coo
@aztecnetwork
, privacy-first Layer 2 on Ethereum. investing in crypto infrastructure & SaaS with
@crediblyneutral
. investing/living in the future 👩🏽💻
gm - today we announced the
@aztecnetwork
series A led by
@paradigm
.
Here's why it matters whether you're in crypto for the tech, the money, the community - and yes even if you're not in crypto (yet).
Today
@viktorbunin
and I are excited to announce
@CrediblyNeutral
Fund I - a $5.5 million builder-led venture fund that is investing $50-250k in protocols, infrastructure, and crypto SaaS.
Today we launched Aztec Connect on mainnet - enabling private DeFi on Ethereum for the first time ever.
Our integrations with
@lidofinance
and
@element_fi
are live on , our first-party DeFi aggregator, with more coming soon.
So, why does this matter?
Jumping on the personal news bandwagon ✨
I joined the incredibly brilliant, ambitious and humble team at
@aztecnetwork
.
We're working with top dapps to lead crypto into a new era where users can transact privately (and cheaply!) on mainnet.
Your girl's first governance proposal ✨
Requesting a grant to offer users cheap, private transactions on
@compoundfinance
via Aztec.
We want to hear from you! Please share your feedback, questions, concerns on the forum.
#L22022
is here.
We just launched a proposal to integrate
@compoundfinance
with Aztec.
zkRollups are here.
- 10x cheaper than L1
- L1 liquidity and smart contracts
- Best in class privacy guarantees
Here's how the partnership transforms lending on Ethereum:
Happy birthday to my love
@viktorbunin
You make life more interesting, exciting and meaningful for everyone you meet - and we are all better for knowing you
Here’s to another year of adventuring and pushing the limits with you ❤️
Happy birthday
@ViktorBunin
, the best life partner I could ask for. To know you is to love you - so thankful for all that you do today and every day! ❤️
I've been working with the
@element_fi
team since starting at Aztec. It's a total joy seeing how much users love their product.
I'm thrilled that they've chosen
@aztecnetwork
to offer users cheaper transaction fees and privacy by default.
Private defi coming your way soon 👀
1/ We’re excited to announce that L2 scaling is coming to Element through
@aztecnetwork
!
Lower gas costs have been one of the most awaited features by the Element community, and we’ve chosen Aztec as our first exploration into L2 scaling solutions.
So I've talked a lot about
@aztecnetwork
here. Now's your chance to be part of the magic! 💫
We're growing our ecosystem team to empower developers and close strategic partnerships that increases adoption of our bleeding edge tech worldwide 🌍
Apply here
Congrats, my love! This quick turnaround was possible because of the incredible relationships that you’ve built and the trust that Coinbase leadership has in you.
You’ve come so far since our first date, when you asked me to read your blog post about Bitcoin - so proud of you!
I'm thrilled that
@Coinbase
is moving forward with supporting Lightning and grateful that I was able to contribute to this decision
We're just starting on the hard bit now - doing the actual integration - but I wanted to take a moment to highlight the folks that made this happen
A throwback to when
@ViktorBunin
invited me to wake up at 3am to see Charlie and Warren on the main stage at the Berkshire annual meeting (on my 30th bday weekend, no less) -- and
@0xb17z
kindly snapped a photo of us passed out during the meeting itself.
RIP Charlie
Are there any ladies in NYC that are interested in attending blockchain/crypto events with me? Love you guys but me + 25 dudes at these events is getting old 👩💻👍
"This time is different" is generally a dangerous phrase, but old rules go out the window when you're talking about a new paradigm.
Here are my reflections on why it really is different this time for crypto, and why I'm diving into crypto full-time.
DEVS WANTED --
@aztecnetwork
is onboarding the next wave of alpha partners
Read more below and reach out if you're interested in building privacy-first applications with the Aztec Sandbox. 🏗️👷♀️
Aztec Sandbox is now in Alpha.
Over the last few months we've worked with a hardcore group of developers to improve the Sandbox.
We're now ready to expand that opportunity to all developers.
Want to be early to Aztec?
Join the Aztec Sandbox Alpha Program:
Putting together a doc about lessons learned, best practices, and advice for folks setting up grants programs with
@adeets_22
Would love to hear any suggestions / ideas from folks who have set up grants programs for DAOs and new ecosystems. 💫
Question - perhaps for post-COVID life - is there a coworking space for crypto nomads/remote workers in Brooklyn?
There's definitely critical mass - so just a matter of rallying behind specific locations.
