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Blockchain-powered ‘Internet Computer’ startup Dfinity raises $102M
A group of leading venture capital firms believes that Dfinity can make blockchain technology viable for large-scale computing applications.
The Swiss startup today announced that it has raised a hefty $102 million financing round jointly led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, a prominent crytocurrency fund. They were joined by a half-dozen other institutional investors. Dfinity has raked in a total of $195 million since launching three years ago.
The startup is using the capital to build a blockchain system it’s calling the “Internet Computer.” Dfinity’s stated goal is to create an affordable, distributed pool processing and storage resources that will be spread out over a multitude of disaggregated computers. The startup plans to put this hardware to use by enabling outside developers to build open-source applications atop the platform.
Dfinity hopes to support a variety of different use cases with the system. The startup promised in today’s funding announcement that the platform will be capable of supporting services with the potential to “play equivalent roles to Uber, Dropbox, LinkedIn and Salesforce.” The reason why users might choose Dfinity-powered applications over their better-established competitors is that, according to the startup, the underlying blockchain will offer “hard guarantees” their data won’t be misused.
The system is touted as uniquely equipped to support such large-scale use. It’s said to be capable of performing computations that take 300 seconds on Ethereum, a leading blockchain implementation, in just five seconds.
Dfinity attributes the platform’s speed to a number of blockchain breakthroughs made by its team members. The startup’s engineering group is comprised of former researchers from Google LLC, Yale University, Stanford University and other leading institutions who are led by Timo Hanke, a former math professor. The team’s impressive credentials is no doubt one of the main factors behind why investors are so optimistic about its prospects.
Dfinity founder and President Dominic Williams (pictured) told Fortune that the plan is to start testing the system with developers later this year. The startup expects to make it accessible to the broader public sometime in 2019.
Image: Dfinity
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