In a seed investment round headed by Polychain Capital and Bain Capital Crypto, Nocturne Labs, the startup behind the privacy on-chain accounts protocol Nocturne, revealed on Wednesday that it had raised $6 million. Other well-known Ethereum backers, such as co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, HackVC, and Robot Ventures, participated in the investment round.
As stated in an interview, Nocturne Labs CEO and co-founder Luke Tchang stated that the funds will be utilized to both settle legal fees and advance blockchain development.Using blockchain technologies including account abstractions, stealth addresses, and zero-knowledge proofs, the Nocturne protocol is anticipated to emerge in the second half of November and introduce private accounts to the public blockchain.
According to a press release, the accounts “function like conventional Ethereum accounts, but with built-in asset privacy.”
According to Tchang, Nocturne might face competition from other privacy-focused protocols like Railgun or Aztec.
“People have kind of been afraid of the space for regulatory reasons. We’re kind of the belief that there’s a way to do this the right way and being measured along the way and speaking with regulators,” Tchang said. “This is of course still possible. Having privacy is not an impossible thing to ask for.”