Chia Network is an open-source decentralized blockchain, digital currency and smart transaction platform built around a novel "Proof of Space and Time" consensus and the Chialisp smart coin language. The platform is designed to be energy-efficient and secure while enabling cross-border payments, smart contracts, issuing financial assets, lending, escrow, institutional custody and distributed identity. Chia aims to operate a more user-friendly payment system for governments, financial institutions, corporations and consumers worldwide. The company plans to use proceeds from a recent $61 million Series D to accelerate the global build-out of its financial services infrastructure and drive adoption of its smart money and smart coin platform. Chia positions itself as a regulatorily compliant, energy-efficient alternative to proof-of-work blockchains, emphasizing enhanced security, trust and transparency. The company was founded by Bram Cohen and is backed by a group of venture investors supporting its mission to reform global payments and financial systems. Chia Network is developing a Layer 1 blockchain that uses plots of empty disk space rather than proof-of-work mining to enable programmable money and DeFi functionality. The team is gamifying early-stage contributions so generated plots and developer resources remain usable when mainnet launches. Leadership says the platform aims to offer comparable DeFi capabilities to Ethereum and capture market share by addressing scaling constraints. Chia plans to pursue an IPO long-term and rely on venture capital until a token launch, per founder Bram Cohen. The startup is targeting business-to-business revenue through vertical vendors (for example banks and Paxful) and is exploring live pilots with government agencies. The company reports public node participation of over 1,430 and will use the new funding to grow the team. Since launching in 2017, Chia has raised roughly $16 million in total venture capital. Chia Network is developing an alternative cryptocurrency protocol that replaces Bitcoin-style proof-of-work with proofs of space (unused hard-drive storage) combined with proofs of time to secure the blockchain. The core product is a cryptocurrency and its underlying consensus mechanism designed to be more energy-efficient and less reliant on low-cost electricity. Founder Bram Cohen — inventor of BitTorrent — teamed up with Tradehill COO Ryan Singer to build the team. The company has raised a seed round (amount not disclosed) to ramp up hiring. Chia plans early sales in Q2 2018 and aims for a full launch by the end of 2018, which the team calls a stretch goal. The roadmap emphasizes technical and legal design choices intended to address environmental impact and centralization issues in existing cryptocurrencies.

Total raised

$66M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

May 2021