Polygon Labs has announced the successful spinout of Miden, a zero-knowledge (ZK)-powered “edge” blockchain, following a productive incubation phase.
The project raised $25 million in seed funding. Leading the round were a16z crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC. Other participants included Finality Capital, Symbolic Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Polygon Ventures, and MH Ventures.
Notable angels also participated in the round, some of whom included MakerDAO’s Rune Christensen, Aptos Labs’s Avery Ching, and EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan.
The funds will fuel Miden’s roadmap as it develops its distinctive client-side blockchain infrastructure. Miden also made a point to announce the distribution of a portion of its native token to POL stakers to further align community interest.
Miden stands out by moving both the state space and execution to the device of the user. Such a design opens up new opportunities for developers in pursuit of scalability, privacy, and flexibility.
As opposed to classical blockchain solutions, Miden offers applications with private but verifiable states, dynamic reasoning, and lower reliance on centralized networks.
Led by former Facebook blockchain engineers Bobbin Threadbare, Dominik Schmid, and Azeem Khan, Miden addresses significant flaws in contemporary blockchain infrastructure, its members assert. “The majority of chains don’t scale, are not private, or compromise on Web3 values,” said Threadbare. “Edge blockchains present a new path.”
Miden Blockchain boosts Polygon staker incentives
Miden joins Privado ID following graduation from the Agglayer Breakout Program. It envisions a close integration with Agglayer, fueling cross-chain network effects.
Token rewards for POL stakers are a part of this bootstrapping approach, accompanied by an airdrop, expected at launch.
Operating on its final alpha testnet, Miden has launched its Pioneer Program to tap early developer interest. The program enables real-world applications while stress-testing the protocol’s functionalities.
Supporters are confident that Miden addresses several longstanding issues, including composability, scalability, and confidentiality, through zero-knowledge technology.
“Miden is what we’ve been looking for,” Hack VC Partner Alex Pack explained. “It’s a complete package, scalable, private, and developer-friendly.”
Nonetheless, scheduled to come on the mainnet later this year, Miden is set to become a next-gen blockchain infrastructure. Ultimately, the vision of the team is to make decentralized applications secure, efficient, and user-centric.