Thank you to
@alana_matos811
and
@WomenatForbes
for sharing the NextGen story! Proud to be a part of an incredible team that is reimagining how startups are funded and making investing more inclusive. Onwards 🚀
@FeliciaHorowitz
@bhorowitz
👏👏💯💯 a16z events were the most diverse, culturally vibrant events I ever attended in the Bay Area. They show up with their time, money, energy, and networks - and have for years.
Aztec Connect just crossed 10,000 $ETH shielded.
That's more $ETH in the system over 4 weeks than our first private payments product had over 8 months.
😱
Aztec is the most ambitious, the most technologically advanced blockchain ever attempted, getting you programmability, economic security, encryption all at once. Change my mind.
Whether it'll gain any adoption, I don't know, but talk about shooting for the stars, this is it
🚨Attention - Black Founders & Allies 🚨
@CBinsights
is broadening access to its conference - specifically for black founders whose companies have raised < $2M. Click link below to indicate your interest in a free ticket. Allies - plz share cc
@asanwal
Happy birthday to my loving, kind, supportive, energetic, and brilliant best friend.
@ViktorBunin
- the world is a brighter place because of you. So lucky to adventure through life with you and looking forward to many more. Love you so much 🥰
The roadmap to Aztec public testnet is here 🎉
We have a huge year ahead, and we'd like YOU to get involved by:
👷♀️ Building with Noir
📃 Reading the Aztec docs
✍️ Contributing to our Discourse
🌍 Joining our global team of cryptographers, developers, and ecosystem builders
Today we're proud to announce the next generation of our encrypted zkRollup with the same name that started it all:
Aztec.
Aztec is the first ever hybrid zkRollup, enabling both public and private smart contract execution in one environment.
It's Ethereum, encrypted.
👇
Thrilled to partner with our friends
@henri_stern
and
@asta_li
.
@privy_io
is reducing the friction to get started with your favorite consumer crypto apps - making it so easy that even your crypto-skeptical friend can do it.
Read more here:
And an ecosystem of applications built with Aztec Connect is already growing — launched by great teams including
@gonucleo
,
@TrelisPay
, and
@ZK_Pay
.
We're hiring a Chief of Staff to work closely with me,
@jonwu_
, and
@jaosef
🚀
This is a high-leverage, high-impact role that has visibility across biz functions.
If you're excited to power the next phase of crypto, apply here or DM us!
Such a privilege to have been on the same team and learned so much from you! We’re lucky to have you in our corner as you continue on a new journey. ❤️
Today was my last day at
@aztecnetwork
.
It's been a great run the last 2.5 years.
Privacy remains the last major unsolved problem in crypto and I'm deeply grateful to have worked alongside the team with the best shot of cracking the puzzle.
Here's what's next.
I am:
1)
This is exactly what
@aztecnetwork
is launching soon™
The market is literally pulling this product out of us — making my job (building partnerships) a breeze
Our founders
@Zac_Aztec
and
@jaosef
provide a sneak peak in this
@BanklessHQ
episode:
1/ had an idea this weekend
public transportation for bridging blockchains - aka a "bus"
right now people are taking ubers from one chain to the next - this is cost-inneffective, especially with surge pricing in times of congestion
what if we could ride share?
Because we're a zk-rollup, the fixed costs of privacy and proof verification are socialized across users.
More users = lower the cost of privacy and transaction costs
Come for the privacy, stay for the gas savings.
When I set up the
@aztecnetwork
grants program, I learned from folks who launched grants programs.
Months later, there are still limited public resources to start a grants program - so
@adeets_22
decided to change that.
Hope this is the first of many collabs on crypto GTM.
Last summer,
@ViktorBunin
and I drove across the country and passed the time listening to
@laurashin
interview crypto leaders on the
@Unchained_pod
.
Unreal to see Viktor featured on this week's episode. So proud and lucky to learn from this tokenomics wiz everyday 🥲
On
@Unchained_pod
, two tokenomics experts,
@Delphi_Digital
's
@YanLiberman
and Coinbase Cloud’s
@ViktorBunin
, discuss:
* how to improve airdrops and token distribution
* EIP 1559’s impact on $ETH
* how to launch + distribute tokens fairly
Link:
Today, developers can stop *wondering* what private state on a blockchain would look like -- and start *building* with public and private state 🏗️
While the sandbox is powered by fancy math, no cryptography expertise is needed (no, really - I was able to deploy a contract!)
Today we're announcing Aztec Sandbox, a local developer testnet for smart contract privacy.
Aztec Sandbox is the most ambitious software release in Aztec Labs history and the first major step toward Aztec's endgame:
A fully decentralized, privacy-preserving Layer 2.
