Author: defioasis

Recently, the renowned venture capital firm a16z announced the 25 teams that have been selected for its 2024 cryptocurrency startup accelerator. These teams span a variety of categories including infrastructure, consumer applications, DeFi, payments, gaming, development tools, and DePIN. The selected projects will receive hands-on training and guidance from a16z over the next 10 weeks. This article will review the 25 projects that made the cut.

It’s important to note that early-stage projects carry significant risks, and some of the project information is sparse; even a powerhouse like a16z can make mistakes. Investors should exercise caution and not blindly trust VC firms.

AminoChain: A Decentralized Biological Sample Marketplace

AminoChain is a biological sample marketplace that connects biobanks and clinical sites with biopharmaceutical companies. Donors can use this platform to learn about the destinations of biological samples, whom they help, and how they are used in scientific research. Currently, AminoChain is in a private testing phase.

According to its official website, in addition to a16z, AminoChain’s supporters include Antler, Superscrypt, and Plug and Play Ventures, among others. LinkedIn reveals that AminoChain was founded in 2022, is headquartered in New York, USA, and has 2–10 employees. One of the disclosed members is a partner from Plug and Play Ventures.

Collar Networks: The Future of Investment Banking

Collar Networks is a liquidation-free lending protocol that connects borrowers with market makers through an on-chain quoting process, thereby creating a “collaborative lending arrangement.” This arrangement allows borrowers to temporarily forgo upward risk above a certain limit in order to protect their downside risk below a certain floor price. Below this floor price, borrowers can take their stablecoin loan at any time.

Currently, Collar Networks is still in development, but users can fill out a pre-registration list. LinkedIn shows that Collar Networks was founded in 2023, headquartered in New York, USA. The protocol lead and founding engineer is Caleb Ditchfield, a former engineer at Fei Protocol.

Compass Labs: Building New Standard Interfaces for DeFi

Compass Labs claims to be the TensorFlow of the crypto space, building a Python-based data source and simulation platform. The platform is currently in beta testing and can help clients manage DeFi risks, increase revenue, and reduce costs.

According to its official website, Compass Labs’ partners include protocols such as Aave, Polygon, Perpetual Protocol, and Orca. LinkedIn reveals that Compass Labs was founded in 2022, headquartered in London, UK, with 2–10 employees. Co-founder and CTO Lukas Scheucher worked as a software engineer at Google from November 2019 to June 2021.

Hungry Cats Studio: Verifying Secure and Trustworthy AI Workflows

Hungry Cats Studio focuses on cryptographic research and implementation, using encryption technology to promote AI applications. Overall project information is scarce. According to their official Twitter, the team has 4 employees; their website resembles a blog, featuring 5 papers, including “Proving Git Contributions with zk-SNARKS” and “Non-Local Arithmetic in Recursive Proofs.”

Launcher: A Crypto Product Search and Platform for Building Smart Contract Mini-Apps

Launcher is a Web3 product launch platform similar to Product Hunt, built on Optimism. The product is relatively mature, and Launcher has previously applied for funding from the Optimism community’s RetroPGF. Launcher is also a platform launched based on the social protocols Farcaster and Lens, allowing users to explore the ecosystem through product pages, top application rankings, search and discovery of Superchain applications.

LinkedIn indicates that Launcher was established in 2022, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, with 2–10 employees.

MagicBlock: An On-Chain Gaming Framework on Solana and SVM

MagicBlock is an open-source framework designed for building on-chain games on Solana/SVM, including developing full on-chain games or integrating games into Solana. MagicBlock claims to be MIT licensed and is maintained by Magicblock Labs.

According to the official website, MagicBlock’s partners include Unity, Backpack, eclipse, Orca, and Metaplex; LinkedIn shows that MagicBlock Labs has 2–10 employees.

NEBRA Labs: A Research and Development Organization Expanding and Writing Proof Verification on the Blockchain

NEBRA is a research and development organization dedicated to making the future of zero-knowledge proofs a reality. The first step in achieving this goal is to expand Ethereum’s proof settlement capabilities in a trustless and censorship-resistant manner. To achieve this goal, NEBRA is developing universal proof aggregation technology to aggregate proofs generated from different circuits, different proof systems, and different parties. Next, NEBRA will use this technology to bootstrap a decentralized proof network capable of horizontally scaling proof capabilities as the number of nodes increases. LinkedIn shows that NEBRA Labs was founded in 2023 and has 2–10 employees.

Neynar: Developer Infrastructure for Farcaster

Neynar is a tool that makes it simpler and easier for users to build on Farcaster. Neynar has launched the Frame Studio Beta version, which allows users to build Meme, galleries, and product settlement Frames without code and through a few steps. For this service, Neynar offers three pricing plans: $9, $49, and $249. Neynar has already established a business model.

In November last year, Neynar raised $3.2 million in funding. LinkedIn shows that Neynar was founded in 2023, headquartered in New York, USA, with 2–10 employees. One of the employees, known as Manan P., a Neynar Builder, previously worked at Coinbase as a Senior Software Engineering Manager for four years.

