Written by: J1N, Techub News
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced that it will launch the Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) Fall Accelerator Program in New York in 2024. The program will select 21 startups for support. In the next 8 weeks, these selected startups will receive at least $500,000 in investment from a16z and will receive guidance and support from the a16z operations team.
The business scope of these companies covers AI, DeFi protocol, blockchain infrastructure, cross-chain protocol, developer platform, blockchain security, blockchain games, social networking, virtual reality and metaverse. This article will introduce the detailed information of these 21 companies, and the information comes from the official website, white paper, Gitbook and social media of each project.
Anera Labs: DeFi infrastructure built on user intent
Anera Labs is committed to creating a platform that makes it easier for users to use DeFi protocols, reducing the complexity of learning and operation, and making it easy for even users who are not familiar with blockchain technology to participate. However, due to the limited information they have disclosed, it is not possible to gain an in-depth understanding of how it works.
Banyan: Reducing costs and increasing efficiency for enterprises through AI
Banyan is a company that originally provided decentralized storage services in the Filecoin ecosystem. They once announced a strategic partnership with the GPU network io.net to provide enterprise-level file storage services for io.net. However, the information about this cooperation has been officially deleted.
Now, the company has transformed its business into using AI to eliminate communication barriers in team collaboration to optimize the operational efficiency of enterprises. In addition to this information, the author did not find more information about the company.
Blocksense: Oracle Solution
Blocksense ensures data integrity by solving the bribery problem of traditional oracle models, aiming to provide more secure, scalable and accessible oracle services.
Blocksense announced on September 10 that it had completed a $4 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Permutation, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, Public Works, Tykhe Block Ventures, Selini Capital, MH Ventures and Daedalus, as well as individual investors Ethereum Foundation researchers Justin Drake, Zhenfei Zhang and Ognyan Genev, Worldcoin Foundation research engineer dcbuilder, The Rollup, Blockdaemon founder Konstantin Richter, Encode Club co-founder Anthony Beaumont, and Manta Network co-founders Victor Ji and Kenny Li. This round of financing will be used to scale up operations, enhance developer experience, expand the team and launch the mainnet.
Cork Protocol: Risk Hedging Protocol for On-Chain Anchored Assets
Cork Protocol is a risk hedging protocol for on-chain "anchored assets" (such as liquidity pledge tokens LST, re-pledge tokens LRT, stablecoins, RWA tokenized assets, etc.), which aims to help investors hedge the risk of depegging these assets. The protocol involves four types of assets: redemption assets (RA, such as Ethereum, USDC), anchored assets (PA, such as stETH, USDe), security tokens (CT, Cover Tokens) and depegging swap tokens (DS, Depeg Swaps).
Through the stability module (PSM), the protocol splits the anchored asset (PA) into DS and CT. PSM splits the risks of the anchored asset, allowing users to choose the appropriate risk exposure, provide hedging protection for users, help liquidity providers reduce the risk of impermanent loss when providing liquidity, and provide insurance services, etc.
Collateral tokens: Holders of these tokens can redeem assets pledged in PSM when the hedging agreement expires.
Off-peg swap token: This token is priced in line with the anchored asset and can be used for hedging, speculation, and composable integration into DeFi. It also allows users to exchange their anchored assets for redemption assets at a 1:1 ratio through the redemption mechanism.
Dot: Pixel-style casual blockchain game
Dot is a pixel-style card blockchain game. Players can create and draw personalized cards to participate in game battles, interact and trade for profit.
Fermah: Zero-knowledge proof service provider
Fermah is a zero-knowledge proof service provider powered by EigenLayer, dedicated to providing low-cost, fast and reliable zero-knowledge proof generation services. It also provides technical support for projects using zero-knowledge technology, including ZK Rollups (a solution for scaling blockchain throughput), ZK Bridges (cross-chain bridges), ZK coprocessors, ZKML (zero-knowledge machine learning) and ZKFHE (zero-knowledge fully homomorphic encryption).
