Historically, startups have built their products on blockchains outside of the Bitcoin network to avoid the slow transaction speeds, high fees, and impossibility of cross-chain communication of the Bitcoin network.
However, the Lightning Network and taproot (formerly known as Taro) improves the accessibility, speed and scalability of the Bitcoin network and many enthusiasts build on Bitcoin.
For reference, the Lightning Network is a Layer 2 payment system that aims to enable faster transactions at the nominal cost of blockchain. Separately, Taproot, launched in April 2022, aims to issue digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain and allow instant transfer to the Lightning Network in low-fee transactions. .
In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), a startup accelerator launched by asset management firm Stoneridge, also wants to ramp up Bitcoin-focused applications and use cases in a similar effort. Over 100 teams from 36 countries applied to join our non-remote-only flagship cohort based in New York City.
Its first group, Wolfpack 1, is made up of eight teams and 23 founders from 10 countries who presented their ideas during Demo Day on Wednesday and was exclusively featured on TechCrunch+. I was.
All teams received seed funding from Wolf, according to Accelerator CEO Kelly Brewster. His NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, also supports the program alongside guidance and investments from his Bitcoin-centric VC firms and operating companies.
Many of the startups have put forward real-world use cases for products and services that people can use on a daily basis only by taking advantage of faster payment rails rather than improving the Bitcoin ecosystem. The majority of startups have integrated the Lightning Network into their technology.
The program featured 30 guest speakers from Stone Ridge, NYDIG and more. Among them is Lightning Labs co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark. Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer, Human Rights Foundation. Lynn Alden, founder of Lynn Alden Investment Strategy.
company: 10101
function: Bitcoin decentralized trading
Founder: Philip Hoenisch, Richard Holzeis, Lucas Soriano del Pino, Marius Krohowitz, Daniel Kurzel
pitch: 10101 (Ten Ten One) provides decentralized finance and Bitcoin trading through mobile applications. The company is a self-custodial on-chain and off-chain wallet that allows users to trade perpetual futures without counterparty risk or third-party intermediaries such as exchanges.
This application is completely open source and utilizes the Bitcoin Dev Kit and Lightning Dev Kit. In the long term, the company plans to add products such as synthetic stablecoins, binary options, futures, structured products and prediction markets to its applications, co-founder Philipp Hoenisch said on the pitch.
It has raised $2.7 million in a seed round and plans to go public in the third quarter of 2023.
company: arcade
function: A global peer-to-peer marketplace built on Nostr
Founder: Christopher David, Eric Allonesti
pitch: Arcade is building a decentralized global marketplace for peer-to-peer commerce, initially focused on expanding in the Nigerian market. The company wants to build a global order book that allows people to buy any product or service around the world. Peer-to-peer Bitcoin adoption needs to be uncensorable, global, mobile and scalable, “that’s what we’re building,” said co-founder and CEO ) said Christopher David.
This market wants to claim the market share liberated by the recent closure of P2P markets like LocalBitcoins. It is built on censorship-resistant open networks for payments such as Bitcoin, Lightning and data network Nostr. The application is in beta mode and has about 500 test users.
Arcade has now raised $2 million in seed funding through YC SAFE.
company: Agora
function: social debate platform
Founder: james clown, Ruban Sundara Large
pitch: Agora is a gamified social debate platform where people can post ideas, discuss their arguments in comments, and vote for Satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, to decide who wins. After the debate ends, the funds are distributed among those who voted for the winning side. This business receives approximately 5% of each prize pool. According to co-founder and CEO James Pierrog, 1,085 trades and 30 debates have generated about 140,000 satoshis, or $36.98 in payouts, in the past two weeks.
The platform plans to release a mobile app by the end of 2023.
company: dust up
does the following: Streamlined tournament tools
Founder: Neil Woodfine, Richard Bensberg, Adam Woodfine
pitch: Dustup aims to improve the esports competitive space through streamlined tournament tools that integrate Bitcoin payments. This allows players to pay entry fees and receive their winnings quickly. According to CEO and co-founder Neil Woodfine, the typical registration process for esports tournaments is very lengthy and requires many reroutes, but with the company’s tool, players can reach within 30 seconds. It is said that you can register directly on Discord. The startup also offers automated results and custom scoring, as well as bots to help manage battle royale tournaments.
It has raised $350,000 in a pre-seed extension round.
company: shock net
function: Web infrastructure around Lightning
Founder: Justin Hilton, Hatim Buhnichel
pitch: ShockNet provides the infrastructure and tools for bridging web applications to the Lightning Network for fast payments. Its infrastructure connects Lightning Micropayments to any app, so people can distribute content and earn a means of monetization. The startup is also building a platform, lightning videouses its technology stack to give creators the opportunity to earn money by publishing and monetizing their own content without having to post it on platforms like YouTube.
company: root finance
function: Enterprise financial operating system
Founder: Nate Castillo, Ramin Keane
pitch: By pulling data from over 170 different integrations, Route builds an operating system for enterprise finance that enables businesses to automate cash management, analysis, forecasting and reconciliation, and integrate payments directly into their financial workflows. doing. The service provides a programmable financial data platform that supports AI, ML, Bitcoin, and customized support for advanced financial workflows.
The company’s co-founder Nate Castillo says that over time, the startup will power payments through Lightning and Taproot technology, “essentially replacing Swift” and “becoming Stripe for the Treasury.” said he was aiming for Four of his customers are currently participating in the pilot program: Amboss, Stackhawk, Denali and Teachable.
company: Zauda
function: maintenance of salary
Founder: Odey Kamal, Javier Vargas
pitch: The Zawda platform helps employees in MENA, Lebanon, Turkey and Pakistan allocate a portion of their salary directly to Bitcoin and stablecoins through their employers to preserve their monetary value.
The company’s co-founder Odey Kamal said Middle East countries are facing high inflation and rising prices, and people in these regions are seeing their currencies and purchasing power dwindle dramatically. Stated. The platform does not require any technical integration and aims to work with people to improve their ability to maintain their currency and to provide a way to receive a portion of their paycheck in bitcoin to save their money. increase.
It has begun a pilot phase with the United Arab Emirates and plans to finalize a license with its regulators by the third quarter of 2023. We expect to finish that phase by the end of the year. We also want to extend our payroll offering to stablecoins through Taproot Assets. After that, the company plans to launch services in Lebanon, Turkey and Pakistan, as well as add services such as remittances, staking and lending.
company: Zeus
function: Bitcoin wallet, node management
Founder: Evan Karudis
pitch: Zeus is an open-source non-custodial Bitcoin wallet and node management client that aims to provide better options for lightning interfaces and node costs. The entire process of setting up a wallet took him less than 30 seconds, founder Evan Karudis showed in a presentation. The wallet currently has around 10,000 users, making him over 10% of all Lightning Network users. He is also building his Olympus with his provider of Lightning Services, Zeus, which aims to facilitate connectivity to the Lightning Network. This wallet is backed by his Eclair, LND and Core Lightning, among others he is integrated by companies such as BTC Pay, MyNode and Nodl. It aims to raise between $2 million and $3 million.
