NuCypher develops encryption services based on proxy re-encryption, enabling files to be encrypted to many recipients while allowing administrators to grant and revoke access. The company launched a public testnet and has said it is nearing mainnet launch. NuCypher has adopted a token model to decentralize infrastructure: node operators will run the software, earn tokens via new emissions and network fees, and staking operators such as Bison Trails, Grassfed Networks and Staked are already running nodes. The protocol uses an initial ERC-20 token supply of 1 billion with token economics that include inflation diminishing over time as fees grow. NuCypher has also announced a WorkLock distribution (users put ETH into a smart contract to receive tokens, with ETH burned unless tokens are staked) and plans to designate roughly 250–400 million tokens for that program. To foster app development it ran a hackathon with CoinList and several MVPs are live, including Stridon, Snowden and NuBox. NuCypher builds a proxy re-encryption layer that lets enterprises process sensitive data across distributed big‑data platforms (Hadoop, Kafka, Spark) without exposing encryption keys. The team pivoted from an encrypted database to a generalized encryption SDK and library and today is launching an open‑source release. It is running pilot deployments with major banks (about six to seven pilots) and is seeing early traction in healthcare and telcos. The product integrates with hardware security modules and NIST‑standard crypto so customers can keep existing algorithms like AES‑256. NuCypher licenses its software (term‑based subscriptions and a consumption model for cloud deployments) and does not host customer data. The company is small (two founders and seven people) and plans to expand pilots into high double‑digit or low triple‑digit customers while broadening supported platforms in future.

Total raised

$11M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Safe

Latest activity

Oct 2019