Citrea, a project with the goal of introducing zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) to Bitcoin, has successfully concluded a seed funding round, raising $2.7 million. Galaxy Ventures, the venture arm of Galaxy Digital, led the round. Chainway Labs, the blockchain infrastructure firm developing Citrea, will utilize the funding to bring the project to the market. Citrea is the first rollup that enhances the capabilities of Bitcoin blockspace by incorporating zero-knowledge technology, enabling the construction of various applications on the Bitcoin network. The seed round, which took place in 2023, also saw participation from Delphi Ventures, Eric Wall (co-founder of Taproot Wizards), Igor Barinov (founder of Blockscout), and other investors.
While ZK-rollups have been predominantly associated with Ethereum through layer-2 blockchains like Polygon and zkSync, Citrea aims to apply this concept to Bitcoin. ZK-rollups aim to enhance efficiency and reduce costs by consolidating transactions on layer 2s and securing them using a cryptographic protocol called ZK-proofs. This allows the base blockchain to verify that the transactions occurred without disclosing the specific details. Bitcoin also has layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network and competing scaling projects such as ZKSats and Rollux.
According to Citrea, its ZK-rollup technology addresses the challenges faced by Bitcoin in handling a larger number of transactions. It supports diverse applications without requiring changes to the consensus rules of the Bitcoin network. Additionally, Citrea leverages Bitcoin as not just a digital currency but also as a foundational layer for securing and settling transactions.
Citrea’s recent blog post outlined its vision to position Bitcoin as the base layer for a comprehensive ecosystem of blockchain games, NFTs, and decentralized finance while maintaining Bitcoin’s security and consensus rules. The project’s solution is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine, enabling EVM developers to build on the Bitcoin network.
In summary, Citrea’s successful seed funding round paves the way for the development and implementation of zero-knowledge rollups on the Bitcoin network. This innovative approach aims to enhance transaction efficiency and expand the use cases of Bitcoin without compromising its security or consensus rules.