We’ve partnered with funds we deeply respect. They’ve entrusted us to build Seismic, the encrypted blockchain.

Ethereum launched with two key problems: limited scalability and forced transparency. We’ve solved the first, but not the second. Today’s major L1s are still transparent. Without encryption, their transactions remain exposed and scrutinized. It’s not just a weakness. It’s a fundamental bottleneck. 

This bottleneck prevents crypto from creating apps that form financial partnerships between local businesses and their customers, apps that implement investment vehicles designed for long-term positions, apps that embed social experiences into everyday payments— and these are just a few examples.

Why hasn’t transparency been solved? For a decade, our industry has focused on encrypting wallet-level information— e.g. user balances and identities. While important for personal privacy, this doesn't enable new products. Without new products, encryption won't gain widespread adoption.

The solution? Instead of encrypting wallet-level information, we need to encrypt app-level information— e.g. exchange parameters and vault transfers. This directly impacts app functionality, leading to new products.

But app-level encryption requires encryption at the base layer, something only possible when built into the foundation of the chain. It can’t be obtained by just bolting encryption onto an existing transparent chain.

That’s why we created Seismic, the encrypted blockchain. 

Seismic removes the transparency bottleneck, allowing developers to build the novel financial partnerships, investment vehicles, and social experiences mentioned above. Seismic already powers early prototypes:

1. Nibble, an app that grants you revenue share in your favorite restaurant.
2. Level, an app that lets you trade assets based on belief instead of price.
3. Folio, an app that places you in the longest pay-it-forward chain in history.
   

Seismic’s mission is to encrypt all chains— and we’ve assembled the right team to make it happen. Our engineers combine deep expertise in cryptography, compilers, and distributed systems, bringing together industry veterans from titans like Wintermute and standout talent from institutions like Stanford.

Today’s $7M fundraising round—led by a16z crypto and joined by Polychain, 1kx, dao5, and NGC— is a major step forward. Their support allows us to accelerate our vision.

If you’re excited by what we’re doing, we want you on board. We’re sprinting to release our developer testnet four weeks from now. We’re actively hiring senior developers with systems expertise to help us make it happen.

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