Fermah has completed a $5.2 million seed round led by a16z CSX and Lemniscap, with participation from Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital and Daemon Ventures, as well as individual investors Coinbase and a16z general partners, former CTO Balaji, Celestia CEO and COO Mustafa and Nick, Polygon co-founders Sandeep, Jaynti and Daniel, Aztec CEO and CMO Zac and Claire, Axelar CEO Sergey, Geometry co-founder Greg, etc.
Future Primitive: Web3 photography social platform
Future Primitive is a Web3 photography social platform where users can upload their own photos to the platform. Each photo will be randomly shared with three strangers on the platform, and users can socialize through comments and exchanges. Each user can only upload a maximum of 24 photos. Future Primitive said the platform hopes to improve the quality of the work through this restriction.
Kuzco: LLM Large Language Model Mining Network
Kuzco is a decentralized GPU network for the Solana ecosystem that aims to utilize the idle GPU resources of individual users to provide efficient and cheap computing services for large language models such as Llama3, Mistral, and Phi3. Users can use these models through an API compatible with OpenAI. Kuzco's distributed architecture can integrate idle computing resources to enable the operation of large language models, while incentivizing miners who provide computing power through a reward mechanism.
MeshMap: Making 3D world maps for AR devices
MeshMap is a 3D virtual world map project running on the Solana ecosystem, which brings together cartographers, creators, players, project owners, sponsors, etc. Anyone who contributes to the creation and improvement of the map can be rewarded through a token incentive mechanism.
In addition, MeshMap's virtual world map is also compatible with multiple virtual reality devices, such as Meta's Quest series and Magic Leap 2, allowing users to immersively experience and explore this virtual world through VR/AR technology.
Opacity Network: Web2 data on-chain service
Opacity Network is an EigenLayer mainnet AVS project that uses zkTLS technology to provide users with a variety of Web2 data on-chain services, including business, social, financial services, digital property rights, and real-life data. Users can use the network to prove and share their shopping records, social media accounts, bank card balances, digital property rights (such as code, design works), and activities they participate in. While protecting privacy, this data can be used to interact with merchants (such as formulating incentive plans and preventing witch attacks), simplify financial service processes, prevent infringements, etc., thereby improving user experience and security.
OpenGradient: Using AI to Optimize Cryptocurrency User Experience
OpenGradient is an EVM-compatible network that supports autonomous AI and aims to become a scalable execution layer for artificial intelligence. OpenGradient claims that applications developed on the platform can leverage AI computing resources to achieve risk management, machine learning (ML) optimization, create AI agents, detect witch attacks, and improve mechanism design.
PIN AI: AI infrastructure platform for individuals
PIN AI is an AI infrastructure platform focused on serving individual users. It can deploy exclusive AI models based on user habits to handle cross-application tasks such as shopping, ordering food, wealth management, and interaction with centralized exchanges, DeFi, and prediction markets.
The platformâs technical team is made up of experts including former Ethereum core researcher Davide Crapis, MIT graduate Ben Wu, Stanford University AI and mathematics PhD Bill Sun, and Carnegie Mellon University graduate Regan Peng, and collaborates with a16z Crypto Research, Flashbots, Espresso Systems, and scholars from Stanford, Columbia, and New York University.
PIN AI announced on September 10 that it had completed a $10 million Pre-Seed round of financing. Participants included a16z CSX, Hack VC, Anagram, Blockchain Builders Fund, Symbolic Capital, etc. Individual investors included NEAR Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin, SOL Foundation Chairman Lily Liu, Polygon co-founder Symbolic Capital, Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng, Worldcoin Foundation dcbuilder, Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore, etc. PIN AI said that this round of financing will be used to develop a global open source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN).
Pod: L1 with a unique consensus mechanism
Pod Network is developing a new consensus mechanism for L1, aiming to improve the decentralization of L1. By introducing a new consensus protocol, Pod Network hopes to enable more nodes to participate in network consensus fairly, prevent excessive concentration of computing power or interests, and thus enhance the security and fairness of the network.
