Blockchain development startup Spacemesh has just raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Polychain Capital, the firm announced Wednesday.
The project is taking a novel angle on blockchain tech, working to develop a "blockmesh operating system" using the proof-of-space-time (PoST) consensus protocol. As previously reported, the goal is to be able to run PoST on any computer, while making it resistant to powerful mining chips called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
Polychain joined MetaStable, Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, Bain Capital, 1kx, Arrington XRP Capital, Danhua Capital, Electric Capital, Collaborative Fund, Jack Herrick and a number of other funds in contributing to the Spacemesh round, according to a press release.
Spacemesh co-founder Tomer Afek said the funds would be dedicated to growing and compensating the development team, as well as for an open-source bounty program to pay voluntary contributors. To that end, the company is now hiring in New York City and Tel Aviv, although applicants do not necessarily need to live in either city to be hired. At present, the team comprises 10 full-time employees.
A testnet is planned for launch by the beginning of 2019, according to the company, with the genesis block expected by the second quarter of next year.
Afek explained:
"We are iterating on the protocols as well as the full node implementation, and [are] only going to release a mainnet and the Spacemesh programmable cryptocurrency once we have done extensive security and critical bugs audits and have published the full Spacemesh protocol and its rigorous and peer-reviewed security proofs."
PoST is being designed to allow participants to store data on their computer over a period of time. This system would be less energy-intensive than proof-of-work (PoW) algorithms, such as used by the bitcoin protocol, and more accessible than proof-of-stake (PoS) systems, Spacemesh believes.
"PoST is early, thus yet to be proven, but on paper [it] meets criteria [neither] PoW nor PoS can allow for – a low barrier for entry (no bonds) with linearity in rewards, aka fairness. So I think it is a worthy attempt for sure," Afek said.
Spacemesh raised $3 million in seed funding back in early May.
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