A startup that has created a decentralized exchange as well as a cross-chain infrastructure to facilitate communication between layer 1 and layer 2 blockchain solutions, is the latest to receive support from Coinbase Ventures.
Singapore-headquartered Router Protocol announced Friday that it has raised $4.1 million in a strategic funding round from Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Polygon, Woodstock, QCP, D-Fi Capital, Maple Block, TerraSurge Capital, Wintermute and Shima Capital . As well as many entrepreneurs. The startup also raised $485,000 in its fundraising round last year.
We have seen the proliferation of layer 1 blockchain networks, all of which attempt to solve similar problems in recent years. As these Layer 1 projects gain traction, they have been able to attract a community of developers who are building Layer 2 solutions on top of their preferred blockchain.
“Blockchains are like cities and you can grow them endlessly, but unless you build the connectivity infrastructure, nobody is going to be there,” said Ramani Ramachandran, founder and CEO of Router Protocol. In an interview with TechCrunch. “So we had all these blockchains coming in, but there was no connectivity between them. So that was the origin of the router protocol,” he said.
Router Protocol, established last year, is betting that many of these Layer 1 blockchain networks will continue to function, and many more will join the fray. Its offering allows developers to seamlessly move cash between chains. “There are probably about 50 blockchains, each with 50 different communities and their own energy,” he said.
“There are going to be Layer 1 scaling solutions – the polygons of the world – and ‘Ethereum killers’ like Ave, Solana, and then we will have non-EVM players like Terra and Algorand appear. From different perspectives. You can see the abundance of capital in space. Let’s marry him.
The other offering of the router protocol is Dfyn, a decentralized exchange, such as Uniswap or Pancake Swap, which is built on Polygon. “It’s like we have a bunch of airport terminals called Dfyn, and then we have air routes that connect these Dyfn networks. But they also connect other airports. That’s the beauty of the whole model.
Ramachandran said he expects cross-chain solutions to become more popular next year. “Suppose you are on the Solana blockchain and want to sell Ethereum, but you see a better price on the Binance Smart Chain. The router allows you to get the best price on the Binance Smart Chain with a single click and transfer it to your native blockchain, which is Solana. , but will allow it to be brought back,” he said.
Commerce is the most popular use case for the router protocol today, but Ramachandran said he expects many more applications to roll out in the future. “Once you talk across borders, you can not only trade, but also borrow, lend and do cross-chain governance. For example, 15 chains of sushi and There are 15 different communities. Getting community votes through these channels is a nightmare because you have to take 15 different snapshots. So this is something we can solve. You can borrow from one channel and then another can lend to,” he said.
He said the company plans to infuse capital to launch its products and invest in multiple security audits.
Darius Sitt, co-founder of QCP, said, “Getting blockchains to communicate effectively with each other is the holy grail for DeFi, and we are working with the team behind Router and Duffin to address this problem. Pleased to support their unique approach to solving Capital in a press release.
“We anticipate future Web 3.0 activity in multiple versatile and application-specific blockchains. Router XCLP will be a critical cross-chain infrastructure solution that will allow the flow of liquidity through chains. We see the efforts of the Router team in this direction.” I am happy to support and support.
