By Jamie Redman,
Israel-based blockchain 2.0 company Synereo recently announced some new innovations and a successful funding campaign raising $4.7 million USD. Now the firm is broadly changing its outlook to “fundamentally redesign the way the internet works.”
Synereo Raises $4.7 Million to Expand and Scale
The blockchain startup says it’s now planning on creating a decentralized computation platform. At the same time, it is also building its decentralized social media application. By raising $4.7 million (£3.85m) selling equity and its native currency AMP, the company can expand on its vision. Synereo claims its protocol Rchain will transform the blockchain industry.
Synereo says Rchain will enable “decentralized systems to be much faster, infinitely scalable and cheaper to maintain.” Rchain is a tech-stack that plans to go live in Q4 of 2017. Notably, it features a distributed cloud storage system and reflective smart contracts. Synereo based Rchain’s consensus mechanism on the proof-of-stake method Casper. The team explained how Rchain will revolutionize the decentralized application (dApp) environment in a recent blog post, stating:
The next evolution of our architecture will allow Synereo-powered dApps to match high-end industry requirements and be competitive with centralized computing platforms. With RChain, the dream of the decentralization movement to challenge the role of centralized server farms can become a reality.
Grant Program Will Foster dApp Development
Synereo will use its new funds to expand the team and scale projects. One such project is its grants program, which offers startups and developers incentive to create dApps using Synereo.
To foster the grant program, the team has set aside 1,111,111 AMP – worth about $200,000 USD. It will distribute funds to a “select few” who contribute to the Synereo decentralized ecosystem. The startup says it has received hundreds of applications from teams looking to build on the protocol.
CEO and founder Dor Konforty said he’s thrilled to see such interest in the project.
“We are now in the final parts of interviews and will soon be selecting the first projects that will receive AMP grants to build on Synereo’s tech stack.”
“We have 300 applications and it has taken our team a while to go through them and to choose from many amazing development teams and projects. Overall we are very excited at the level of interest to build the future of the decentralized internet with Synereo,” he added.
Synereo Faces Large Centralized Challengers and Many Decentralized Startups
Synereo says by scaling its operations and offering incentives to build dApps, it can be at the forefront of blockchain innovation. The startup wants its system to be a reliable “world computer” with architecture running by next year.
The concept will be a blockchain protocol competitive with the likes of projects such as Lisk and Ethereum. Following this plan, the company will be ready to roll out its social network beta after solidifying Rchain’s framework.
The startup also said it is hiring more programmers for the 2.0 tech stack build. It’s interested in those who have experience with “Scala, Blockchain technology, smart-contracting languages and decentralized computation in general.” It has also created a job-offer page for people interested in applying for work.
Synereo looks to be moving towards more ambitious avenues, and it will be interesting to see if the team can pull it off. It’s not going to be easy, facing the giant centralized incumbents currently dominating internet and social media. That’s not to mention the many blockchain projects already in motion either. These include Ethereum, Maidsafe, and more. Synereo has quite the task ahead of itself, and time will tell if it can continue the momentum, and help decentralize the web.