Coinbase Ventures, the investment division of the popular crypto exchange, has made an investment into an enterprise-focused start-up, Offchain Labs. Although the announcement did not reveal the amount of the funds, it highlighted that the funds would be used to prompt more developers into joining in and boost the development. The official announcement about the investment was made by Offchain Labs on September 5, 2019.
In addition to the funding announcement, Offchain Labs has also launched the alpha version of Arbitrum, its Ethereum scaling solution. The solution’s alpha version is said to possess compatibility with any of the Ethereum applications. What’s even more interesting is, it lets every smart contract process over 500 tps (transactions per second), as per the announcement.
Moreover, the company is making the Arbitrum code open-source so that enterprises, as well as businesses, can develop blockchain applications while preserving both the privacy and transaction speed. The company also revealed that this publicly available version of the software is still thought of as a test version.
Advertisement
As noted in the announcement, contracts are built utilizing the Solidity code, similar to any regular ETH dApp. However, it is the Arbitrum compiler that compiles them. Also, a bridge referred to as EthBridge makes it possible for the system to establish communication with Ethereum.
Another interesting highlight is that the software uses the network of Arbitrum instead of the private chains or sidechains, thanks to its “AnyTrust Guarantee” feature. This feature makes sure that the decentralized application executes correctly even if there is only one honest and active validator. In other words, in case all the other validators try to trick the system, the single online honest validator can make the system work exactly as per its code.
Ed Felten who leads Offchain Labs, said that Arbitrum makes the Ethereum contracts more scalable, more private, and faster. Thanks to its Ethereum compatibility, it becomes easy to adopt for developers too. Continuing further, he said that their primary obstacles have been in bringing about a system which is not only reliable but also secured in usage, as well as removing performance bottlenecks. For those who are unaware, Felten has served as the former Deputy US Chief Technology Officer with the White House.
Advertisement
It is important to note that in April 2019, Offchain Labs had successfully acquired 3.7 million dollars in seed funding. Now with Coinbase Ventures investing in it, the start-up based in New Jersey is expecting to grow even further.