Currently, little information about the project has been disclosed to the public, so our understanding of its specific technical details is limited.
Sekai: A decentralized comic novel creation platform
Sekai is a decentralized short comic novel creation platform that aims to provide creators with a virtual world where they can freely express themselves and protect their intellectual property rights. Any user with inspiration can create and publish short comics or novels on the platform.
The works cover eight categories: fantasy, science fiction, adventure, romance, comedy, slice of life, mystery and horror. The platform supports paid reading, rewarding authors, liking, commenting and forwarding, while providing a source of income for creators.
On March 5 this year, Sekai was selected for the DAO and Community track in the 2024 ETHDenver Hackathon Top 15 list.
Skyfire: An open-source cryptocurrency payment network based on AI agents
Skyfire is a cryptocurrency payment network based on autonomous AI agents. Founded by former Ripple executives Amir Sarhangi and Craig DeWitt, Skyfire aims to enable AI agents to make instant and secure payments and collections around the world without credit cards, bank accounts or human intervention. Transactions are paid in USDC. The network currently runs on Polygon, and Skyfire plans to expand to other blockchains.
On August 21, Skyfire announced the completion of an $8.5 million seed round of financing, with investors including Circle, Ripple, Gemini, and billionaire Tim Draperâs venture capital firm.
Suave: Cross-chain transfer protocol
Suave is a cross-chain transfer protocol that allows users to transfer assets between different blockchain networks, supporting multiple networks, wallets, and tokens. Users can use different wallets to transfer cryptocurrencies on multiple blockchains, making cross-chain asset management convenient and flexible.
t1 Protocol: Ethereum L2 Scaling Protocol
t1 Protocol is a decentralized platform on Ethereum that aims to promote Ethereum's scalability, cross-chain operability and operational efficiency.
On September 11, t1 Protocol announced the completion of a $2.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing. Investors included a16z Crypto Startup School, Espreeso, ENSO, CoW Swap, ETHGlobal, Frax, PNYX Ventures, Injective, MINA, 0x, AutoMata, Flashbots, TiTAN, Takkavlabs, Primev, etc.
TACEO: Cryptocurrency Security Company Partners with Worldcoin Foundation
TACEO is a company focused on cryptocurrency security, providing privacy and data protection solutions for individuals and businesses. The company is also responsible for the security of Worldcoin and has application cases in many fields such as DeFi, AI, data and games, and is committed to improving the security of these industries.
Term Labs: Fixed-rate lending platform
Term Finance is an institutional-grade on-chain fixed-rate lending platform that allows borrowers and lenders to match funds through a decentralized auction process and determine a fixed interest rate. Borrowers provide collateral and lenders provide funds. After the auction, lenders receive an ERC-20 token as a voucher, and can redeem the principal and interest when the loan matures.
On July 9, Term Finance announced the completion of a strategic financing of US$5.5 million, led by Electric Capital, with participation from Arete Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Inception Capital, Blizzard Fund, Maelstrom, etc. Term Finance said that this round of financing will be used to accelerate the development of Term to simplify lending through functions such as recurring, passive lending, automation, and real-time alerts.
vlayer labs: Web2 data on-chain platform based on ZK
Vlayer is an infrastructure platform that helps users put Web2 data on-chain. By simplifying the use of zero-knowledge proofs, the platform enables developers to more easily use privacy and verification tools to integrate Web2 data into Web3 applications, thereby better leveraging the value of data and enhancing the functionality and privacy protection of decentralized applications.
zkSpin: A high-performance full-chain game development platform
zkSpin is a ZK-based blockchain game development platform that aims to optimize the development and user experience of blockchain games. Compared with traditional full-chain games that use ZKP, which is expensive and time-consuming, zkSpin uses improved ZK technology to allow players to only submit game results to the operator (Web2 server), who is responsible for verifying and submitting the results to the blockchain. This method speeds up the game process and improves the player experience.
