Layer secures USD $6m to boost decentralised web tech

Layer has successfully raised USD $6 million in a seed funding round to further develop its technology aimed at enhancing trust across internet software applications.

The company was founded by Sam Cassatt, Jake Hartnell, and Ethan Frey, who are well-known figures in the blockchain space. They are working to extend the capabilities of Ethereum by developing developer tools that support full-stack decentralised applications.

The fundraising was led by 1kx with participation from Fabric Ventures, Arrington Capital, Stake Capital Group, and IOBC. Notable angel investors include Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Rok Kopp, Mike Silagadze of Ether.fi, and Paul Taylor, formerly of BlackRock.

Layer plans to introduce "Layer SDK", a product that will allow developers to write executable code in any language with built-in decentralisation. This SDK is intended to enable developers to create applications that are incorruptible and resistant to manipulation, including threats posed by malicious AI.

Sam Cassatt, Co-Founder of Layer, commented, "All three of us have realized that, while smart contracts have given us a foundational layer of trust, they aren't enough to support a fully decentralised version of the Internet. We wanted to complete the full narrative arc of decentralised architecture, and give the world the tools necessary to build any application, with any performance requirements in this trust-minimized way."

Layer's use of Web Assembly enables developers to write applications in languages such as Rust, which can function across various platforms, including mobile devices like iPhones. This is a significant aspect of Layer's mission to make the Decentralised Web more dominant without sacrificing user experience.

Wei Dai, Research Partner at 1kx, stated, "We are thrilled to back Jake, Sam, and Ethan on their mission to build out the next generation of blockchain infrastructure. Traditional smart contract platforms rely on replicated execution, which limits scalability. Layer's platform and SDK offer the best-in-class scalability, programmability, and configurability for shared-security applications."

Richard Muirhead, Managing Partner at Fabric Ventures, remarked, "We at fabric have long been excited to back teams expanding the boundaries of what is possible in crypto and Lay3r are doing exactly that. By defining a new category of shared economic security that spans hybrid off-chain and on-chain worlds, we believe Lay3r can be a Schelling point for new teams looking to build applications taking advantage of these core primitives."

The Layer SDK aims to facilitate the development of sovereign, unalterable software products, strengthening the Decentralised Web. With Layer's tools, developers are expected to better tackle digital threats by leveraging blockchain's security mechanisms in their applications.