The SKALE Network, supported by the Node Foundation, a Liechtenstein Foundation, and SKALE Labs, Inc., announced today it has raised a total of $17.1 million which includes a contribution from SKALE Labs, Inc. and a recent financing which includes investment from Arrington XRP Capital, Blockchange, ConsenSys Labs, Hashed, HashKey, Multicoin Capital, and Recruit Holdings.
“PoS networks need global distribution of ownership in order to provide a strong, secure, decentralized foundation to the Network. They also need an array of investors rather than centralization of ownership,” said Jack O’Holleran, CEO of SKALE Labs. “SKALE’s recent financing round brings the total number of VCs and prominent angels to over 40 investors spanning the US, EU, China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This will yield over 750 Nodes live at Network Launch which can support up to 6,000 independent SKALE Chains.
The SKALE Network allows developers the ability to easily provision highly configurable virtualized chains with instant compatibility with Ethereum. With SKALE, dApps can deploy their own blockchain and can configure it to their business requirements whether they are building a game, DeFi application, or anything else. SKALE Chains can execute sub-second block times, run over 2,000 tps on every chain, and run full-state smart contracts in addition to decentralized storage, and machine learning in EVM.
“SKALE is focused on delivering the high-performance and usability advantages of Sidechains with the pooled security guarantees of larger public chains through elements typically found in sharded layer 1 solutions,” said CTO Konstantin Kladko. “The key components are cryptographically provable randomness powered by BLS signatures, node rotation mechanisms that prevent collusion, and creating incentive structures that promote security and high-performance of the network.”
In a strategic move to ensure the SKALE Network is decentralized and open, SKALE Labs has transferred all non-equity funding to the Node Foundation. The Node Foundation is supported by a decentralized set of Network Representatives which are comprised of dApp Developers who run SKALE Chains, Validators who run SKALE Nodes, Independents such as investors that helped kickstart the network economics, and developers/representatives that actively build, maintain, and evolve the codebase.
“SKALE’s modular technology is built to flexibly evolve to address a wide range of critical blockchain scaling needs,” said Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch and Arrington XRP Capital. “SKALE is built for the multi-blockchain world of the future and has the capacity to run smart-contract-based economies. It is a powerful asset in the Ethereum ecosystem”.
With the support of the Node Foundation and this new injection of funding, SKALE Labs will continue to grow the SKALE Network with a primary focus on the long-term growth of its Proof-of-Stake network. While still maintaining an active role in the development of the blockchain, SKALE Labs is commissioned to do the ongoing network development and community growth.
“SKALE will significantly expand what’s possible on Ethereum blockchain,” said Simon Kim, CEO of Hashed. “SKALE will have an immediate impact on the Asia blockchain market, in particular games and DeFi. We are excited to support SKALE growth in Asia and beyond”. Hashed is a SKALE investor and will also participate in the SKALE Network by running validator nodes.