Blockchain Startup Contribution Labs Raises $3M through Equity Sale

Web3-focused startup Contribution Labs has raised $3 million through an equity sale.

Alchemy-backed Contribution Labs is a California-based technology company in stealth mode. The company was founded in January 2022 by Catherine Chang, a former product manager at software company Atlassian, and Kei Yoshikoshi, a former engineer at Microsoft’s Azure blockchain.

Contribution Labs has raised $2,425,000 from two investors since the offering began on Aug 15, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Unlike traditional financing methods, this fundraising involved a simple future equity agreement, or SAFE, where investors pay cash now for future equity in the company.

On its official website, entrepreneur Elad Gil, who has worked at Twitter and Google, is also listed as a major investor. Web3 infrastructure giant Alchemy’s venture capital is also on the list, while Mint Kudos appears in the investing section of Alchemy’s website.

However, the corresponding time and amount were not disclosed.

Alchemy is a pioneer in the blockchain developer platform.

The company also builds Kudos, a token platform based on the Polygon blockchain for appreciating other people’s work and living on the blockchain as a uniquely generated NFT through unique, peer-verified non-transferable token (NTT) Reward contributions.

The NTT token standard defines a set of standard APIs allowing the identification of statements (called badges) attributed to a public key, such that different dapps and smart contracts can use to filter users or to provide users with different badges and different experiences.

Alchemy has also recently announced the acquisition of ChainShot, a crypto education platform, to help complement its vast portfolio of crypto products.

The company’s near-term plans may include connecting the Kudos token to other blockchains, such as the Ethereum mainnet.

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Alchemy Snaps Up ChainShot as its First Acquisition

Blockchain infrastructure service provider, Alchemy has announced the acquisition of ChainShot, a crypto education platform to help complement its plethora of crypto-focused offerings.

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Positioned to serve as a boost to Alchemy’s Web3.0 University offshoot, ChainShot, which currently offers live and instructor-led Ethereum developer boot camps, will take up a vital role in the broader Alchemy ecosystem.

As an infrastructure service provider, Alchemy has carved out a niche for itself and currently powers platforms like OpenSea, Maker, and Polygon with its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Alchemy’s APIs offer various functions ranging from node infrastructure, transaction history, and NFT functionality. 

“As for the next steps, our goal is to make the integration of ChainShot’s programs and ours as smooth and seamless for students as possible,” said the statement. “We’re still ironing out how the pieces will come together, but one thing is certain: all of ChainShot’s course content that previously cost upwards of $3,000 will be 100% free.” 

The Alchemy solution can be attributed to two innovators, Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau. The strength and value Alchemy offer have recently helped the startup onboard traditional companies, including Meta Platforms Inc, Shopify, and Adobe, in their Web3.0 pursuits. 

ChainShot is the first acquisition that will be made by Alchemy thus far despite its robust and deep liquidity. In a funding round in April of this year, the company received $200 million from investors that Lightspeed Ventures and Silverlake led. The funding round earned Alchemy over $10 billion in valuation.

Alchemy’s acquisition is yet another show of the impressive use of funds in the digital currency ecosystem. 

The acquisition of ChainShot will further solidify its divestment strategies, which generally complements its push to integrate as many blockchain protocols as possible. As reported earlier by Blockchain.News, Alchemy has been integrating Solana and Polkadot-based protocols, the latest of which is Astar Network.

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Web3 Development Platform Alchemy Adds Polkadot’s Parachain Astar Network

Alchemy, a pioneer in the blockchain developer platform, announced that it would partner with Astar Network to accelerate Web3 development on Polkadot.

The collaboration will allow developers to use Alchemy’s powerful API to create complex applications that implement functionality not available on the Polkadot blockchain.

Alchemy also said that web3 developers could earn basic income through staking rewards, a native feature of Astar.

Rob Boyle, Head of Product at Alchemy, said: “Alchemy infrastructure makes it easier for developers to build any dApp with infinite scalability, accuracy and reliability. We’re thrilled to combine forces with Astar to foster an era of better Web3 building that will power the decentralized applications of tomorrow.”

Astar allows developers to interoperate with the Polkadot ecosystem, building dApps using EVM and WASM smart contracts via the Polkadot blockchain’s Cross Consensus Messages (XCM).

Alchemy, which runs 70% of its applications on the Ethereum blockchain, provides a new business model that revolves around decentralized finance (DeFi).

The blockchain startup has also been backed by big-name investors such as Jay-Z, Will Smith, and John Schwab, among others. Founded in 2017 by two Stanford University classmates, Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau, Alchemy has come a long way since.

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Binance Partners with Alchemy Pay to Streamline Payments Through Binance Pay

Binance exchange has partnered with Alchemy Pay, a hybrid payment solution, to develop a bridge between fiat and crypto via the Binance Pay wallet. The merger seeks to drive merchant transactions and peer-to-peer payments for users worldwide. Furthermore, merchants and users will have access to 40 cryptocurrencies meant for transactional purposes across 18 countries where Alchemy Pay operates.

What Next?

Merchants can receive crypto-fiat payments from Alchemy’s partners, including entities such as Shopify, QFPay, Arcadier, and Singapore’s Ce La Vi. 

According to the CEO of Alchemy Pay, John Tan, the integration with Binance is a significant and practical milestone towards establishing a link between crypto and fiat worlds. 

