Dr. Muneeb Ali, who wrote his thesis on building Blockstack, a “decentralized blockchain-based internet” that enables users to own their data, found inspiration from fellow Princeton grad Alan Turing and Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Ali believed that there was greater potential for Bitcoin beyond simply being the largest decentralised payments network, according to Forbes reporting.
Recently, Dr. Ali and Princeton computer science professor Dr. JP Singh, raised $150 million for a company they co-founded, New York-based Trust Machines.
The company “seeks to unleash what they consider ‘the true potential of bitcoin’ by developing decentralized applications, DAOs and NFTs on the rebranded Blockstack, now called Stacks, a smart contracts network linked to bitcoin,” according to Forbes.
While the valuation was not disclosed, investors include, but are not limited to, Breyer Capital, Union Square Ventures, Digital Currency Group, GoldenTree, and Hivemind.
This venture has the potential to help bitcoin thrive in Web3.
“We believe that bitcoin can be more than a store of value; it can also be the settlement layer and platform for Web 3,” said Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital and early Facebook investor. “We're excited to support Trust Machines and their mission to help bitcoin reach its potential.”
Despite bitcoin being the original cryptocurrency, it’s ecosystem has faced slower development than others like Ethereum and Solana, though it has been viewed as valuable as a “store of value” because of its scarcity.
“But this narrative is presently being challenged by bitcoin’s increasing correlation with risky assets like stocks,” according to the article.
According to Ali, Trust Machines plans to convert bitcoin’s trillion-dollar value into greater productive capital and facilitate the growth of an economy of bitcoin applications since “bitcoin as a programmable Layer 1 is so underappreciated,” he said.
Backed by the capital investment, Trust Machines aims to hire bitcoin core developers to develop products that will enable bitcoin investors to participate in more ways in decentralised finance.
“Think yield-bearing opportunities for bitcoin holders, social applications, DAOs, bitcoin-native NFT experiences and swaps,” according to Forbes.
Ali explained that Stacks has been creating the necessary infrastructure for the last four to five years. Now, they are able to build upon those applications since the infrastructure has matured.
Ali, since his first introduction to bitcoin in 2011, has been fascinated with the question of what else can be done with the technology.
Hiro, another company he co founded that creates developer tools for Stacks has now raised $75 million dollars from Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Winklevoss Capital, and Harvard Management Co..
“Last month, the Stacks mainnet celebrated its one-year anniversary with over 2,500 smart contract deployments and 50,000 wallet downloads,” according to Forbes.
What this venture and RSK demonstrate is that the ecosystem around bitcoin can both enable and innovate Web3.