NodeKit: Building a Shared Sequencer to Facilitate Decentralized Rollups and Enhance Interoperability

NodeKit SEQ is a decentralized shared sequencer built within a custom L1 blockchain. SEQ utilizes the Snowman++ consensus algorithm for high performance while maintaining the reliability of the consensus algorithm. Moreover, SEQ sequences blocks for multiple rollups, allowing atomic batches to be used within the same block for atomic inclusion. NodeKit SEQ will launch its testnet on Avalanche Fuji.

In December last year, NodeKit completed a $1.2 million funding round led by Borderless Capital, with participation from the Avalanche ecosystem fund Blizzard Fund, Polygon Ventures, and the Wormhole ecosystem fund. LinkedIn shows that NodeKit is headquartered in Ames, Iowa, USA, with 2–10 employees.

Nosh: A Decentralized Food Delivery Protocol

Nosh is a restaurant-operated delivery service platform in Colorado, USA, established in 2018 by a group of local restaurant owners. In the face of food delivery companies charging 30%-40% commissions, Nosh aims to address the imbalance between restaurants and delivery services. Nosh’s delivery service, owned by restaurants and part of the community, considers the best interests of restaurants, drivers, and customers. Moreover, Nosh’s operation reflects decentralized principles, with a board of directors composed of local restaurant owners meeting monthly to oversee service quality and regularly visiting restaurants and interviewing drivers. However, it is currently unclear how Nosh intends to integrate Crypto or blockchain technology with food delivery.

OpenLayer: Expanding Web3 with Optimistic Verifiable Computation

OpenLayer adopts optimistic approaches, using re-staked assets to provide cost-effective economic security, saving higher computational cycles, and employing multiparty computation and zero-knowledge proofs to trace computation results. Every user and device can contribute computational power and participate in the network, with optimistic execution reducing hardware requirements. Additionally, OpenLayer has launched the OpenOracle oracle, allowing any user to become an oracle node operator.

The official website shows that OpenLayer is supported by geometry and LoogHash Ventures and has received grants from the Ethereum Foundation, Optimism, and Arbitrum Grants. LinkedIn shows that OpenOracle was founded in 2023, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA, with 2–10 employees.

OpenTrade: Institutional Lending and Yield Products for the New Digital Economy

OpenTrade is a compliant platform that offers institutional-level lending and yield products, designed for fintech companies and institutional investors within the Web2 and Web3 ecosystems. Specific use cases include assisting exchanges, fintech companies, wallets, and custodial institutions to offer their users institutional-level yield products backed by Real World Assets (RWA); investors can build diversified portfolios of tokenized fixed-income products for themselves and their clients.

In May of the previous year, OpenTrade completed financing of over $1.5 million led by Shino Global Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures and Polygon Ventures, among others. Additionally, OpenTrade v3 underwent a code audit by OtterSec in 2023. LinkedIn reveals that OpenTrade was established in 2023, headquartered in London, UK, with 2–10 employees. Co-founder and CTO Tom Niermann previously served as a software engineering lead at Meta.

Playmint: Creating an Autonomous World for Builders to Create On-Chain Gaming Experiences

Playmint is dedicated to building cross-chain games and is developing the cross-chain game Downstream. Headquartered in Brighton, UK, the Playmint team consists of 14 members. LinkedIn reveals that all three founders of Playmint have impressive backgrounds in major gaming companies. CEO David Amor served as the Managing Director of NASDAQ-listed game company MAG Interactive for 5 years; CTO Iain Gilfeather was the Lead Programmer at TT Games, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games; COO Luke Gibson has held operations/strategy positions at several gaming companies, including Epic Games, Tonic Games Group (later acquired by Epic), and Mediatonic Games.

Playmint has completed a round of angel investment, with participants including 1kx, IOSG, Cherry Ventures, and Play Ventures, among others.

Roux: A Cooking Platform for the Digital Age

Public information is very scarce, and it’s unclear how cooking intersects with Crypto or blockchain technology. According to its official website, “Roux is creating culinary blocks to expand the boundaries of the culinary world.” LinkedIn shows that Roux was established in 2024, headquartered in New York, USA, with 2–10 employees.

Sablier: Providing Infrastructure for Token Distribution in Web3

Sablier is a token distribution protocol developed using Ethereum smart contracts, aimed at facilitating second-by-second payments of cryptocurrencies (especially ERC-20 assets). Through the creation of streams, Sablier is currently used for token vesting, salaries, and airdrops.

Sablier completed a $4.5 million seed round in March this year, with participation from Fenbushi Capital, WAGMI Ventures, among others. Sablier claims to have been operational on Ethereum since 2019, with global users having created over 65,000 streams across multiple chains, a stablecoin transaction volume of $50 million, and a TVL exceeding $160 million. Additionally, Sablier has completed independent audits by Cantina, HYDN, and Omniscia.

Scrypted: Building the Intersection of AI, Gaming, and Decentralization

Scrypted aims to build decentralized, self-owned, autonomous agents, and games. It has developed the generative AI game development platform ArtemisML, the AI coordination layer Inori Network, and the puzzle game Picturdle, along with games integrated into ChatGPT. Additionally, Scrypted is developing and soon launching the Japanese role-playing game Niftiez. Scrypted’s partners include Kuma Games, creators of Chibi Clash.

