P0x Labs, the cryptographic growth crew behind the Manta Community, has introduced that it has raised $25 million in a Sequence A funding spherical, led by Polychain Capital and Kiming Enterprise Companions. The funding offers the corporate a valuation of $500 million.
Moreover, Manta Networks has launched the testnet of its layer-2 infrastructure, Manta Pacific, inside its ecosystem for zero-knowledge (ZK) functions, in line with an organization assertion. The funds raised will probably be used to develop the community, appeal to extra customers and discover various use circumstances for Manta Pacific.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Manta Community CEO Kenny Lee highlighted the first objective of Manta Pacific, which is to streamline the event of options and functions whereas making certain user-friendliness. Lee stated that whereas ZK has attracted consideration as a priceless proposition, it primarily serves as a function set that facilitates numerous use circumstances for functions.
Nonetheless, the problem arises from the truth that builders specializing in decentralized app growth could lack experience in cryptography or desire to keep away from the steep studying curve. In Lee’s phrases:
“Manta Pacific’s ZK software layer removes that barrier, utilizing pre-compiled circuits that may be seamlessly built-in into functions with minimal code.”
In accordance with Lee, implementing ZK functions for affected person knowledge is an final objective, which incorporates reaching self-sovereignty and possession of 1’s medical info. Nonetheless, Lee stated that objective continues to be years away as a consequence of challenges related to accessing and accumulating fragmented knowledge from hospitals, which aren’t motivated to handle it successfully or undertake blockchain expertise.
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In accordance with Lee, Manta Community has recognized a use case in finance the place Stake tokens are issued to customers based mostly on their stakes on platforms equivalent to Binance. He added that privateness issues come up when customers are reluctant to confirm their id due to the chance to their whole pockets.
To deal with this, Lee famous {that a} privateness layer was launched via the ZK-enhanced staking token, much like the Binance account-bound token, which resulted within the minting of roughly 58,000 verified customers. This enhances the utility of staking tokens for identification functions whereas prioritizing person privateness.
Manta Pacific’s testnet at the moment has numerous ZK functions open for customers to entry, together with zkHoldEm, a totally on-chain and personal Texas Maintain’em sport; zkMe, a protocol for personal and verified credentials; and zkPass, a privacy-preserving protocol for knowledge verification.
Manta Atlantic’s flagship non-fungible token personal providing platform launched in April 2023 and has since created over 300,000 zero-knowledge Solbond tokens throughout key ecosystem companions together with Arbitrum, Galax, Linnea and CyberConnect.
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