Question - perhaps for post-COVID life - is there a coworking space for crypto nomads/remote workers in Brooklyn?
There's definitely critical mass - so just a matter of rallying behind specific locations.
With Aztec Connect, launching early 2022, users will have the choice to lend, stake, trade, and earn privately and cheaply!
Gas costs are split across users in the rollup - and all transactions are private by default.
Excited to share that
@ViktorBunin
and I are investing in
@starlight_money
to make crypto accessible for companies of all stages and industries
@greyngyen
,
@benjyang_
and team are building tools for businesses to buy, spend and manage crypto
More here:
I was fortunate to be in the first cohort of the
@AllRaise
VC Champions cohort, and had the opportunity to meet investing legends like
@dafrankel
@bfeld
@annielamont
and
@wolfejosh
. Applications are now open for the second cohort - apply now! 🚀🚀
Heartfelt thanks for
@RepDanGoldman
's open and honest dialogue on supporting crypto entrepreneurs and builders in our great city! 🗽
We really appreciate your commitment to fostering innovation and keeping the American Dream alive.
It was a real pleasure for
@LisaCuesta
and me to receive
@RepDanGoldman
for a conversation with the NYC crypto community. His district is the crypto capital of the world and I hope will continue to drive American exceptionalism and global leadership. Thank you
@usv
for hosting!
Today, the
@thesis_co
team announced a $21M raise to expand its venture studio and launch new products in DeFi, cross-chain interoperability, and consumer apps. Read why
@ViktorBunin
and I are excited to be a part of Thesis' next phase of growth.
Thinking about hosting an event in early 2019 to learn from women who have excelled (and earned equity!) as advisors, board members, and angels to early stage companies. Would you be interested? Who would you want to hear from?
The reality is, we have less privacy in web3 than in web2. Let that sink in.
Sure, web2 has been built by selling user data and relying on centralized services.
But in web3, ALL TRANSACTIONS are PUBLIC by default and EXPOSED to everyone.
My favorite ETHDenver event was our dinner with 40 female founders and execs.
We discussed everything from data infrastructure, to building a billion-dollar co, to botox, to fertility struggles.
Women have such a wide range.
Thank you all for inspiring me 🥰
Happy IWD!
The
@aztecnetwork
community is so global 🌍
Thrilled to see our contributors stepping up and running channels in a dozen language (and counting...)
wagmi ✨
Reminder to be grateful on day 358 of WFH: I picked up a latte at our local coffee shop this morning. The owner asked if I work in the area - I told him I work from home, and his response was "oh wow, lucky!" He's right 😌
As Vitalik recently posted in "Endgame" - rollups are essential to scaling:
Not too long ago, it was consensus that zk-rollups were "not ready"
Since Aztec unlocked a breakthrough in zk-SNARKs with PLONK, zk-rollups have been more widely adopted.
I'm excited to celebrate this International Women's Day with an 'Ask Me Anything' conversation about founding & funding early-stage companies hosted by
@Techstars
. Would love for you to join! 👭👩🏻💼👩🏾💻
#BalanceforBetter
Techstars is committed to having a meta-impact on diversity in tech startups through leadership on this important issue. To celebrate
#IWD2019
, we are hosting an online AMA on March 8 🌟 Join us!
Blockchains don't have opinion about privacy. They are simply a tool.
It is up to us - the builders and users of this technology - to define and guide the norms of how this technology is used.
That's empowering, but it's also a responsibility.
1/ We're thrilled to announce a $5M strategic investment from
@cbventures
and
@hiFramework
into Socket!
With this investment, we expand our collaboration with Coinbase to bring cross-chain primitives to their products like Coinbase Wallet and Base.
🧵👇
We’re thrilled to partner with
@AragonProject
on this submission to enable private voting using
@NoirLang
.
We hope that by offering private voting to
@nounsdao
holders, other DAOs will follow suit and provide this option - powered by Noir. 🧠
Aztec and
@AragonProject
are proud to co-author a proposal to enable
@nounsdao
holders to vote in on-chain governance privately.
Private DAO voting has long been a holy grail.
Our
@NoirLang
implementation is a massive step toward achieving it for the Nouns community:
↓
Almost universally, people don't want their salaries, merchant transactions, and investments on chain for everyone to see and analyze.
Yet, having this data on chain in a decentralized, encrypted, and interoperable state can give users more choice, control, and power.
Three words, fifteen letters: privacy, Honk, Noir.
You know where to find me from now on >>
@aztecnetwork
I am happy to continue doing what I love: writing about complex things covering topics around mathematics and economics in simple words.
