zCloak Network Closes $1.3 Million Seed Round Led by IOSG and Hypersphere
zCloak Network, a Polkadot based confidential computing platform, announced the completion of a $1.3 million seed round led by IOSG Ventures and Hypersphere Ventures. Other notable participants include KR1, DFG, Advanced Blockchain AG, PAKA Fund and Digital Renaissance Foundation.
Founded in 2020, the zCloak Network project was inspired by the Polkadot vision of Web 3.0 — return the sovereign control of personal data to the users. With its novel approach of Self-Sovereign Data and Self-Proving Computation, zCloak Network enables computation and analysis of personal data without sending them to 3rd party servers. As such, it can prevent private data from being stolen or misused.
The zCloak Network uses a zk-STARK based virtual machine for general purpose computations. It can provide Zero-Knowledge Proof as a Service (ZKPaaS) to other parachains in Polkadot/Kusama — serving as a confidential computation infrastructure in the ecosystem.
“Privacy is still an overlooked aspect in the blockchain ecosystem. As Polkadot ecosystem gains popularity, there will be an increasing need for privacy enhancing infrastructure and zCloak Network aims to provide this infrastructure through use of ZKPs. We are pleased to support zCloak Network as they continue to make incredible technical progress. We hope that this round will help the team to achieve their goals and bring computational integrity to Polkadot ecosystem as a whole.” said Jocy Lin, Founding Partner of IOSG Ventures.
The zCloak Network project has received a grant from the Web3 foundation in September 2020 and has successfully completed its milestones. It is expected to launch in the Kusama network in Q3 of 2021 and provide service in production mode. As a next step, zCloak Network will explore applications such as “DeFi KYC Oracle” and “Biometrics Oracle” with industrial partners. The goal is to make use of personal data for new blockchain applications while preserving user privacy and pushing blockchain technology for everyday use.
The zCloak Network project was formerly known as Starks Network. It has been rebranded since Mar. 2021.
