Firewall Raises $3.7M to Take Smart Contracts Mainstream with Programmable Finality

[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, USA / California, March 7th, 2024]

Firewall secures funding from North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital, and Hack VC to bulletproof sensible contract networks.

Firewall, a blockchain infrastructure startup, introduced its $3.7M pre-seed spherical, co-led by North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital, and Hack VC. Firewall transforms the usability of sensible contract expertise via an progressive finality consensus mechanism that eliminates sensible contract exploits.

The founders of Firewall, beforehand the primary and sixth staff at Staked—a staking firm acquired by Kraken in a landmark crypto deal—have helped breathe life into the eras of proof-of-stake and decentralized finance over the past six years. In that point, the founders served institutional shoppers with infrastructure that dealt with billions of {dollars}, and now constructing on their expertise, are addressing what most understand as the ultimate main hurdle to a full embrace of digital belongings by the normal monetary system.

“Firewall is constructing the security rails that allow the on a regular basis individual to make use of the following period of the Web,” acknowledged Devan Purhar, Co-Founding father of Firewall. “At this time, billions of {dollars} are stolen from customers, via irreversible transactions which are classifiable as theft. There’s a parallel between the present state of crypto-networks and the early web, with an identical lack of important safety infrastructure. Our focus shouldn’t be on marginal enhancements; reasonably, we convey a required paradigm shift within the usability of blockchains. We designed an answer from first rules, and created programmable finality. Basically, we make exploits an idea of the previous.”

Akin to a digital model of a standard community’s firewall, Firewall’s expertise introduces “programmable finality”. It extends rollups to make use of programmable transaction finalization guidelines, which act as automated checkpoints that block dangerous transactions, inserted earlier than later levels when the info is finalized by a DA layer akin to EigenDA or Celestia. The founders envision Firewall as part of each sensible contract community, appearing as an embedded safety system that intelligently guards towards threats.

“Firewall makes use of real-time algorithms to pre-filter exploits from being included in blocks,” shared Sam Mitchell, Firewall Co-Founder. “Then, by utilizing programmable finality we routinely recuperate from any exploits that bypass the pre-filter checks. Detection at this stage can contain AI fashions or social consensus, which can take longer.” Mitchell emphasised that establishments, managing trillions in belongings, are fascinated by the advantages of sensible contracts however require a safe surroundings to deploy capital. “Creating consolation for institutional shoppers to make use of sensible contracts would be the pivotal level for the widespread adoption of digital belongings.”

Previous the founders, the core group is credited with efficiently pioneering AI use in crypto menace detection at OpenZeppelin and Forta, and is about to revolutionize the sector with Firewall’s all-encompassing safety strategy. The startup’s preliminary focus is on the rollup ecosystem, and prides itself on alignment with constructing non-custodial and trustless options. The funding will assist broaden the group and create the group to “firewall the EVM”. Longer-term plans embody creating coordination mechanisms to combine the social layer instantly into the Firewall.

Travis Scher, Managing Associate at North Island Ventures, mentioned “We imagine the first obstacle to crypto’s mainstream adoption is the present safety paradigm, through which a single bug can result in a complete lack of consumer funds. Firewall’s answer can forestall such losses, and we’re thrilled to assist such an necessary firm from the outset.”

The funding spherical was co-led by North Island Ventures, Breyer Capital, and Hack VC, with participation from Finality Capital, and angels together with Tim Ogilvie of Staked, Kain Warwick and Jordan Momtazi of Synthetix, Nathan McCauley of Anchorage, and Yaoqi Jia of AltLayer.

“Firewall is making blockchains safer for customers, builders, and establishments,” mentioned Ted Breyer of Breyer Capital. “We see this catalyzing a brand new period of sensible contract utility, and we’re delighted to assist the group.”

With the rising international adoption of crypto and regulatory highlight, catalyzed by the BTC ETF and anticipated ETH ETF, the time for crypto-networks to turn into bulletproof is now. Trillions of {dollars} stay on the sidelines, scared to make use of sensible contracts. Firewall’s “programmable finality” which successfully neutralizes exploits, affords the safety assurance wanted to unlock these belongings, paving the way in which for crypto to revolutionize the worldwide monetary system.

About Firewall

Firewall is devoted to creating sensible contract expertise secure to make use of in on a regular basis life, by eliminating sensible contract exploits. Their answer is akin to a strong community firewall, utilized to the modular blockchain ecosystem.

Contact

Co-Founder
Devan Purhar
Firewall
devan@usefirewall.com