The world is a complex system.
This month with
@nyc_blend
, we're hosting a panel on best practices for NYC startups to source diverse candidates as they scale. The panel will feature leaders from
@joinrepublic
,
@knotel
,
@ManagedbyQ
, and
@BUILD_NYC
. Look forward to seeing you there!
So exciting to see more top crypto companies hiring Protocol Specialists… a role that literally didn’t exist until
@ViktorBunin
created it at
@BisonTrails
PMs:web2 :: Protocol Specialists:web3
New exciting role at
@rabbithole_gg
We're hiring a protocol specialist that wants to deepen our relationships with projects we work with and be on the front lines of crypto governance while representing RabbitHole
DM me if you're interested!
My father in law told us he got an NFT - what he meant is a handmade wooden sculpture of our Meebit.
Came with a note "congratulations on your house love mom, dad, and NFT" 🥺
Lastly, this launch is a culmination of months of work by the cryptography, engineering, and ecosystem teams at
@aztecnetwork
.
I'm super proud of the team's immense effort and thrilled to get this into users + developers' hands!
Onward! 🚀
With Aztec Connect, any application on Ethereum mainnet can offer their users up to 100x cost savings + privacy.
Aztec's rollup connects to Ethereum smart contracts through a bridge contract, or an interface that indicates how the rollup should interact with the smart contract.
One thing we can all agree on: we're still ~so early~
There are fundamental issues with public blockchains that limit the potential of the entire ecosystem and have been discussed for years (!) - namely, scalability and privacy.
Are you an engineer who loves supporting developers who are building at the cutting edge of crypto?
Good news -
@critesjosh_
is hiring for the developer relations team at
@aztecnetwork
!
Lucky for the person who joins his team. DM me or Josh to learn more.
We are looking to grow the developer relations team here at
@aztecnetwork
.
Let me know if you know anyone in your network that might be a good fit for the role. We are looking for someone that has a strong engineering background.
DMs are open
Calling all dev rel leaders 📣
Do you love working with builders across web3 use cases (defi, nfts, daos)? Are you interested in zero knowledge / scaling solutions?
Join our team and build our developer experience from the ground up. DM or apply here:
Congrats to this dream team on announcing their well-deserved Series A. Excited to support the development of
@liquid_col
in order to offer an enterprise-grade liquid staking option, and I can’t imagine a better team to make this vision a reality!
1/ I'm thrilled to announce that
@alluvialfinance
has closed a $12M Series A funding round to advance the development of
@liquid_col
🎉 This a major milestone for us, and I couldn't be prouder of the incredible team that has brought us this far.
What a group of thoughtful and passionate 🧠s building the future of web3. Thrilled to have been included in this discussion and even more excited to make the decentralized, user-owned future a reality. Let's go!
Privacy is core to Aztec's mission - for philosophical and practical reasons.
Today, web3 stands for freedom, self sovereignty, and ownership - a stark contrast to the compromised values of web2.
However, we can't take for granted that web3 will always have these values.
It's been >12 hours since I deposited to the
@optimismPBC
bridge and my ETH is still not available for use on
@Uniswap
... I thought the wait was approx 20 min. Just me?
Lots of folks have asked why I made the leap into crypto, how building in crypto (or ~web3~) is distinct, and how they can get involved.
Lucky for me,
@DavidNebinski
captured our conversation on these exact topics! Listen in here:
This is just the beginning.
Lots to come from our team in the coming year - our grants program, network decentralization efforts, and continued development of our class-leading zero knowledge proving systems.
Excited to get involved? Join our community:
I'm excited to share that I’ve joined the
@aztecnetwork
team as a Developer Advocate!
I’ll be focused on doing the work that fuels me- growing, educating, and empowering the Aztec developer community, and supporting their journey in leveraging the powerful encryption provided by
We're backing builders who are incredibly resilient and optimistic, which are core traits of great entrepreneurs - regardless of industry.
And we're backing the ones who are building the foundational tech needed for the next wave of crypto adoption.
In the theme of decentralizing everything.
Custodians provide a critical piece of crypto infrastructure.
Namely, are your keys secure and what can you do with your assets?
If your chain, dapp, treasury, DAO, team is deentralized - why not your custodian?
Enter
@entropydotxyz
We're beyond excited to announce that Entropy has raised a $1.95M Preseed led by
@dragonfly_cap
accompanied by
@TheLAOOfficial
and P2P Capital.
Our mission is to build the first ever truly trustless decentralized asset custody protocol!
🧵 Read on for more info!👇