people to show that one thing is actual with out revealing instantly accessible data. And p0x Labs, which is constructing the Manta community, believes the know-how may give customers full management over their identification with out the chance of surveillance – and appeal to people who find themselves utterly are cautious of utilizing DeFi protocols due to their clear transaction historical past.
The funding spherical for P0X Labs – which valued it at $500 million – was led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Enterprise Companions.
Luke Pearson, an investor at Polychain Capital, mentioned in a information launch: “We’re excited to see Manta develop into the Ethereum ecosystem, and we’ve got doubled our funding on this Sequence A spherical.”
And Yi Tang, principal at Qiming Enterprise Companions, believes its contribution may assist Manta Networks break into the Asia market — and even acquire a foothold amongst Web2 manufacturers.
“We’re excited to help Manta Community in its journey in the direction of ZK adoption,” he added. “We have now seen for the primary time the actual potential for ZK to interact substantial person numbers by way of sensible use instances similar to ZKSBT (Non-public Soul-Certain Token).”
A good portion of this cash, Lee mentioned, gives a “international presence” to the challenge. “Teaming up with one of many largest buyers in China goes to be actually nice to assist us get a much bigger foothold in elements of Asia, particularly China,” he advised Decrypt.
In line with the challenge, there have already been indicators of demand primarily based on functions constructed on prime of its L1 community. It claims that over 300,000 zero-knowledge Soulbound tokens, which permit on-chain identities to be verified with out information leakage, have been created by way of partnerships with corporations similar to Arbitrum and Linnea. Contributors additionally say that the unique Manta Pockets has seen greater than 200,000 installs, with different ideas similar to email-based notifications leading to a collective person base of greater than 1.5 million customers.
And searching ahead, it’s hoped that the brand new testnet—full with plug-and-play performance—will permit builders to focus time and assets on their core merchandise.