Blockchain infrastructure startup InfStones raised $10 million in a Series A funding round that was led by Shanghai-based Qiming Ventures and included investments from DHVC, HashKey Capital, Plug and Play, SNZ Holdings and the family office of entrepreneur Liang Xinjun, a co-founder and former CEO of Chinese conglomerate Fosun International.
- The startup's main product is a platform where users can run validator nodes, access on-chain data and build decentralized applications across multiple blockchain networks such as Binance Smart Chain, Cardano, Chainlink, Ethereum, Polkadot, Polygon and Solana.
- Crypto exchange Binance, blockchain infrastructure provider imToken and Dune Analytics use the platform.
- InfStones is betting on proof-of-stake (PoS) networks, such as the one used in the upcoming Ethereum 2.0, as becoming the "go-to" consensus mechanism, the startup's CEO, Zhenwu Shi, said in a statement to CoinDesk.
- PoS is less energy intensive that the proof-of-work (PoW) model used by the Bitcoin blockchain and the current iteration of Ethereum.
- Shanghai-based Qiming Ventures is an established tech venture-capital firm in China, and HashKey Capital is a Hong Kong-based blockchain VC.
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