The global goal of crypto mass adoption is slowly taking charge across many regions in the world. By collaborating with Binance, users can enjoy borderless and secure crypto payments through the Binance Pay wallet. Consequently, Binance Pay users can quickly pay for goods and services provided by Alchemy’s network of merchants. 

All transactional payments made will not incur any handling fees as implemented by the Binance Pay wallet. Unlike the traditional payment system, which takes extended periods to complete transactions, the new partnership by Alchemy and Binance will enable speedy transactional processes for millions of merchants and users. 

A Positive Move For Binance

The world’s largest exchange has been facing numerous oppositions and scrutiny, particularly from regulators. On June 28th, 2021, UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned Binance from rendering any service within the country. Days later, the exchange platform also gradually ended its futures and derivatives products for European users. 

This action affected regions like Italy, Netherlands, and Germany, which can not register any derivatives or futures trading accounts. Binance also ceased supporting crypto margin trading associated with the Sterling, Australian dollar, and Euro. Therefore, partnering with Alchemy Pay is a positive step for the Binance exchange after a hectic series of backlash from global regulators.

Binance Steps up on Its Compliance Measures

Following several bans and restrictions from various countries, Binance plans to review its compliance status and ensure it runs as a fully compliant entity. Going by Changpeng Zhao’s sentiments, Binance is always focused on boosting the freedom of money without compromising security and compliance. 

Improving compliance will ultimately make the exchange platform modify its business models and adhere to tighter controls provided by regulatory bodies. The exchange platform was launched in 2017, and at present, users can access about 322 digital coins and 1171 trading pairs from Binance.

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Ethereum Developer Platform Alchemy Integrates Polygon



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Blockchain developer platform Alchemy has launched integration for the popular Ethereum scaling solution Polygon. 

Alchemy Now Supports Polygon Integration

Building on Polygon just became a lot easier.

The popular blockchain developer platform Alchemy has added support for the fast-growing scaling solution.


By providing the same high-speed, secure infrastructure as developing on Ethereum, Alchemy’s new integration will help developers launch their existing Ethereum applications on Polygon. 

Alchemy currently powers 70% of all Ethereum applications, including the likes of OpenSea, Aave, and Yearn.Finance. However, due to the expense of using Ethereum, many applications launch on Polygon and Layer 2 solutions like Optimism and Arbitrum. 

Smart contract transactions on Polygon cost fractions of a penny, whereas Ethereum gas fees can reach hundreds of dollars during peak network congestion. The cheap transaction fees have helped Polygon gain popularity with smaller-scale investors interacting with DeFi applications. 



Polygon has already seen widespread adoption. So far, the network has supported over 380 million transactions from 1.7 million unique wallets. It’s also attracted a host of leading Ethereum projects in recent months, including Aave, SushiSwap, Balancer, and Curve Finance. 

Alchemy’s new integration will undoubtedly make it easier to develop on Polygon and should increase access to DeFi applications on the network. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned BTC and ETH.

This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.


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Alchemy raises $80M to power the NFT boom as the ‘AWS of blockchain’

Blockchain developer Alchemy has announced that it has raised $80 million in a Series B round to further develop platforms that power non-fungible token marketplaces.

The funding round, announced on Wednesday, April 28, was led by technology-focused investment manager Coatue, and Addition Capital, a venture fund from American investor Lee Fixel.

Also participating in the round was the Glazer family, who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, and VC firm DFJ Growth which has also invested in Coinbase, SpaceX, and Stripe.

The band The Chainsmokers, and actor Jared Leto also contributed to the funding round which brings Alchemy’s valuation to $500 million. Existing backers include Pantera Capital, Coinbase, Samsung, Stanford University, and a number of high-profile individuals such as Charles Schwab, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.

According to CNBC, Alchemy has benefited from the NFT craze as it acts as an intermediary between the blockchain itself and the apps and NTF collections that run on it. Alchemy, which launched in December 2019, has seen exponential growth of 97 times on its platform over the past eight months, and the number of companies it powers doubled in the first quarter.

The firm developed the platform that powers Dapper Labs, which in turn launched some of the most successful NFT collections to date including CryptoKitties, and the wildly popular NBA Top Shot. Alchemy was also involved with the record-breaking NFT by digital artist Beeple that sold for $69 million in March.

The firm’s developer platform aims to remove the complexity and costs of building infrastructure on top of the blockchain layer. Alchemy CTO Joe Lau compared the technology to Amazon’s AWS which is the backbone of internet cloud services:

“Every time you open DoorDash, you’re using Amazon’s infrastructure. Every time you interact with an NFT, you’re using Alchemy. It’s being powered by Alchemy underneath the hood.”

Pantera Capital’s Paul Veradittakit also described Alchemy as “the Amazon Web Services (AWS) of the blockchain industry,” that is enabling the vision of a decentralized web.

Alchemy has quickly become the technology behind many major NFT platforms, including OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, CryptoKitties, and Gods Unchained according to the official website. The company concurs with the AWS analogy, stating:

“Just as AWS provides the platform that powers Uber, Netflix, and much of the technology industry, Alchemy powers infrastructure for many large players in the blockchain industry.”

The firm plans to use the funding to support new chains with its developer platform, and expand its employee base which currently stands at a team of just 22 people.

In late March, Alchemy partnered with the Flow blockchain to expand its reach into the burgeoning NFT ecosystem.

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