Axiom, an infrastructure provider for smart contracts, has secured $20 million in Series A funding from Paradigm, Standard Crypto, Robot Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, and other investors.
According to a January 25 announcement, Axiom intends to use the capital to employ developers and expedite the development of its first product. The startup proposes a novel approach for obtaining on-chain access to authenticated data.
It employs zero-knowledge cryptography as opposed to contemporary consensus mechanisms, in which all nodes concur on the current state of the data.
“On-chain applications have adapted to the exorbitant cost of data by removing features or carefully crafting contracts to optimize data usage,” according to Axiom.
As per the protocol, this constraint prevents developers from harnessing data on a large scale, necessitating the construction of smart contracts with an intricate layout.
Users may utilize zero-knowledge technology to substantiate the veracity of a statement without divulging any specifics. It facilitates a mechanism for verification that prevents the disclosure of the data used in the computation. Axiom claims that on-chain applications can process more data at a reduced cost by employing ZK cryptography.
With the launch of its mainnet in 2023, the protocol enabled developers to send data with zero-knowledge proofs, access historical Ethereum data, and conduct off-chain computations.
“We believe the demand to store, access, and operate over authenticated data will only grow over time and that cryptography and blockchains are the correct tools to serve this demand,” according to the statement.
The utilization of ZK confirmations is rising in numerous industries, including banking, healthcare, energy, and voting systems. Several cryptocurrency companies are actively developing the technology for scaling and privacy considerations.
For example, Polygon introduced its Polygon zkEVM for the Ethereum ecosystem in March 2023. This innovation enables the off-chain aggregation of thousands of transactions and features a cryptographic proof that requires minimal data.