According to its official website, Scrypted’s CEO, Tim Cotten, has over 15 years of experience as a lead developer at EA, Mythic, Citadel, and Agilla; COO Andy Woodruff has more than 20 years of game development experience with EA, Aeria Games, and Square Enix; Art Director Dave Brown is a seasoned game art professional; and they also have a medical doctor specializing in neurosurgery and artificial intelligence, Jae Lim. Scrypted is headquartered at the Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI) at George Mason University in the USA.

Spire: A zk Appchain Network with Atomic Composability

Spire allows developers to build on existing infrastructure in a modular fashion, with composability at both L2 and L3 levels. The execution layer on Spire architecture uses zkVM, leveraging RISC Zero + Spire’s proof aggregation layer; utilizes a compressed sequencer; secures and achieves data availability through re-staking with EspressoDA; and settles through Ethereum L2 or L1. Additionally, developers can write in any language compiled to WASM, such as Rust and C++.

Overall, information is limited. Notably, Spire has also opened a Farcaster account.

Strobe: A DeFi Expansion Network for New, Permissionless, and Transparent Markets

Strobe is dedicated to building trust-minimized markets, with the vision of powering applications and markets that were previously impossible, allowing users to build, exchange, and interact without the need for permission or trust.

Public information is limited, and their Twitter has not yet posted any tweets. LinkedIn shows that Strobe has 11–50 employees, with the founders and CTO having met at Instant Labs; moreover, CEO Beau Hartshorne has served as a software engineer at Fanbook for nearly 5 years.

taralli labs: A Protocol for Efficient, Decentralized Zero-Knowledge Proof Supply Chains

Taralli Labs is building a decentralized protocol for zero-knowledge proof supply chains and is currently hiring protocol engineers, cryptographers, and operations managers. Taralli Labs co-founder Jacquin Mininger worked as a software engineer at Kadena from May 2021 to December 2022. Further information is scarce.

Tata Bazaar: A Social Commerce Platform Connecting the Physical and Digital Worlds of Fashion and Beauty

Public information is limited, and the official website is down for unknown reasons. Tata Bazaar’s founder is Aleksija Vujicic, who graduated from New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles, before serving as an investment assistant at Multicoin Capital.

TITLES: Building Creative Tools Supported by Artist-Trained AI Models

Users can create with any artist-trained AI model available on the TITLES website, with existing models including Own The Doge and Stability AI. In 2023, TITLES also launched an AI-based NFT blending tool with attribution and a payment system.

LinkedIn shows that TITLES was established in 2021, headquartered in New York, USA, with 2–10 employees, and has received support from 1 Confirmation and Betaworks Ventures.

Tranched: Automating Private Securitization Transactions Using Blockchain Technology

Tranched offers investment preference tranching, with the senior tranche providing the highest protection against credit losses, suitable for passive investors seeking risk-adjusted outcomes, such as pension funds and insurance companies; the mezzanine tranche offers double-digit yields and some protection against potential default loans, using specialized funds; the equity tranche is usually retained by fintech founders and occasionally offered to investors who can withstand the level of risk.

LinkedIn shows that Tranched was established in 2023, headquartered in London, UK, with 2–10 employees. Co-founder Clément Larrue previously served as an investment manager at the crypto bond protocol Secured Finance for an extended period; co-founder Michael Elalouf has years of CFO experience; CTO Antoine Girard worked in technology positions at ING (Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation) for over 6 years; and lead developer Maximiliaan van Dijk previously worked at the crypto wallet XDEFI.

Tweed: Wallet and Payment Solutions for Consumers to Engage with Blockchain Applications

Tweed builds entry-level Web3 experiences for consumers, featuring products and services like Wallet as a service and NFT checkout. The Tweed wallet offers multiple login options and account recovery features, as well as a white-label payment layer, providing a transitional solution from fiat to NFTs and cryptocurrencies.

LinkedIn indicates that Tweed was established in 2022, has 11–50 employees, and has received investment from Communitas Capital, among others.

Valyu Network: Providing Trusted Data for AI Models and Applications

Valyu was founded by doctoral researchers and scholars from the Computer Science Department at University College London, UK. The team has previously co-founded a corporate data/ML company and worked with startups, corporations, and governments to develop privacy-protecting data infrastructures. Valyu aims to utilize developments in machine learning, cryptography, and smart contracts to enable users to use data responsibly and monetize it.

LinkedIn shows that Valyu was established in 2022, with 2–10 employees.

zkPassport: Authenticating Government-Issued Passports and Selectively Disclosing Information

zkPassport allows users to scan the NFC chip on government-issued passports and prove the correctness of the signature using zk-SNARKs. This enables passport proofs to serve as a unique source of identity for anti-counterfeiting purposes, and in terms of identity and privacy, passport proofs allow for the selective disclosure of private data. For example, users can disclose their nationality or date of birth without revealing any other private information. Additionally, users can prove they hold a valid passport and verify this proof on-chain to mint Soulbound Tokens (SBTs). Currently, the team is working on reimplementing the passport NFC specification in JavaScript.

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