Multicoin, Intel Capital Invest $3.5 Million in Startup Demystifying Blockchain Data

Blockchain data startup dfuse has just closed its first official round of equity funding.

Led by Multicoin Capital and Intel Capital (a division of Intel Corporation), the seed funding saw the Montreal-based firm raise $3.5 million for its line of products geared towards demystifying blockchain data.

According to a press release provided to CoinDesk on Wednesday, other notable backers of the round included the VC funds Diagram Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, Panache Ventures and White Star Capital.

Founded in 2018, dfuse builds application programming interfaces (APIs) that overlay smart-contract-enabled blockchain platforms such as ethereum and EOS. These APIs help simplify the complexities of pulling data directly from a public blockchain.

Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, told CoinDesk in an email:

“Blockchain databases can take seconds to confirm transactions – if they even confirm them at all. They don’t offer global search, reading data is non-trivial, and streaming updates is mostly out of the question. dfuse abstracts all of that complexity away.”

At present, the startup has four flagship products: dfuse Stream, Lifecycle, Search and On Demand Networks. Leveraging these tools, users can stream real-time transaction activity, search through blockchain databases, receive transaction guarantees for newly submitted data and more.

“Our vision is to help millions of developers embrace blockchain technology in their businesses,” dfuse CEO and co-founder Marc-Antoine Ross told CoinDesk. “Depending on which numbers you look at, there’s 20 to 40 million developers around the globe. We think only 1 percent of that developer population is touching any blockchain. We really want to fast track this.”

Moving forward, Ross intends to expand dfuse API products “to blanket all of the top blockchain platforms,” not just EOS and ethereum.

What’s more, he detailed that the company will in coming weeks release a data integrity bounty program in partnership with security firm HackerOne to help assure users the data they are reading via dfuse products is accurate.

“Many companies have built security bounty programs but this is about data integrity,” Ross said. “This is something we will be campaigning to increase the trust in our APIs and we will challenge the other players in the community to do the same thing.”

Maze image via Shutterstock